PLoS ONE (Jan 2017)

Systematic genomic and translational efficiency studies of uveal melanoma.

  • Chelsea Place Johnson,
  • Ivana K Kim,
  • Bita Esmaeli,
  • Ali Amin-Mansour,
  • Daniel J Treacy,
  • Scott L Carter,
  • Eran Hodis,
  • Nikhil Wagle,
  • Sara Seepo,
  • Xiaoxing Yu,
  • Anne Marie Lane,
  • Evangelos S Gragoudas,
  • Francisca Vazquez,
  • Elizabeth Nickerson,
  • Kristian Cibulskis,
  • Aaron McKenna,
  • Stacey B Gabriel,
  • Gad Getz,
  • Eliezer M Van Allen,
  • Peter A C 't Hoen,
  • Levi A Garraway,
  • Scott E Woodman

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0178189
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 12, no. 6
p. e0178189

Abstract

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To further our understanding of the somatic genetic basis of uveal melanoma, we sequenced the protein-coding regions of 52 primary tumors and 3 liver metastases together with paired normal DNA. Known recurrent mutations were identified in GNAQ, GNA11, BAP1, EIF1AX, and SF3B1. The role of mutated EIF1AX was tested using loss of function approaches including viability and translational efficiency assays. Knockdown of both wild type and mutant EIF1AX was lethal to uveal melanoma cells. We probed the function of N-terminal tail EIF1AX mutations by performing RNA sequencing of polysome-associated transcripts in cells expressing endogenous wild type or mutant EIF1AX. Ribosome occupancy of the global translational apparatus was sensitive to suppression of wild type but not mutant EIF1AX. Together, these studies suggest that cells expressing mutant EIF1AX may exhibit aberrant translational regulation, which may provide clonal selective advantage in the subset of uveal melanoma that harbors this mutation.