The mouse (Mus musculus) is the premier animal model for understanding human disease and development. Here we show that a comprehensive understanding of mouse biology is only possible with the availability of a finished, high-quality genome assembly. The finished clone-based assembly of the mouse strain C57BL/6J reported here has over 175,000 fewer gaps and over 139 Mb more of novel sequence, compared with the earlier MGSCv3 draft genome assembly. In a comprehensive analysis of this revised genome sequence, we are now able to define 20,210 protein-coding genes, over a thousand more than predicted in the human genome (19,042 genes). In addition, we identified 439 long, non-protein-coding RNAs with evidence for transcribed orthologs in human. We analyzed the complex and repetitive landscape of 267 Mb of sequence that was missing or misassembled in the previously published assembly, and we provide insights into the reasons for its resistance to sequencing and assembly by whole-genome shotgun approaches. Duplicated regions within newly assembled sequence tend to be of more recent ancestry than duplicates in the published draft, correcting our initial understanding of recent evolution on the mouse lineage. These duplicates appear to be largely composed of sequence regions containing transposable elements and duplicated protein-coding genes; of these, some may be fixed in the mouse population, but at least 40% of segmentally duplicated sequences are copy number variable even among laboratory mouse strains. Mouse lineage-specific regions contain 3,767 genes drawn mainly from rapidly-changing gene families associated with reproductive functions. The finished mouse genome assembly, therefore, greatly improves our understanding of rodent-specific biology and allows the delineation of ancestral biological functions that are shared with human from derived functions that are not.

Understanding the prevailing mutational mechanisms responsible for human genome structural variation requires uniformity in the discovery of allelic variants and precision in terms of breakpoint delineation. We develop a resource based on capillary end sequencing of 13.8 million fosmid clones from 17 human genomes and characterize the complete sequence of 1054 large structural variants corresponding to 589 deletions, 384 insertions, and 81 inversions. We analyze the 2081 breakpoint junctions and infer potential mechanism of origin. Three mechanisms account for the bulk of germline structural variation: microhomology-mediated processes involving short (2-20 bp) stretches of sequence (28%), nonallelic homologous recombination (22%), and L1 retrotransposition (19%). The high quality and long-range continuity of the sequence reveals more complex mutational mechanisms, including repeat-mediated inversions and gene conversion, that are most often missed by other methods, such as comparative genomic hybridization, single nucleotide polymorphism microarrays, and next-generation sequencing.

We have profiled promoter DNA methylation alterations in 272 glioblastoma tumors in the context of The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). We found that a distinct subset of samples displays concerted hypermethylation at a large number of loci, indicating the existence of a glioma-CpG island methylator phenotype (G-CIMP). We validated G-CIMP in a set of non-TCGA glioblastomas and low-grade gliomas. G-CIMP tumors belong to the proneural subgroup, are more prevalent among lower-grade gliomas, display distinct copy-number alterations, and are tightly associated with IDH1 somatic mutations. Patients with G-CIMP tumors are younger at the time of diagnosis and experience significantly improved outcome. These findings identify G-CIMP as a distinct subset of human gliomas on molecular and clinical grounds.

Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) have tremendous potential as a tool for disease modeling, drug testing, and other applications. Since the generation of iPSCs "captures" the genetic history of the individual cell that was reprogrammed, iPSC clones (even those derived from the same individual) would be expected to demonstrate genetic heterogeneity. To assess the degree of genetic heterogeneity, and to determine whether some cells are more genetically "fit" for reprogramming, we performed exome sequencing on 24 mouse iPSC clones derived from skin fibroblasts obtained from two different sites of the same 8-week-old C57BL/6J male mouse. While no differences in the coding regions were detected in the two parental fibroblast pools, each clone had a unique genetic signature with a wide range of heterogeneity observed among the individual clones: a total of 383 iPSC variants were validated for the 24 clones (mean 16.0/clone, range 0-45). Since these variants were all present in the vast majority of the cells in each clone (variant allele frequencies of 40-60% for heterozygous variants), they most likely preexisted in the individual cells that were reprogrammed, rather than being acquired during reprogramming or cell passaging. We then tested whether this genetic heterogeneity had functional consequences for hematopoietic development by generating hematopoietic progenitors in vitro and enumerating colony forming units (CFUs). While there was a range of hematopoietic potentials among the 24 clones, only one clone failed to differentiate into hematopoietic cells; however, it was able to form a teratoma, proving its pluripotent nature. Further, no specific association was found between the mutational spectrum and the hematopoietic potential of each iPSC clone. These data clearly highlight the genetic heterogeneity present within individual fibroblasts that is captured by iPSC generation, and suggest that most of the changes are random, and functionally benign.

