Alternative Splicing of APOBEC3D Generates Functional Diversity and Its Role As a DNA Mutator

• Published in: Blood 2016-12, Vol.128 (22), p.5107-5107
• Main Authors: Takei, Hisashi, Fujii, Masanori, Nakayama, Sohei, Kobayashi, Ikei, Shindo, Keisuke, Shirakawa, Kotaro, Takaori-Kondo, Akifumi, Kobayashi, Susumu
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0006-4971; 1528-0020
• DOI: 10.1182/blood.V128.22.5107.5107

Apolipoprotein B mRNA-editing enzyme catalytic polypeptide-like (APOBEC) protein family consists of 11 members: APOBEC1, APOBEC2, seven APOBEC3s (A3s) (A/B/C/D/F/G/H), APOBEC4, and the activation-induced deaminase (AID). APOBEC1, A3s, and AID have cytidine deaminase activity and induce a cytidine (C) to thymidine (T) transition. The main function of A3s is to trigger an innate immune response to viral infection such as human immunodeficiency virus-1. Recently, it was reported that several APOBEC family proteins can induce somatic mutations into genomic DNA and thus promote cancer development. For example, AID-mediated somatic mutations contribute to B-cell lymphoma and A3B can be an enzymatic source in solid tumors such as breast cancer. However, little is known about other A3 member proteins. To determine the expression of A3 in hematopoietic cells, we performed quantitative PCR in leukemia cell lines. A3B, A3C, A3D, A3F and A3G were detected in all cell lines, but not A3A or A3H. Next, we analyzed published The Cancer Genome Atlas data from patients with acute myeloid leukemia to find somatic alterations in A3 genes using cBioPortal (http://www.cbioportal.org/). We found that each A3 was upregulated at 4-7 % of all samples and the total frequency of 23 %. Interestingly, overall survival of patients with A3upregulation was lower than those without upregulation, suggesting an important role of A3s in pathogenesis of leukemia. As it has been shown that A3A, A3B, and A3D show capacity to inflict DNA damage, we decided to investigate whether A3D can induce mutations in foreign and genomic DNA. During our attempt to generate A3D expression constructs, we detected multiple bands in leukemia and lung cancer cell lines. Based on our analysis and previous reports, we confirmed that there are at least 7 transcript variants (v1 to 7). Because A3D v3, v4 and v5 lack cytidine deaminase domains, we decided to examine A3Dv1, v2, v6 and v7. To determine whether A3D variants have foreign DNA editing activity, we performed differential DNA denaturation (3D)-PCR in HEK293T cells co-transfected with expression vectors for EGFP, UNG inhibitor, and pCAG-GS containing A3Dv1, v2, v6, v7, A3B or empty control. Total DNA was isolated 4 days after transfection. PCR products were detected at lower denaturation temperature (Td) in cells expressing A3B and all A3D variants vectors compared to control. Sequences of PCR products at lowest Td revealed that mutation frequencies in EGFP ge