Somatic mosaicism for copy-neutral loss of heterozygosity and DNA copy number variations in the human genome.

BACKGROUND: Somatic mosaicism denotes the presence of genetically distinct populations of somatic cells in one individual who has developed from a single fertilised oocyte. Mosaicism may result from a mutation that occurs during postzygotic development and is propagated to only a subset of the adult cells. Our aim was to investigate both somatic mosaicism for copy-neutral loss of heterozygosity (cn-LOH) events and DNA copy number variations (CNVs) in fully differentiated tissues. RESULTS: We studied panels of tissue samples (11-12 tissues per individual) from four autopsy subjects using high-resolution Illumina HumanOmniExpress-12 BeadChips to reveal the presence of possible intra-individual tissue-specific cn-LOH and CNV patterns. We detected five mosaic cn-LOH regions >5 Mb in some tissue samples in three out of four individuals. We also detected three CNVs that affected only a portion of the tissues studied in one out of four individuals. These three somatic CNVs range from 123 to 796 kb and are also found in the general population. An attempt was made to explain the succession of genomic events that led to the observed somatic genetic mosaicism under the assumption that the specific mosaic patterns of CNV and cn-LOH changes reflect their formation during the postzygotic embryonic development of germinal layers and organ systems. CONCLUSIONS: Our results give further support to the idea that somatic mosaicism for CNVs, and also cn-LOHs, is a common phenomenon in phenotypically normal humans. Thus, the examination of only a single tissue might not provide enough information to diagnose potentially deleterious CNVs within an individual. During routine CNV and cn-LOH analysis, DNA derived from a buccal swab can be used in addition to blood DNA to get information about the CNV/cn-LOH content in tissues of both mesodermal and ectodermal origin. Currently, the real frequency and possible phenotypic consequences of both CNVs and cn-LOHs that display somatic mosaicism remain largely unknown. To answer these questions, future studies should involve larger cohorts of individuals and a range of tissues.

Tissue-specific mitochondrial heteroplasmy at position 16,093 within the same individual.

Human mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) research has entered a massively parallel sequencing (MPS) era, providing deep insight into mtDNA genomics and molecular diagnostics. Analysis can simultaneously include coding and control regions, many samples can be studied in parallel, and even minor heteroplasmic changes can be detected. We investigated heteroplasmy using 16 different tissues from three unrelated males aged 40-54 years at the time of death. mtDNA was enriched using two independent overlapping long-range PCR amplicons and analysed by employing illumina paired-end sequencing. Point mutation heteroplasmy at position 16,093 (m.16093T > C) in the non-coding regulatory region showed great variability among one of the studied individuals; heteroplasmy extended from 5.1 % in red bone marrow to 62.0 % in the bladder. Red (5.1 %) and yellow bone marrow (8.9 %) clustered into one group and two arteries and two aortas from different locations into another (31.2-50.9 %), giving an ontogenetic explanation for the formation of somatic mitochondrial heteroplasmy. Our results demonstrate that multi-tissue screening using MPS provides surprising data even when there is a limited number (3) of study subjects and they give reason to speculate that mtDNA heteroplasmic frequency, distribution, and even its possible role in complex diseases or phenotypes seem to be underestimated.

Correction: Methylation Markers of Early-Stage Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0039813.].

DNA methylome profiling of human tissues identifies global and tissue-specific methylation patterns.

BACKGROUND: DNA epigenetic modifications, such as methylation, are important regulators of tissue differentiation, contributing to processes of both development and cancer. Profiling the tissue-specific DNA methylome patterns will provide novel insights into normal and pathogenic mechanisms, as well as help in future epigenetic therapies. In this study, 17 somatic tissues from four autopsied humans were subjected to functional genome analysis using the Illumina Infinium HumanMethylation450 BeadChip, covering 486 428 CpG sites. RESULTS: Only 2% of the CpGs analyzed are hypermethylated in all 17 tissue specimens; these permanently methylated CpG sites are located predominantly in gene-body regions. In contrast, 15% of the CpGs are hypomethylated in all specimens and are primarily located in regions proximal to transcription start sites. A vast number of tissue-specific differentially methylated regions are identified and considered likely mediators of tissue-specific gene regulatory mechanisms since the hypomethylated regions are closely related to known functions of the corresponding tissue. Finally, a clear inverse correlation is observed between promoter methylation within CpG islands and gene expression data obtained from publicly available databases. CONCLUSIONS: This genome-wide methylation profiling study identified tissue-specific differentially methylated regions in 17 human somatic tissues. Many of the genes corresponding to these differentially methylated regions contribute to tissue-specific functions. Future studies may use these data as a reference to identify markers of perturbed differentiation and disease-related pathogenic mechanisms.

Methylation markers of early-stage non-small cell lung cancer.

BACKGROUND: Despite of intense research in early cancer detection, there is a lack of biomarkers for the reliable detection of malignant tumors, including non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). DNA methylation changes are common and relatively stable in various types of cancers, and may be used as diagnostic or prognostic biomarkers. METHODS: We performed DNA methylation profiling of samples from 48 patients with stage I NSCLC and 18 matching cancer-free lung samples using microarrays that cover the promoter regions of more than 14,500 genes. We correlated DNA methylation changes with gene expression levels and performed survival analysis. RESULTS: We observed hypermethylation of 496 CpGs in 379 genes and hypomethylation of 373 CpGs in 335 genes in NSCLC. Compared to adenocarcinoma samples, squamous cell carcinoma samples had 263 CpGs in 223 hypermethylated genes and 513 CpGs in 436 hypomethylated genes. 378 of 869 (43.5%) CpG sites discriminating the NSCLC and control samples showed an inverse correlation between CpG site methylation and gene expression levels. As a result of a survival analysis, we found 10 CpGs in 10 genes, in which the methylation level differs in different survival groups. CONCLUSIONS: We have identified a set of genes with altered methylation in NSCLC and found that a minority of them showed an inverse correlation with gene expression levels. We also found a set of genes that associated with the survival of the patients. These newly-identified marker candidates for the molecular screening of NSCLC will need further analysis in order to determine their clinical utility.