Identification of a novel fusion transcript between human relaxin-1 (RLN1) and human relaxin-2 (RLN2) in prostate cancer.

Authors: Tevz, Gregor and McGrath, Sean and Demeter, Ryan and Magrini, Vincent and Jeet, Varinder and Rockstroh, Anja and McPherson, Stephen and Lai, John and Bartonicek, Nenad and An, Jiyuan and Batra, Jyotsna and Dinger, Marcel E and Lehman, Melanie L and Williams, Elizabeth D and Nelson, Colleen C

Simultaneous expression of highly homologous RLN1 and RLN2 genes in prostate impairs their accurate delineation. We used PacBio SMRT sequencing and RNA-Seq in LNCaP cells in order to dissect the expression of RLN1 and RLN2 variants. We identified a novel fusion transcript comprising the RLN1 and RLN2 genes and found evidence of its expression in the normal and prostate cancer tissues. The RLN1-RLN2 fusion putatively encodes RLN2 isoform with the deleted secretory signal peptide. The identification of the fusion transcript provided information to determine unique RLN1-RLN2 fusion and RLN1 regions. The RLN1-RLN2 fusion was co-expressed with RLN1 in LNCaP cells, but the two gene products were inversely regulated by androgens. We showed that RLN1 is underrepresented in common PCa cell lines in comparison to normal and PCa tissue. The current study brings a highly relevant update to the relaxin field, and will encourage further studies of RLN1 and RLN2 in PCa and broader. Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Journal: Molecular and cellular endocrinology
DOI: 10.1016/j.mce.2015.10.011
Year: 2016

Read publication