title: Elevated RNA Editing Activity Is a Major Contributor to Transcriptomic Diversity in Tumors.
abstract: Genomic mutations in key genes are known to drive tumorigenesis and have been the focus of much attention in recent years. However, genetic content also may change farther downstream. RNA editing alters the mRNA sequence from its genomic blueprint in a dynamic and flexible way. A few isolated cases of editing alterations in cancer have been reported previously. Here, we provide a transcriptome-wide characterization of RNA editing across hundreds of cancer samples from multiple cancer tissues, and we show that A-to-I editing and the enzymes mediating this modification are significantly altered, usually elevated, in most cancer types. Increased editing activity is found to be associated with patient survival. As is the case with somatic mutations in DNA, most of these newly introduced RNA mutations are likely passengers, but a few may serve as drivers that may be novel candidates for therapeutic and diagnostic purposes.
authors.affiliation: The Mina and Everard Goodman Faculty of Life Sciences, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan 52900, Israel.
authors.forename: Nurit
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Paz-Yaacov
authors.affiliation: The Mina and Everard Goodman Faculty of Life Sciences, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan 52900, Israel.
authors.forename: Lily
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Bazak
authors.affiliation: The Mina and Everard Goodman Faculty of Life Sciences, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan 52900, Israel.
authors.forename: Ilana
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Buchumenski
authors.affiliation: The Mina and Everard Goodman Faculty of Life Sciences, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan 52900, Israel.
authors.forename: Hagit T
authors.initials: HT
authors.lastname: Porath
authors.affiliation: The Mina and Everard Goodman Faculty of Life Sciences, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan 52900, Israel.
authors.forename: Miri
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Danan-Gotthold
authors.affiliation: The Mina and Everard Goodman Faculty of Life Sciences, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan 52900, Israel.
authors.forename: Binyamin A
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Knisbacher
authors.affiliation: School of Physics and Astronomy, Raymond and Beverly Sackler Faculty of Exact Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel. Electronic address: elieis@post.tau.ac.il.
authors.forename: Eli
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Eisenberg
authors.affiliation: The Mina and Everard Goodman Faculty of Life Sciences, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan 52900, Israel. Electronic address: erez.levanon@biu.ac.il.
authors.forename: Erez Y
authors.initials: EY
authors.lastname: Levanon
mesh_terms: D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics*; D002277:Carcinoma / Q000235:genetics*; D005260:Female; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D006801:Humans; D007680:Kidney Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics*; D008297:Male; D009154:Mutation; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics*; D017393:RNA Editing; D059467:Transcriptome; D015854:Up-Regulation