Infant acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) with MLL rearrangements (MLL-R) represents a distinct leukemia with a poor prognosis. To define its mutational landscape, we performed whole-genome, exome, RNA and targeted DNA sequencing on 65 infants (47 MLL-R and 18 non-MLL-R cases) and 20 older children (MLL-R cases) with leukemia. Our data show that infant MLL-R ALL has one of the lowest frequencies of somatic mutations of any sequenced cancer, with the predominant leukemic clone carrying a mean of 1.3 non-silent mutations. Despite this paucity of mutations, we detected activating mutations in kinase-PI3K-RAS signaling pathway components in 47% of cases. Surprisingly, these mutations were often subclonal and were frequently lost at relapse. In contrast to infant cases, MLL-R leukemia in older children had more somatic mutations (mean of 6.5 mutations/case versus 1.3 mutations/case, P = 7.15 × 10(-5)) and had frequent mutations (45%) in epigenetic regulators, a category of genes that, with the exception of MLL, was rarely mutated in infant MLL-R ALL.

The Drug-Gene Interaction database (DGIdb) mines existing resources that generate hypotheses about how mutated genes might be targeted therapeutically or prioritized for drug development. It provides an interface for searching lists of genes against a compendium of drug-gene interactions and potentially 'druggable' genes. DGIdb can be accessed at http://dgidb.org/.

Gibbons are small arboreal apes that display an accelerated rate of evolutionary chromosomal rearrangement and occupy a key node in the primate phylogeny between Old World monkeys and great apes. Here we present the assembly and analysis of a northern white-cheeked gibbon (Nomascus leucogenys) genome. We describe the propensity for a gibbon-specific retrotransposon (LAVA) to insert into chromosome segregation genes and alter transcription by providing a premature termination site, suggesting a possible molecular mechanism for the genome plasticity of the gibbon lineage. We further show that the gibbon genera (Nomascus, Hylobates, Hoolock and Symphalangus) experienced a near-instantaneous radiation ∼5 million years ago, coincident with major geographical changes in southeast Asia that caused cycles of habitat compression and expansion. Finally, we identify signatures of positive selection in genes important for forelimb development (TBX5) and connective tissues (COL1A1) that may have been involved in the adaptation of gibbons to their arboreal habitat.

Apoptosis and the DNA damage responses have been implicated in hematopoietic development and differentiation, as well as in the pathogenesis of myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) and leukemia. However, the importance of late-stage mediators of apoptosis in hematopoiesis and leukemogenesis has not been elucidated. Here, we examine the role of caspase-9 (Casp9), the initiator caspase of the intrinsic apoptotic cascade, in murine fetal and adult hematopoiesis. Casp9 deficiency resulted in decreased erythroid and B-cell progenitor abundance and impaired function of hematopoietic stem cells after transplantation. Mouse bone marrow chimeras lacking Casp9 or its cofactor Apaf1 developed low white blood cell counts, decreased B-cell numbers, anemia, and reduced survival. Defects in apoptosis have also been previously implicated in susceptibility to therapy-related leukemia, a disease caused by exposure to DNA-damaging chemotherapy. We found that the burden of DNA damage was increased in Casp9-deficient cells after exposure to the alkylator, N-ethyl-nitrosourea (ENU). Furthermore, exome sequencing revealed that oligoclonal hematopoiesis emerged in Casp9-deficient bone marrow chimeras after alkylator exposure. Taken together, these findings suggest that defects in apoptosis could be a key step in the pathogenesis of alkylator-associated secondary malignancies.

Tarsiers are phylogenetically located between the most basal strepsirrhines and the most derived anthropoid primates. While they share morphological features with both groups, they also possess uncommon primate characteristics, rendering their evolutionary history somewhat obscure. To investigate the molecular basis of such attributes, we present here a new genome assembly of the Philippine tarsier (Tarsius syrichta), and provide extended analyses of the genome and detailed history of transposable element insertion events. We describe the silencing of Alu monomers on the lineage leading to anthropoids, and recognize an unexpected abundance of long terminal repeat-derived and LINE1-mobilized transposed elements (Tarsius interspersed elements; TINEs). For the first time in mammals, we identify a complete mitochondrial genome insertion within the nuclear genome, then reveal tarsier-specific, positive gene selection and posit population size changes over time. The genomic resources and analyses presented here will aid efforts to more fully understand the ancient characteristics of primate genomes.

