Science

2022
Bae T, Fasching L, Wang Y, Shin JH, Suvakov M, Jang Y, Norton S, Dias C, Mariani J, Jourdon A, Wu F, Panda A, Pattni R, Chahine Y, Yeh R, Roberts RC, Huttner A, Kleinman JE, Hyde TM, Straub RE, Walsh CA, Brain Somatic Mosaicism Network BSM, Urban AE, Leckman JF, Weinberger DR, Vaccarino FM, Abyzov A. Analysis of somatic mutations in 131 human brains reveals aging-associated hypermutability. Science 2022;377(6605):511-517.Abstract
We analyzed 131 human brains (44 neurotypical, 19 with Tourette syndrome, 9 with schizophrenia, and 59 with autism) for somatic mutations after whole genome sequencing to a depth of more than 200×. Typically, brains had 20 to 60 detectable single-nucleotide mutations, but ~6% of brains harbored hundreds of somatic mutations. Hypermutability was associated with age and damaging mutations in genes implicated in cancers and, in some brains, reflected in vivo clonal expansions. Somatic duplications, likely arising during development, were found in ~5% of normal and diseased brains, reflecting background mutagenesis. Brains with autism were associated with mutations creating putative transcription factor binding motifs in enhancer-like regions in the developing brain. The top-ranked affected motifs corresponded to MEIS (myeloid ectopic viral integration site) transcription factors, suggesting a potential link between their involvement in gene regulation and autism.
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2021
Bizzotto S*, Dou Y*, Ganz J*, Doan RN, Kwon M, Bohrson CL, Kim SN, Bae T, Abyzov A, Network NIMHBSM, Park PJ**, Walsh CA**. Landmarks of human embryonic development inscribed in somatic mutations. Science 2021;371(6535):1249-1253.Abstract
Although cell lineage information is fundamental to understanding organismal development, very little direct information is available for humans. We performed high-depth (250×) whole-genome sequencing of multiple tissues from three individuals to identify hundreds of somatic single-nucleotide variants (sSNVs). Using these variants as "endogenous barcodes" in single cells, we reconstructed early embryonic cell divisions. Targeted sequencing of clonal sSNVs in different organs (about 25,000×) and in more than 1000 cortical single cells, as well as single-nucleus RNA sequencing and single-nucleus assay for transposase-accessible chromatin sequencing of ~100,000 cortical single cells, demonstrated asymmetric contributions of early progenitors to extraembryonic tissues, distinct germ layers, and organs. Our data suggest onset of gastrulation at an effective progenitor pool of about 170 cells and about 50 to 100 founders for the forebrain. Thus, mosaic mutations provide a permanent record of human embryonic development at very high resolution.
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2018
Lodato MA*, Rodin RE*, Bohrson CL*, Coulter ME*, Barton AR*, Kwon M*, Sherman MA, Vitzthum CM, Luquette LJ, Yandava C, Yang P, Chittenden TW, Hatem NE, Ryu SC, Woodworth MB, Park PJ**, Walsh CA**. Aging and neurodegeneration are associated with increased mutations in single human neurons. Science 2018;359(6375):555-559.Abstract
It has long been hypothesized that aging and neurodegeneration are associated with somatic mutation in neurons; however, methodological hurdles have prevented testing this hypothesis directly. We used single-cell whole-genome sequencing to perform genome-wide somatic single-nucleotide variant (sSNV) identification on DNA from 161 single neurons from the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus of fifteen normal individuals (aged 4 months to 82 years) as well as nine individuals affected by early-onset neurodegeneration due to genetic disorders of DNA repair (Cockayne syndrome and Xeroderma pigmentosum). sSNVs increased approximately linearly with age in both areas (with a higher rate in hippocampus) and were more abundant in neurodegenerative disease. The accumulation of somatic mutations with age-which we term genosenium-shows age-related, region-related, and disease-related molecular signatures, and may be important in other human age-associated conditions.
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2017
McConnell MJ, Moran JV, Abyzov A, Akbarian S, Bae T, Cortes-Ciriano I, Erwin JA, Fasching L, Flasch DA, Freed D, Ganz J, Jaffe AE, Kwan KY, Kwon M, Lodato MA, Mills RE, Paquola ACM, Rodin RE, Rosenbluh C, Sestan N, Sherman MA, Shin JH, Song S, Straub RE, Thorpe J, Weinberger DR, Urban AE, Zhou B, Gage FH, Lehner T, Senthil G, Walsh CA, Chess A, Courchesne E, Gleeson JG, Kidd JM, Park PJ, Pevsner J, Vaccarino FM, Brain Somatic Mosaicism Network BSM. Intersection of diverse neuronal genomes and neuropsychiatric disease: The Brain Somatic Mosaicism Network. Science 2017;356(6336)Abstract

Neuropsychiatric disorders have a complex genetic architecture. Human genetic population-based studies have identified numerous heritable sequence and structural genomic variants associated with susceptibility to neuropsychiatric disease. However, these germline variants do not fully account for disease risk. During brain development, progenitor cells undergo billions of cell divisions to generate the ~80 billion neurons in the brain. The failure to accurately repair DNA damage arising during replication, transcription, and cellular metabolism amid this dramatic cellular expansion can lead to somatic mutations. Somatic mutations that alter subsets of neuronal transcriptomes and proteomes can, in turn, affect cell proliferation and survival and lead to neurodevelopmental disorders. The long life span of individual neurons and the direct relationship between neural circuits and behavior suggest that somatic mutations in small populations of neurons can significantly affect individual neurodevelopment. The Brain Somatic Mosaicism Network has been founded to study somatic mosaicism both in neurotypical human brains and in the context of complex neuropsychiatric disorders.

