Abstract 7407: Melanoma clonal subline analysis reveals genetic factors driving intra-tumor heterogeneity
Authors: Keskus Ayse , Goretsky Anton , Liu Yuelin , Cui Xiwen , Ahmad Tanveer , Guijarro Eva Perez , Bryant Asher , Malloy Erin , Malikic Salem , Merlino Glenn , Day Chi-Ping , Sahinalp Cenk , Kolmogorov Mikhail 
Published: March 2024

Melanoma is the most invasive skin cancer caused by the malignant melanocytes. The use of immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) improved the survival rate in advanced melanoma. Yet, the response rate to ICB varies across patients due to the highly heterogeneous nature of melanoma. Recent studies reported genomic and epigenetic factors contributing to the therapeutic response. Identifying these factors involved in clonal evolution in melanoma is a key to better understanding the tumor progression and divergence in the therapy response.

To study melanoma heterogeneity, we generated twenty-four clonal sublines, each derived from a single cell isolated from a parental cell line derived from the M4 mouse melanoma model. DNA prepared from each subline and a spleen from a healthy mouse were subjected to long-read sequencing. Importantly, long-read sequencing allows direct detection of methylation states, small variants, and structural variants in the same run. The results thus provide excellent means to study genetic and epigenetic factors in clonal evolution. Each of these sublines was also implanted in distinct mice for survival and tumor growth analysis and further functional evaluation.

We developed Severus, a structural variation (SV) caller for long reads, which works with single (germline), paired (tumor-normal), and multiple samples (e.g., multi-site or time series). Severus takes advantage of improved phasing in long-read sequencing, attributes somatic variants to germline haplotype, and builds a haplotype-specific breakpoint graph that is used to cluster multi-break rearrangements and represent the derived chromosomal structure. We benchmarked Severus using multiplatform validated COLO829 truthset and CHM1/CHM13 haploid genomes, and Severus outperformed all other methods in terms of recall and precision.

The structural variation (SV) analysis using Severus with all the sublines showed enrichment of possibly clonal SVs in chr4, chr11, and mainly in chr13. Further investigation revealed SVs in chr13 were not distributed across the chromosome but clustered in certain regions. Analysis of somatic SNVs in chr13 corroborates the localized hypermutation profile, which indicates a possible kataegis. Interestingly, a loss of the chr13 copy affected by kataegis in one of the sublines coincides with a better survival rate, as compared to other sublines, in an allograft melanoma mouse model, which further supports the association between the kataegis and tumor progression. We also identified other clonal and subclonal events, including the homozygous deletion of Cdkn2a in most of the sublines, associated with their aggressiveness in vivo.

Our analysis allowed us to identify clonal and subclonal genetic and epigenetic factors involved in tumor progression and evolution in a melanoma model, which can potentially translate to human disease.

Citation Format: Ayse Keskus, Anton Goretsky, Yuelin Liu, Xiwen Cui, Tanveer Ahmad, Eva Perez Guijarro, Asher Bryant, Erin Malloy, Salem Malikic, Glenn Merlino, Chi-Ping Day, Cenk Sahinalp, Mikhail Kolmogorov. Melanoma clonal subline analysis reveals genetic factors driving intra-tumor heterogeneity [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2024; Part 1 (Regular Abstracts); 2024 Apr 5-10; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2024;84(6_Suppl):Abstract nr 7407.