Aberrations of protein-coding genes are a focus of cancer genomics; however, the impact of oncogenes on expression of thẽ 50% of transcripts without protein-coding potential, including long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs), has been largely uncharacterized. Activating mutations in the BRAF oncogene are present in >70% of melanomas, 90% of which produce active mutant BRAF V600E protein.To define the impacts of oncogenic BRAF on the melanocyte transcriptome, massively parallel cDNA sequencing (RNA-seq) was performed on genetically matched normal human melanocytes with and without BRAF V600E expression. To enhance potential disease relevance by verifying expression of altered genes in BRAF-driven cancer tissue, parallel RNA-seq was also undertaken of two BRAF V600E

Mature ungerminated pollen grains of Zea mays L. contain presynthesized messenger RNAs. This has been demonstrated by the isolation of poly(A)RNA and its translation in the wheat germ and reticulocyte cell free systems into polypeptides many of which are similar to those synthesized in germinating pollen. Each corn pollen grain contains between 352-705 pg of total RNA and 8.9-17.8 pg of poly(A)RNA. During germination of corn pollen at least 260 different polypeptides are synthesized as determined by labeling and 2-dimensional gel electrophoresis. These results are discussed with reference to other plants and the number of different genes expressed during pollen development.

Aberrations of protein-coding genes are a focus of cancer genomics, however, the impact of oncogenes on expression of the ~50% of transcripts without protein-coding potential, including long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs), is largely uncharacterized. Activating mutations in the BRAF oncogene are present in 60% of melanomas, 90% of which produce active mutant BRAFV600E. To define the impacts of oncogenic BRAF on the melanocyte transcriptome, massively parallel cDNA sequencing (RNA-Seq) was performed on genetically matched normal human melanocytes with and without BRAFV600E expression. To enhance potential disease relevance by verifying expression of altered genes in BRAF-driven cancer tissue, parallel RNA-Seq was also undertaken on two BRAFV600E-mutant human melanomas. BRAFV600E regulated expression of 1,027 protein-coding transcripts and 39 annotated lncRNAs, as well as 70 un-annotated, potentially novel, intergenic transcripts. Coding potential analysis of these 70 transcripts suggested that most may represent newly identified non-coding RNAs. BRAF-regulated long non-coding RNA 1 (BLNCR1) was identified as a recurrently, highly expressed, previously un-annotated 693 bp transcript on chromosome 9 with a potential functional role in melanoma cell migration. Combining RNA-Seq of oncogene-expressing normal cells with RNA-Seq of their corresponding human cancers may represent a useful approach to discover new oncogene-regulated RNA transcripts of potential clinical relevance to cancer. This abstract is also presented as Poster A11. Citation Format: Ross J. Flockhart, Dan E. Webster, Kun Qu, Nicholas Mascarenhas, Joanna Kovalski, Markus Kretz, Paul A. Khavari. BRAFV600E remodels the melanocyte transcriptome and induces BLNCR1 to regulate melanoma cell migration [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Special Conference on Noncoding RNAs and Cancer; 2012 Jan 8-11; Miami Beach, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2012;72(2 Suppl):Abstract nr PR1.