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2015
Somatic mutation in single human neurons tracks developmental and transcriptional history.
Lodato MA*, Woodworth MB*, Lee S*, Evrony GD, Mehta BK, Karger A, Lee S, Chittenden TW, D'Gama AM, Cai X, Luquette LJ, Lee E, Park PJ**, Walsh CA**. Somatic mutation in single human neurons tracks developmental and transcriptional history. Science 2015;350(6256):94-8.Abstract

Neurons live for decades in a postmitotic state, their genomes susceptible to DNA damage. Here we survey the landscape of somatic single-nucleotide variants (SNVs) in the human brain. We identified thousands of somatic SNVs by single-cell sequencing of 36 neurons from the cerebral cortex of three normal individuals. Unlike germline and cancer SNVs, which are often caused by errors in DNA replication, neuronal mutations appear to reflect damage during active transcription. Somatic mutations create nested lineage trees, allowing them to be dated relative to developmental landmarks and revealing a polyclonal architecture of the human cerebral cortex. Thus, somatic mutations in the brain represent a durable and ongoing record of neuronal life history, from development through postmitotic function.

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2013
Ferrari F*, Jung YL*, Kharchenko PV, Plachetka A, Alekseyenko AA, Kuroda MI, Park PJ. Comment on "Drosophila dosage compensation involves enhanced Pol II recruitment to male X-linked promoters". Science 2013;340(6130):273.Abstract

Conrad et al. (Reports, 10 August 2012, p. 742) reported a doubling of RNA polymerase II (Pol II) occupancy at X-linked promoters to support 5' recruitment as the key mechanism for dosage compensation in Drosophila. However, they employed an erroneous data-processing step, overestimating Pol II differences. Reanalysis of the data fails to support the authors' model for dosage compensation.

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2012
Lee E, Iskow R, Yang L, Gokcumen O, Haseley P, Luquette LJ, Lohr JG, Harris CC, Ding L, Wilson RK, Wheeler DA, Gibbs RA, Kucherlapati R, Lee C, Kharchenko PV**, Park PJ**, Cancer Genome Atlas Research Network TCGA. Landscape of somatic retrotransposition in human cancers. Science 2012;337(6097):967-71.Abstract

Transposable elements (TEs) are abundant in the human genome, and some are capable of generating new insertions through RNA intermediates. In cancer, the disruption of cellular mechanisms that normally suppress TE activity may facilitate mutagenic retrotranspositions. We performed single-nucleotide resolution analysis of TE insertions in 43 high-coverage whole-genome sequencing data sets from five cancer types. We identified 194 high-confidence somatic TE insertions, as well as thousands of polymorphic TE insertions in matched normal genomes. Somatic insertions were present in epithelial tumors but not in blood or brain cancers. Somatic L1 insertions tend to occur in genes that are commonly mutated in cancer, disrupt the expression of the target genes, and are biased toward regions of cancer-specific DNA hypomethylation, highlighting their potential impact in tumorigenesis.

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2010
modENCODE Consortium *, Roy S*, Ernst J*, Kharchenko PV*, Kheradpour P*, Negre N*, Eaton ML*, Landolin JM*, Bristow CA*, Ma L*, Lin MF*, Washietl S*, Arshinoff BI, Ay F, Meyer PE, Robine N, Washington NL, Di Stefano L, Berezikov E, Brown CD, Candeias R, Carlson JW, Carr A, Jungreis I, Marbach D, Sealfon R, Tolstorukov MY, Will S, Alekseyenko AA, Artieri C, Booth BW, Brooks AN, Dai Q, Davis CA, Duff MO, Feng X, Gorchakov AA, Gu T, Henikoff JG, Kapranov P, Li R, MacAlpine HK, Malone J, Minoda A, Nordman J, Okamura K, Perry M, Powell SK, Riddle NC, Sakai A, Samsonova A, Sandler JE, Schwartz YB, Sher N, Spokony R, Sturgill D, van Baren M, Wan KH, Yang L, Yu C, Feingold E, Good P, Guyer M, Lowdon R, Ahmad K, Andrews J, Berger B, Brenner SE, Brent MR, Cherbas L, Elgin SCR, Gingeras TR, Grossman R, Hoskins RA, Kaufman TC, Kent W, Kuroda MI, Orr-Weaver T, Perrimon N, Pirrotta V, Posakony JW, Ren B, Russell S, Cherbas P, Graveley BR, Lewis S, Micklem G, Oliver B, Park PJ, Celniker SE**, Henikoff S**, Karpen GH**, Lai EC**, MacAlpine DM**, Stein LD**, White KP**, Kellis M**. Identification of functional elements and regulatory circuits by Drosophila modENCODE. Science 2010;330(6012):1787-97.Abstract

To gain insight into how genomic information is translated into cellular and developmental programs, the Drosophila model organism Encyclopedia of DNA Elements (modENCODE) project is comprehensively mapping transcripts, histone modifications, chromosomal proteins, transcription factors, replication proteins and intermediates, and nucleosome properties across a developmental time course and in multiple cell lines. We have generated more than 700 data sets and discovered protein-coding, noncoding, RNA regulatory, replication, and chromatin elements, more than tripling the annotated portion of the Drosophila genome. Correlated activity patterns of these elements reveal a functional regulatory network, which predicts putative new functions for genes, reveals stage- and tissue-specific regulators, and enables gene-expression prediction. Our results provide a foundation for directed experimental and computational studies in Drosophila and related species and also a model for systematic data integration toward comprehensive genomic and functional annotation.

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