CIViC is an expert-crowdsourced knowledgebase for Clinical Interpretation of Variants in Cancer describing the therapeutic, prognostic, diagnostic and predisposing relevance of inherited and somatic variants of all types. CIViC is committed to open-source code, open-access content, public application programming interfaces (APIs) and provenance of supporting evidence to allow for the transparent creation of current and accurate variant interpretations for use in cancer precision medicine.

Legumes (Fabaceae or Leguminosae) are unique among cultivated plants for their ability to carry out endosymbiotic nitrogen fixation with rhizobial bacteria, a process that takes place in a specialized structure known as the nodule. Legumes belong to one of the two main groups of eurosids, the Fabidae, which includes most species capable of endosymbiotic nitrogen fixation. Legumes comprise several evolutionary lineages derived from a common ancestor 60 million years ago (Myr ago). Papilionoids are the largest clade, dating nearly to the origin of legumes and containing most cultivated species. Medicago truncatula is a long-established model for the study of legume biology. Here we describe the draft sequence of the M. truncatula euchromatin based on a recently completed BAC assembly supplemented with Illumina shotgun sequence, together capturing ∼94% of all M. truncatula genes. A whole-genome duplication (WGD) approximately 58 Myr ago had a major role in shaping the M. truncatula genome and thereby contributed to the evolution of endosymbiotic nitrogen fixation. Subsequent to the WGD, the M. truncatula genome experienced higher levels of rearrangement than two other sequenced legumes, Glycine max and Lotus japonicus. M. truncatula is a close relative of alfalfa (Medicago sativa), a widely cultivated crop with limited genomics tools and complex autotetraploid genetics. As such, the M. truncatula genome sequence provides significant opportunities to expand alfalfa's genomic toolbox.

To define the mutation spectrum in non-Down syndrome acute megakaryoblastic leukemia (non-DS-AMKL), we performed transcriptome sequencing on diagnostic blasts from 14 pediatric patients and validated our findings in a recurrency/validation cohort consisting of 34 pediatric and 28 adult AMKL samples. Our analysis identified a cryptic chromosome 16 inversion (inv(16)(p13.3q24.3)) in 27% of pediatric cases, which encodes a CBFA2T3-GLIS2 fusion protein. Expression of CBFA2T3-GLIS2 in Drosophila and murine hematopoietic cells induced bone morphogenic protein (BMP) signaling and resulted in a marked increase in the self-renewal capacity of hematopoietic progenitors. These data suggest that expression of CBFA2T3-GLIS2 directly contributes to leukemogenesis.

Heterorhabditis bacteriophora are entomopathogenic nematodes that have evolved a mutualism with Photorhabdus luminescens bacteria to function as highly virulent insect pathogens. The nematode provides a safe harbor for intestinal symbionts in soil and delivers the symbiotic bacteria into the insect blood. The symbiont provides virulence and toxins, metabolites essential for nematode reproduction, and antibiotic preservation of the insect cadaver. Approximately half of the 21,250 putative protein coding genes identified in the 77 Mbp high quality draft H. bacteriophora genome sequence were novel proteins of unknown function lacking homologs in Caenorhabditis elegans or any other sequenced organisms. Similarly, 317 of the 603 predicted secreted proteins are novel with unknown function in addition to 19 putative peptidases, 9 peptidase inhibitors and 7 C-type lectins that may function in interactions with insect hosts or bacterial symbionts. The 134 proteins contained mariner transposase domains, of which there are none in C. elegans, suggesting an invasion and expansion of mariner transposons in H. bacteriophora. Fewer Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes Orthologies in almost all metabolic categories were detected in the genome compared with 9 other sequenced nematode genomes, which may reflect dependence on the symbiont or insect host for these functions. The H. bacteriophora genome sequence will greatly facilitate genetics, genomics and evolutionary studies to gain fundamental knowledge of nematode parasitism and mutualism. It also elevates the utility of H. bacteriophora as a bridge species between vertebrate parasitic nematodes and the C. elegans model.

