Abstract LB-079: Expression of evolutionarily novel genes in tumors

Abstract

Abstract Several genes with dual specificity - evolutionarily novel and expressed specifically or predominantly in tumors (OTP, ESRG, PVT1, ELFN1-AS1, HHLA1, DCD, SPRR1A, PBOV1 and others), have been described in our lab. We suggested to call such genes Tumor Specifically Expressed, Evolutionarily Novel (TSEEN) genes. We also described the evolutionary novelty of the whole classes of genes expressed predominantly in tumors, e.g. CT-X genes and genes of noncoding tumor specifically expressed RNAs. We studied the phylogenetic distribution of the orthologs of genes expressed in tumors and found that different functional gene classes have different evolutionary novelty. Some of them are enriched with evolutionarily novel genes. We showed that phylogenetic distribution curves of oncogenes, tumor suppressor genes and differentiation genes almost coincide, i.e. their evolution proceeds in a parallel manner. Using zebrafish transgenic inducible tumor model we discovered that some human genes which determine progressive traits originated in fishes and were first expressed in fish tumors. Our data and the data published by other authors suggest that genes originated by gene duplication; from endogenous retroviruses; by exon shuffling; and de novo are expressed in tumors, sometimes with high tumor specificity. The expression of evolutionarily novel genes in tumors may be a novel biological phenomenon with important evolutionary role. Citation Format: Andrei Kozlov, Larisa Krukovskaya, Nikolai Samusik, Andrei Makashov, Ekaterina Matyunina, Julia Karnaukhova, Tamara Kurbatova, Alexander Emelyanov. Expression of evolutionarily novel genes in tumors [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2017; 2017 Apr 1-5; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2017;77(13 Suppl):Abstract nr LB-079. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2017-LB-079