Secondary Analysis of the NCI-60 Whole Exome Sequencing Data Indicates Significant Presence of Propionibacterium acnes Genomic Material in Leukemia (RPMI-8226) and Central Nervous System (SF-295, SF-539, and SNB-19) Cell Lines.

Abstract

The NCI-60 human tumor cell line panel has been used in a broad range of cancer research over the last two decades. A landmark 2013 whole exome sequencing study of this panel added an exceptional new resource for cancer biologists. The complementary analysis of the sequencing data produced by this study suggests the presence of Propionibacterium acnes genomic sequences in almost half of the datasets, with the highest abundance in the leukemia (RPMI-8226) and central nervous system (SF-295, SF-539, and SNB-19) cell lines. While the origin of these contaminating bacterial sequences remains to be determined, observed results suggest that computational control for the presence of microbial genomic material is a necessary step in the analysis of the high throughput sequencing (HTS) data.