title: Detection of somatic mutations in the mitochondrial DNA control region of colorectal and gastric tumors by heteroduplex and single-strand conformation analysis.
abstract: Each entire hypervariable region of the mitochondrial DNA control region was screened for mutations from paired normal and tumor DNA corresponding to a group of 21 patients (13 colorectal and 8 gastric adenocarcinomas) using both heteroduplex analysis and single-strand conformation analysis. These two mutation scanning strategies allowed the identification of sequence alterations in 3/13 (23%) colorectal tumors and in 3/8 (37%) gastric tumors. Heteroduplex analysis showed the heteroplasmic state of the majority of these tumor mutations. Sequence analysis revealed two A:T/G:C transitions (nucleotide positions: 16241 and 16166) in hypervariable region 1 (HV1) and two C:G/T:A transitions (nucleotide positions: 76 and 312), one A:T/G:C transition (nucleotide position: 93), a 1-basepair C:G deletion (nucleotide position: 309), and a 2-base-pair CC:GG insertion (nucleotide position: 309) in the HV 2 region. A considerable proportion of these mutations was found in homopolymeric regions which are highly polymorphic among humans. Different mechanisms (clonal expansion, increased oxidative damage, and nuclear mutator mutations) were suggested to explain the increased mitochondrial DNA mutation rate observed in cancer.
authors.affiliation: Biology Section, Institute of Toxicology, Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Alonso
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Martin
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Albarran
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Aquilera
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Garcia
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Guzman
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Oliva
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sancho
mesh_terms: D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000235:genetics*; D015179:Colorectal Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics*; D004252:DNA Mutational Analysis; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial / Q000235:genetics*; D004273:DNA, Neoplasm / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D009154:Mutation; D009692:Nucleic Acid Heteroduplexes; D018807:Polymorphism, Single-Stranded Conformational; D012045:Regulatory Sequences, Nucleic Acid; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial; D004273:DNA, Neoplasm; D009692:Nucleic Acid Heteroduplexes