Conserved G-Quadruplex-Forming Sequences in Mammalian <i>TERT</i> Promoters and Their Effect on Mutation Frequency

oleh: Vera V. Panova, Nina G. Dolinnaya, Kirill A. Novoselov, Viktoriia Yu. Savitskaya, Ivan S. Chernykh, Elena A. Kubareva, Andrei V. Alexeevski, Maria I. Zvereva

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: MDPI AG 2023-06-01

Deskripsi

Somatic mutations in the promoter region of the human telomerase reverse transcriptase (<i>hTERT</i>) gene have been identified in many types of cancer. The <i>hTERT</i> promoter is known to be enriched with sequences that enable the formation of G-quadruplex (G4) structures, whose presence is associated with elevated mutagenicity and genome instability. Here, we used a bioinformatics tool (QGRS mapper) to search for G4-forming sequences (G4 motifs) in the 1000 bp <i>TERT</i> promoter regions of 141 mammalian species belonging to 20 orders, 5 of which, including primates and predators, contain more than 10 species. Groups of conserved G4 motifs and single-nucleotide variants within these groups were discovered using a block alignment approach (based on the Nucleotide PanGenome explorer). It has been shown that: (i) G4 motifs are predominantly located in the region proximal to the transcription start site (up to 400 bp) and are over-represented on the non-coding strand of the <i>TERT</i> promoters, (ii) 11 to 22% of the G4 motifs found are evolutionarily conserved across the related organisms, and (iii) a statistically significant higher frequency of nucleotide substitutions in the conserved G4 motifs compared to the surrounding regions was confirmed only for the order <i>Primates</i>. These data support the assumption that G4s can interfere with the DNA repair process and affect the evolutionary adaptation of organisms and species.