Expression-based analyses indicate a central role for hypoxia in driving tumor plasticity through microenvironment remodeling and chromosomal instability

Anqi Jing, Frederick S Vizeacoumar, Sreejit Parameswaran, Bjorn Haave, Chelsea E Cunningham, Yuliang Wu, Roland Arnold, Keith Bonham, Andrew Freywald, Jie Han, Franco J Vizeacoumar

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Can transcriptomic alterations drive the evolution of tumors? We asked if changes in gene expression found in all patients arise earlier in tumor development and can be relevant to tumor progression. Our analyses of non-mutated genes from the non-amplified regions of the genome of 158 triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) cases identified 219 exclusively expression-altered (EEA) genes that may play important role in TNBC. Phylogenetic analyses of these genes predict a "punctuated burst" of multiple gene upregulation events occurring at early stages of tumor development, followed by minimal subsequent changes later in tumor progression. Remarkably, this punctuated burst of expressional changes is instigated by hypoxia-related molecular events, predominantly in two groups of genes that control chromosomal instability (CIN) and those that remodel tumor microenvironment (TME). We conclude that alterations in the transcriptome are not stochastic and that early-stage hypoxia induces CIN and TME remodeling to permit further tumor evolution.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)38
JournalNPJ systems biology and applications
Volume4
Issue number38
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 24 Oct 2018

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