The Alu family of interspersed repeats is comprised of over 500,000 members which may be divided into discrete subfamilies based upon mutations held in common between members. Distinct subfamilies of Alu sequences have amplified within the human genome in recent evolutionary history. Several individual Alu family members have amplified so recently in human evolution that they are variable as to presence and absence at specific loci within different human populations. Here, we report on the distribution of six polymorphic Alu insertions in a survey of 563 individuals from 14 human population groups across several continents. Our results indicate that these polymorphic Alu insertions probably have an African origin and that there is a much smaller amount of genetic variation between European populations than that found between other population groups.

Several epidemiological studies on ataxia-telangiectasia families indicate that obligate ATM heterozygotes display an elevated risk for developing breast cancer. However, a molecular basis for a potential link between diminished ATM function and sporadic breast malignancy remains elusive. Here, we show that 78% (18 out of a panel of 23) of surgically removed breast tumors (stage II or greater) displayed aberrant methylation of the ATM proximal promoter region as judged by methylation-specific PCR. Aberrant methylation of the ATM promoter was independently confirmed in several tumors by bisulfite sequencing. Moreover, bisulfite sequencing indicated that this region of the genome is subject to dense methylation. Further, we found a highly significant correlation (P ¼ 0.0006) between reduced ATM mRNA abundance, as measured by realtime RT-PCR, and aberrant methylation of the ATM gene promoter. These findings indicate that epigenetic silencing of ATM expression occurs in locally advanced breast tumors, and establish a link at the molecular level between reduced ATM function and sporadic breast malignancy. Oncogene (2004Oncogene ( ) 23, 9432-9437. doi:10.1038 Published online 1 November 2004Keywords: ATM; epigenetics; promoter hypermethylation; breast cancer Germline mutation of the ATM gene is the underlying cause of the cancer-prone disorder ataxia-telangiectasia (A-T) (Rotman and Shiloh, 1998). As outlined in the seminal work of Swift et al. (1987), and validated in subsequent studies (Easton, 1994;Athma et al., 1996), obligate ATM heterozygotes display an approximate fourfold elevated risk for developing breast cancer. Following the cloning of the ATM gene, several groups (FitzGerald et al., 1997;Bebb et al., 1999;Shafman et al., 2000) studied large cohorts of sporadic breast cancer patients and age-matched controls for nonsense or frame-shift mutations within the ATM gene. Neither group found evidence for a higher incidence of defective ATM alleles in the cancer patient cohort. Furthermore, the correlation between breast cancer and dominantnegative forms of ATM arising from defined missense or intronic mutations within the ATM gene remains controversial (Chenevix-Trench et al., 2002;Bernstein et al., 2003). Thus, a potential role for diminished ATM function in sporadic breast cancer remains unresolved.We have reported that, in cultured tumor cells, the ATM gene is subject to epigenetic silencing attributable to aberrant methylation of its proximal promoter region (Kim et al., 2002). More recently, we determined that aberrant methylation of the ATM promoter occurs in a subset of head and neck tumors (Ai et al., 2004). Further, several reports showed that reduced ATM expression, as judged by immunohistochemical staining, occurs in a significant portion of breast tumors (Kairouz et al., 1999;Angele et al., 2000). Collectively, these findings led us to hypothesize that epigenetic events, rather than somatic mutation of the ATM gene itself, link reduced ATM function to sporadic breast cancer.The putative proximal pro...

Mortalin (mot-2) induces inactivation of the tumor suppressor p53's transcriptional and apoptotic functions by cytoplasmic sequestration of p53 in select cancers. The mot-2-dependent cytoprotective function enables cancer cells to support malignant transformation. Abrogating the p53-mot-2 interaction can control or slow down the growth of cancer cells. In this study, we report the discovery of a ubiquitin-like (UBX)-domain-containing protein, UBXN2A, which binds to mot-2 and consequently inhibits the binding between mot-2 and p53. Genetic analysis showed that UBXN2A binds to mot-2's substrate binding domain, and it partly overlaps p53's binding site indicating UBXN2A and p53 likely bind to mot-2 competitively. By binding to mot-2, UBXN2A releases p53 from cytosolic sequestration, rescuing the tumor suppressor functions of p53. Biochemical analysis and functional assays showed that the overexpression of UBXN2A and the functional consequences of unsequestered p53 trigger p53-dependent apoptosis. Cells expressing shRNA against UBXN2A showed the opposite effect of that seen with UBXN2A overexpression. The expression of UBXN2A and its apoptotic effects were not observed in normal colonic epithelial cells and p53−/− colon cancer cells. Finally, significant reduction in tumor volume in a xenograft mouse model in response to UBXN2A expression was verified in vivo. Our results introduce UBXN2A as a home defense response protein, which can reconstitute inactive p53-dependent apoptotic pathways. Inhibition of mot-2-p53 interaction by UBXN2A is an attractive therapeutic strategy in mot-2-elevated tumors.

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