The landscape of somatic mutations in infant MLL-rearranged acute lymphoblastic leukemias

Nat Genet. 2015 Apr;47(4):330-7. doi: 10.1038/ng.3230. Epub 2015 Mar 2.

Abstract

Infant acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) with MLL rearrangements (MLL-R) represents a distinct leukemia with a poor prognosis. To define its mutational landscape, we performed whole-genome, exome, RNA and targeted DNA sequencing on 65 infants (47 MLL-R and 18 non-MLL-R cases) and 20 older children (MLL-R cases) with leukemia. Our data show that infant MLL-R ALL has one of the lowest frequencies of somatic mutations of any sequenced cancer, with the predominant leukemic clone carrying a mean of 1.3 non-silent mutations. Despite this paucity of mutations, we detected activating mutations in kinase-PI3K-RAS signaling pathway components in 47% of cases. Surprisingly, these mutations were often subclonal and were frequently lost at relapse. In contrast to infant cases, MLL-R leukemia in older children had more somatic mutations (mean of 6.5 mutations/case versus 1.3 mutations/case, P = 7.15 × 10(-5)) and had frequent mutations (45%) in epigenetic regulators, a category of genes that, with the exception of MLL, was rarely mutated in infant MLL-R ALL.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Allelic Imbalance / genetics
  • Cohort Studies
  • DNA Mutational Analysis
  • Gene Frequency
  • Histone-Lysine N-Methyltransferase
  • Humans
  • Infant
  • Mutation*
  • Myeloid-Lymphoid Leukemia Protein / genetics*
  • Oncogene Proteins, Fusion / genetics
  • Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinases / genetics
  • Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinases / metabolism
  • Precursor Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma / epidemiology
  • Precursor Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma / genetics*
  • Protein-Tyrosine Kinases / genetics
  • Protein-Tyrosine Kinases / metabolism
  • Signal Transduction / genetics
  • ras Proteins / genetics
  • ras Proteins / metabolism

Substances

  • KMT2A protein, human
  • Oncogene Proteins, Fusion
  • Myeloid-Lymphoid Leukemia Protein
  • Histone-Lysine N-Methyltransferase
  • Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinases
  • Protein-Tyrosine Kinases
  • ras Proteins