FOXO3a loss is a frequent early event in high-grade pelvic serous carcinogenesis.

Serous ovarian carcinoma is the most lethal gynecological malignancy in Western countries. The molecular events that underlie the development of the disease have been elusive for many years. The recent identification of the fallopian tube secretory epithelial cells (FTSECs) as the cell-of-origin for most cases of this disease has led to studies aimed at elucidating new candidate therapeutic pathways through profiling of normal FTSECs and serous carcinomas. Here we describe the results of transcriptional profiles that identify the loss of the tumor suppressive transcription factor FOXO3a in a vast majority of high-grade serous ovarian carcinomas. We show that FOXO3a loss is a hallmark of the earliest stages of serous carcinogenesis and occurs both at the DNA, RNA and protein levels. We describe several mechanisms responsible for FOXO3a inactivity, including chromosomal deletion (chromosome 6q21), upregulation of miRNA-182 and destabilization by activated PI3K and MEK. The identification of pathways involved in the pathogenesis of ovarian cancer can advance the management of this disease from being dependant on surgery and cytotoxic chemotherapy alone to the era of targeted therapy. Our data strongly suggest FOXO3a as a possible target for clinical intervention.

HDAC inhibitor-based therapies and haematological malignancy.

Reversible acetylation mediated by histone deacetylase (HDAC) influences a broad repertoire of physiological processes, many of which are aberrantly controlled in tumour cells. Since HDAC inhibition prompts tumour cells to enter apoptosis, small-molecule HDAC inhibitors have been developed as a new class of mechanism-based anticancer agent, many of which have entered clinical trials. While the clinical picture is evolving and the precise utility of HDAC inhibitors remains to be determined, it is noteworthy that certain tumour types undergo a favourable response, in particular haematological malignancies. Vorinostat (suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid) has been approved for treating cutaneous T-cell lymphoma in patients with progressive, persistent or recurrent disease. Here, we discuss developments in our understanding of molecular events that underlie the anticancer effects of HDAC inhibitors and relate this information to the emerging clinical picture for the application of HDAC inhibitors in haematological malignancies.

Extrachromosomal recombination is deranged in the rec2 mutant of Ustilago maydis.

Transformation of a leu1 auxotroph of Ustilago maydis to prototrophy with an autonomously replicating plasmid containing the selectable LEU1 gene was found to be efficient regardless of whether the transforming DNA was circular or linear. When pairs of autonomously replicating plasmids bearing noncomplementing leu1 alleles were used to cotransform strains deleted entirely for the genomic copy of the LEU1 gene, Leu+ transformants were observed to arise by extrachromosomal recombination. The frequency of recombination increased severalfold when one plasmid of the pair was made linear by cleavage at one end of the leu1 gene, but increased 10-100-fold when both plasmids were first made linear. The increase in recombination noted in wild-type and rec1 strains was not apparent in the rec2 mutant unless the members of the pair of plasmids were cut at opposite ends of the leu1 gene to yield linear molecules offset in only one of the two possible configurations. Use of a pair of plasmid substrates designed to measure nonreciprocal and multiple exchange events revealed only a minor fraction of the total events arise through these modes, and further that no stimulation occurred when the plasmid DNA was linear. It is unlikely that the defect in rec2 lies in a mismatch correction step since a high yield of Leu+ recombinants was obtained from the rec2 mutant when it was transformed with heteroduplex DNA constructed from plasmids with the two different leu1 alleles.

Pathways of transformation in Ustilago maydis determined by DNA conformation.

Ustilago maydis was transformed by plasmids bearing a cloned, selectable gene but lacking an autonomously replicating sequence. Transformation was primarily through integration at nonhomologous loci when the plasmid DNA was circular. When the DNA was made linear by cleavage within the cloned gene, the spectrum of integration events shifted from random to targeted recombination at the resident chromosomal allele. In a large fraction of the transformants obtained using linear DNA, the plasmid DNA was not integrated but was maintained in an extrachromosomal state composed of a concatameric array of plasmid units joined end-to-end. The results suggest the operation of several pathways for transformation in U. maydis, and that DNA conformation at the time of transformation governs choice of pathways.

Cloning and disruption of Ustilago maydis genes.

We have demonstrated that genes from Ustilago maydis can be cloned by direct complementation of mutants through the use of genomic libraries made in a high-frequency transformation vector. We isolated a gene involved in amino acid biosynthesis as an illustrative example and showed that integrative and one-step disruption methods can be used to create null mutations in the chromosomal copy of the gene by homologous recombination. The results of this investigation make it clear that one-step gene disruption will be of general utility in investigations of U. maydis, since simple, precise replacement of the sequence under study was readily achieved.

Isolation and characterization of an autonomously replicating sequence from Ustilago maydis.

DNA fragments that function as autonomously replicating sequences (ARSs) have been isolated from Ustilago maydis. When inserted into an integrative transforming vector, the fragments increased the frequency of U. maydis transformation several-thousandfold. ARS-containing plasmids were transmitted in U. maydis as extrachromosomal elements through replication. They were maintained at a level of about 25 copies per cell but were mitotically unstable. One ARS characterized in detail, which we called UARS1, was localized to a 1.7-kilobase fragment. UARS1 contained a cluster of active sequences. This element could be reduced further into three separate subfragments, each of which retained ARS activity. The smallest one was 383 base pairs (bp) long. Although not active itself in yeast, this small fragment contained seven 8-bp direct repeats, two contiguous 30-bp direct repeats, and five 11-bp units in both orientations with sequences similar but not identical to the consensus sequence found to be crucial for ARS activity in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.