Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Research Highlight
  • Published:

Genomics

Mutator catalogues

Nature Reviews Cancer volume 13, page 681 (2013)Cite this article

Subjects

APOBEC3B is a mutator in several types of cancer

Because APOBEC3B was previously shown to be associated with cytosine mutations in breast cancer, Burns and colleagues investigated whether this mutator is more generally associated with cancer. These authors analysed the gene expression profiles of 19 types of cancer and found that APOBEC3B was upregulated in tumours of the prostate, cervix, skin, breast, uterus, bladder and of the head and neck, as well as in lung adenocarcinoma, lung squamous cell carcinoma and in renal cell carcinoma. Moreover, the authors found that 60–90% of mutations in these tumours affected CG base pairs, and that the proportion of CG mutations correlated with the expression of APOBEC3B across cancer types. Because APOBECs target cytosines within specific sequence contexts, the authors examined the cytosine mutation signatures and found, for example, that those signatures in bladder and cervical cancers were similar, and were biased towards the optimum APOBEC3B motif (which is TCA). The authors also found that bladder, cervical, head and neck, and breast cancer, as well as lung adenocarcinoma and lung squamous cell carcinoma, all of which had the strongest APOBEC3B-specific cytosine mutation signatures, had the highest levels of cytosine mutation clustering. Together, these data indicate that APOBEC3B is a mutator in several types of cancer.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on SpringerLink
  • Instant access to the full article PDF.

USD 39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References

  1. Burns, M. B., Temiz, N. A. & Harris, R. S. Evidence for APOBEC3B mutagenesis in multiple human cancers. Nature Genet. 45, 977–983 (2013)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Roberts, S. A. et al. An APOBEC cytidine deaminase mutagenesis pattern is widespread in human cancers. Nature Genet. 45, 970–976 (2013)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Alexandrov, L. B. et al. Signatures of mutational processes in human cancer. Nature 500, 415–421 (2013)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Authors
  1. Gemma K. Alderton
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Alderton, G. Mutator catalogues. Nat Rev Cancer 13, 681 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrc3608

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrc3608

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing: Cancer

Sign up for the Nature Briefing: Cancer newsletter — what matters in cancer research, free to your inbox weekly.

Get what matters in cancer research, free to your inbox weekly. Sign up for Nature Briefing: Cancer