Exome sequencing in families affected by rare genetic disorders has the potential to rapidly identify new disease genes (genes in which mutations cause disease), but the identification of a single causal mutation among thousands of variants remains a significant challenge. We developed a scoring algorithm to prioritize potential causal variants within a family according to segregation with the phenotype, population frequency, predicted effect, and gene expression in the tissue(s) of interest. To narrow the search space in families with multiple affected individuals, we also developed two complementary approaches to exome-based mapping of autosomal-dominant disorders. One approach identifies segments of maximum identity by descent among affected individuals; the other nominates regions on the basis of shared rare variants and the absence of homozygous differences between affected individuals. We showcase our methods by using exome sequence data from families affected by autosomal-dominant retinitis pigmentosa (adRP), a rare disorder characterized by night blindness and progressive vision loss. We performed exome capture and sequencing on 91 samples representing 24 families affected by probable adRP but lacking common disease-causing mutations. Eight of 24 families (33%) were revealed to harbor high-scoring, most likely pathogenic (by clinical assessment) mutations affecting known RP genes. Analysis of the remaining 17 families identified candidate variants in a number of interesting genes, some of which have withstood further segregation testing in extended pedigrees. To empower the search for Mendelian-disease genes in family-based sequencing studies, we implemented them in a cross-platform-compatible software package, MendelScan, which is freely available to the research community.

The incidence of malignant melanoma continues to increase each year with poor prognosis for survival in many relapse cases. To reverse this trend, whole body response measures are needed to discover collaborative paths to primary and secondary malignancy. Several species of fish provide excellent melanoma models because fish and human melanocytes both appear in the epidermis, and fish and human pigment cell tumors share conserved gene expression signatures. For the first time, we have examined the whole body transcriptome response to invasive melanoma as a prelude to using transcriptome profiling to screen for drugs in a medaka (Oryzias latipes) model. We generated RNA-seq data from whole body RNA isolates for controls and melanoma fish. After testing for differential expression, 396 genes had significantly different expression (adjusted p-value <0.02) in the whole body transcriptome between melanoma and control fish; 379 of these genes were matched to human orthologs with 233 having annotated human gene symbols and 14 matched genes that contain putative deleterious variants in human melanoma at varying levels of recurrence. A detailed canonical pathway evaluation for significant enrichment showed the top scoring pathway to be antigen presentation but also included the expected melanocyte development and pigmentation signaling pathway. Results revealed a profound down-regulation of genes involved in the immune response, especially the innate immune system. We hypothesize that the developing melanoma actively suppresses the immune system responses of the body in reacting to the invasive malignancy, and that this mal-adaptive response contributes to disease progression, a result that suggests our whole-body transcriptomic approach merits further use. In these findings, we also observed novel genes not yet identified in human melanoma expression studies and uncovered known and new candidate drug targets for further testing in this malignant melanoma medaka model.

Resistance to oestrogen-deprivation therapy is common in oestrogen-receptor-positive (ER+) breast cancer. To better understand the contributions of tumour heterogeneity and evolution to resistance, here we perform comprehensive genomic characterization of 22 primary tumours sampled before and after 4 months of neoadjuvant aromatase inhibitor (NAI) treatment. Comparing whole-genome sequencing of tumour/normal pairs from the two time points, with coincident tumour RNA sequencing, reveals widespread spatial and temporal heterogeneity, with marked remodelling of the clonal landscape in response to NAI. Two cases have genomic evidence of two independent tumours, most obviously an ER- 'collision tumour', which was only detected after NAI treatment of baseline ER+ disease. Many mutations are newly detected or enriched post treatment, including two ligand-binding domain mutations in ESR1. The observed clonal complexity of the ER+ breast cancer genome suggests that precision medicine approaches based on genomic analysis of a single specimen are likely insufficient to capture all clinically significant information.

