Mitochondrial mutations in human cancer: Curation of translation.

ABSTRACT: As a genetic disease, cancer is caused by the activation of oncogenes and the inhibition of tumor suppressor genes via genetic and epigenetic mechanisms. Given the important role of energy metabolism in tumors, we analyzed the cancer-derived mutations occurring in the DNA of the mitochondrion. Mutations in the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) compared to nuclear DNA are 62% decreased relative to the coding length per chromosome. We find that the majority of these mutations affects highly conserved nucleotides - significantly exceeding the conservation of the mtDNA - and are devoid of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). Surprisingly, the leading resources for tumor genetics information universally use the standard genetic code for translation of nucleotide into amino acid sequences in their on

SUBMITTER: Caudron-Herger M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5785980 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature