Transcriptional stress induces the generation of DoGs in cancer cells

Abstract

A characteristic of the cellular response to stress, is the production of RNAs generated from readthrough transcription of genes, called downstream-of-gene-(DoG) containing transcripts. Additionally, transcription inhibitor drugs are candidates for fighting cancer. In this work, we report the results of a bioinformatic analysis showing that one of the responses to transcription inhibition is the generation of DoGs in cancer cells. Although some genes that form DoGs were shared between the two cancer lines, there did not appear to be a functional correlation between them. However, our findings show that DoGs are generated as part of the cellular response to transcription inhibition like other types of cellular stress, suggesting that it may be part of the defense against transcriptional stress.