Fig. 3: Passenger-like distribution of atypical TERTp mutations.

Line plots showing the frequency of key TERTp mutations as a function of UV mutation burden (C > T mutations in dipyrimidine contexts) across the TERTp mutated, UV-exposed, GENIE subcohort (“High TERTp, UV” cancer types in Fig. 1). 1,569 samples were divided into five bins based on burden as indicated on the x-axis (586, 287, 291, 236 and 169 samples per bin). a ETS-forming driver mutations show limited correlation with UV mutation burden. b The frequency of non-ETS-forming atypical mutations is strongly dictated by UV mutation burden, as expected for UV-induced passengers under neutral selection. Error bars indicate 80% confidence intervals based on the standard errors of the proportions. The Pearson correlation coefficient r and associated two-sided P-value, calculated based on the average burden in each bin, is indicated for each category. ns, not significant; *P < 0.05; **P < 0.01. Source data including exact P-values are provided as a Source Data file.