Distribution of Mobile Genetic Elements in Cancer Genes

Abstract

Mobile genetic elements (MGEs) represent a large portion of the human genome. Its ability tochange their position within the genome has contributed to evolution, however, the same has alsoresulted in several mutations. Many of such mutations are known to cause exon skipping orpremature truncation that result in non-functional or dysfunctional protein, leading to cancer. Here,in this study we aim to determine the distribution of MGEs in cancer-associated genes as comparedto non-cancer associated genes. We curated a list of genes for both the categories and downloadedthe nucleotide sequences of these genes and ran on RepeatMasker to identify the MGEs in eachgene. All the data generated with respect to each gene was parsed and compared. The resultsshowed that the number and the sequence length covered by the identified MGEs in cancer-associated genes were comparatively high. The abundance of MGEs may be correlated with thehigh risk of deletion/insertion of large DNA segments in these genes, that results in higher risk ofcancer. Further studies need to be performed for better clarity on these associations.

MeX pipeline for analysis of mobile genetic elements in cancer genome

“…Active transposons are also known to cause mutagenic effects that cause several genetic disorders, like cancer [Jang et al 2019]. A previous study conducted in our lab has shown that the human genes associated with cancer has significantly higher number of MGEs as compared to the genes that are not associated with cancer [Preeti et al 2021]. We have also presented an efficient computational protocol for MGE insertion site analysis.…”

“…ELAN, the suite of tools uses standard techniques to identify different MGEs and their distribution on the genome [Rawal et al 2011]. Previously, in our lab we have also developed efficient platform for vaccine target identification [Rawal et al 2021] and generated comprehensive maps of molecules that are implicated in human associated diseases [Jagannadham et al 2016]. Recent advancement in high-throughput sequencing technologies have given opportunities to understand the functionality of transposable elements and their role in cancer.…”