Familial combined hyperlipidemia (FCH) is a complex and common familial dyslipidemia characterized by elevated total cholesterol and/or triglyceride levels with over five-fold risk of coronary heart disease. The genetic architecture and contribution of rare Mendelian and common variants to FCH susceptibility is unknown. In 53 Finnish FCH families, we genotyped and imputed nine million variants in 715 family members with DNA available. We studied the enrichment of variants previously implicated with monogenic dyslipidemias and/or lipid levels in the general population by comparing allele frequencies between the FCH families and population samples. We also constructed weighted polygenic scores using 212 lipid-associated SNPs and estimated the relative contributions of Mendelian variants and polygenic scores to the risk of FCH in the families. We identified, across the whole allele frequency spectrum, an enrichment of variants known to elevate, and a deficiency of variants known to lower LDL-C and/or TG levels among both probands and affected FCH individuals. The score based on TG associated SNPs was particularly high among affected individuals compared to non-affected family members. Out of 234 affected FCH individuals across the families, seven (3%) carried Mendelian variants and 83 (35%) showed high accumulation of either known LDL-C or TG elevating variants by having either polygenic score over the 90th percentile in the population. The positive predictive value of high score was much higher for affected FCH individuals than for similar sporadic cases in the population. FCH is highly polygenic, supporting the hypothesis that variants across the whole allele frequency spectrum contribute to this complex familial trait. Polygenic SNP panels improve identification of individuals affected with FCH, but their clinical utility remains to be defined.

To assess the genetic consequences of induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) reprogramming, we sequenced the genomes of ten murine iPSC clones derived from three independent reprogramming experiments, and compared them to their parental cell genomes. We detected hundreds of single nucleotide variants (SNVs) in every clone, with an average of 11 in coding regions. In two experiments, all SNVs were unique for each clone and did not cluster in pathways, but in the third, all four iPSC clones contained 157 shared genetic variants, which could also be detected in rare cells (<1 in 500) within the parental MEF pool. These data suggest that most of the genetic variation in iPSC clones is not caused by reprogramming per se, but is rather a consequence of cloning individual cells, which "captures" their mutational history. These findings have implications for the development and therapeutic use of cells that are reprogrammed by any method.

Colletotrichum species are fungal pathogens that devastate crop plants worldwide. Host infection involves the differentiation of specialized cell types that are associated with penetration, growth inside living host cells (biotrophy) and tissue destruction (necrotrophy). We report here genome and transcriptome analyses of Colletotrichum higginsianum infecting Arabidopsis thaliana and Colletotrichum graminicola infecting maize. Comparative genomics showed that both fungi have large sets of pathogenicity-related genes, but families of genes encoding secreted effectors, pectin-degrading enzymes, secondary metabolism enzymes, transporters and peptidases are expanded in C. higginsianum. Genome-wide expression profiling revealed that these genes are transcribed in successive waves that are linked to pathogenic transitions: effectors and secondary metabolism enzymes are induced before penetration and during biotrophy, whereas most hydrolases and transporters are upregulated later, at the switch to necrotrophy. Our findings show that preinvasion perception of plant-derived signals substantially reprograms fungal gene expression and indicate previously unknown functions for particular fungal cell types.

The macronuclear genome of the ciliate Oxytricha trifallax displays an extreme and unique eukaryotic genome architecture with extensive genomic variation. During sexual genome development, the expressed, somatic macronuclear genome is whittled down to the genic portion of a small fraction (∼5%) of its precursor "silent" germline micronuclear genome by a process of "unscrambling" and fragmentation. The tiny macronuclear "nanochromosomes" typically encode single, protein-coding genes (a small portion, 10%, encode 2-8 genes), have minimal noncoding regions, and are differentially amplified to an average of ∼2,000 copies. We report the high-quality genome assembly of ∼16,000 complete nanochromosomes (∼50 Mb haploid genome size) that vary from 469 bp to 66 kb long (mean ∼3.2 kb) and encode ∼18,500 genes. Alternative DNA fragmentation processes ∼10% of the nanochromosomes into multiple isoforms that usually encode complete genes. Nucleotide diversity in the macronucleus is very high (SNP heterozygosity is ∼4.0%), suggesting that Oxytricha trifallax may have one of the largest known effective population sizes of eukaryotes. Comparison to other ciliates with nonscrambled genomes and long macronuclear chromosomes (on the order of 100 kb) suggests several candidate proteins that could be involved in genome rearrangement, including domesticated MULE and IS1595-like DDE transposases. The assembly of the highly fragmented Oxytricha macronuclear genome is the first completed genome with such an unusual architecture. This genome sequence provides tantalizing glimpses into novel molecular biology and evolution. For example, Oxytricha maintains tens of millions of telomeres per cell and has also evolved an intriguing expansion of telomere end-binding proteins. In conjunction with the micronuclear genome in progress, the O. trifallax macronuclear genome will provide an invaluable resource for investigating programmed genome rearrangements, complementing studies of rearrangements arising during evolution and disease.