Dissecting the impact of regional identity and the oncogenic role of human-specific NOTCH2NL in an hESC model of H3.3G34R-mutant glioma Journal Article


Authors: Funato, K.; Smith, R. C.; Saito, Y.; Tabar, V.
Article Title: Dissecting the impact of regional identity and the oncogenic role of human-specific NOTCH2NL in an hESC model of H3.3G34R-mutant glioma
Abstract: H3.3G34R-mutant gliomas are lethal tumors of the cerebral hemispheres with unknown mechanisms of regional specificity and tumorigenicity. We developed a human embryonic stem cell (hESC)-based model of H3.3G34R-mutant glioma that recapitulates the key features of the tumors with cell-type specificity to forebrain interneuronal progenitors but not hindbrain precursors. We show that H3.3G34R, ATRX, and TP53 mutations cooperatively impact alternative RNA splicing events, particularly suppression of intron retention. This leads to increased expression of components of the Notch pathway, notably NOTCH2NL, a human-specific gene family. We also uncover a parallel mechanism of enhanced NOTCH2NL expression via genomic amplification of its locus in some H3.3G34R-mutant tumors. These findings demonstrate a novel mechanism whereby evolutionary pathways that lead to larger brain size in humans are co-opted to drive tumor growth.
Keywords: genes; rna; tumor; differentiation; stem-cells; high-grade; driver mutations; subgroups; histone h3.3; prc2 activity
Journal Title: Cell Stem Cell
Volume: 28
Issue: 5
ISSN: 1934-5909
Publisher: Cell Press  
Date Published: 2021-05-06
Start Page: 894
End Page: 905.e7
Language: English
ACCESSION: WOS:000648283600019
DOI: 10.1016/j.stem.2021.02.003
PROVIDER: wos
PMCID: PMC8106629
PUBMED: 33631117
Notes: Article -- Source: Wos
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  1. Viviane S Tabar
    225 Tabar
  2. Kosuke Funato
    14 Funato
  3. Ryan Christopher Smith
    4 Smith