Differential expression of transposable elements in the medaka melanoma model

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 16; no. 10; p. e0251713
• Main Authors: Helmprobst, Frederik, Kneitz, Susanne, Klotz, Barbara, Naville, Magali, Dechaud, Corentin, Volff, Jean-Nicolas, Schartl, Manfred
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: San Francisco Public Library of Science 27.10.2021; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Analysis; Biochemistry; Biology and Life Sciences; Diagnosis; DNA methylation; Fish; Gene expression; Gene sequencing; Genetic aspects; Genomes; Genomic instability; Medicine and Health Sciences; Melanoma; Metastases; Mutation; Mutation rates; Physiology; Proteins; RNA sequencing; Skin cancer; Transgenic fish; Tumors; Germany; France; United States > US; Texas
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0251713

Malignant melanoma incidence is rising worldwide. Its treatment in an advanced state is difficult, and the prognosis of this severe disease is still very poor. One major source of these difficulties is the high rate of metastasis and increased genomic instability leading to a high mutation rate and the development of resistance against therapeutic approaches. Here we investigate as one source of genomic instability the contribution of activation of transposable elements (TEs) within the tumor. We used the well-established medaka melanoma model and RNA-sequencing to investigate the differential expression of TEs in wildtype and transgenic fish carrying melanoma. We constructed a medaka-specific TE sequence library and identified TE sequences that were specifically upregulated in tumors. Validation by qRT- PCR confirmed a specific upregulation of a LINE and an LTR element in malignant melanomas of transgenic fish.