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Application of RNA-sequencing to identify transcriptome modification by DCLK1 in colorectal cancer cells

Cancer Gene Therapy volume 27, pages 691–701 (2020)Cite this article

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Abstract

Doublecortin-like kinase 1 (DCLK1) is a cancer stem cell marker for the colorectal cancer (CRC). It plays critical roles in the oncogenesis, progression, and metastasis of CRC. DCLK1 can be an intriguing therapeutic target for CRC treatment. However, the molecular mechanism of how DCLK1 functions is unclear currently. In our research, we aim to apply RNA-Sequencing (RNA-Seq) technology, a high throughput massively Next-generation sequencing approach, to monitor transcriptome changes due to DCLK1 overexpression in the CRC cells. In order to achieve our goal, RNA from quadruplicate samples from two clones of isogenic DCLK1 stable overexpression cells and the parental wild-type HCT116 cells was sent for RNA-Seq on the Illumina NextSeq500 platform. Differentially expressed (DE) genes were evaluated by t-test (P < 0.05 and fold-change ± 1.5 or greater) using two methods: (1) FWER; and (2) Benjamani and Hochberg FDR (false discovery rate) which corrects for multiple comparisons. Gene networks and functional analysis were evaluated using Ingenuity Pathways Analysis (IPA). We identified 1463 DE genes common for both DCLK1 overexpression clone A and clone B cells. IPA results indicated that 72 canonical pathways were significantly modified by DCLK1 overexpression (P < 0.05), among which nine out of the top ten pathways are involved in the cell cycle regulation, indicating that DCLK1 might play its tumorigenesis role via activation of pathways facilitating cell proliferation, repression of pathways inhibiting cells proliferation, and function against pathways facilitating cell apoptosis. Cell cycle analysis results confirmed the IPA findings, which demonstrated that DCLK1 overexpression cells had much less G0/G1 cells but much more S and G2/M cells (P < 0.05). In conclusion, DCLK1 overexpression significantly modified transcriptome profile of CRC cancer cells. Control of the cell cycle regulation might be one of the critical mechanism for DCLK1 function. Our findings provide more direct evidence for the development of DCLK1 as a therapeutic target for CRC treatment, and will be of great benefit for the discovery of novel therapeutic target within the DCLK1 molecular network for the treatment of colorectal cancer patients.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Mississippi INBRE, funded by an Institutional Development Award (IDeA) from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health under grant number P20GM103476. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of General Medical Sciences or the National Institutes of Health. The work performed through the UMMC Molecular and Genomics Facility is supported, in part, by funds from the NIGMS, including Mississippi INBRE (P20GM103476), Center for Psychiatric Neuroscience (CPN)-COBRE (P30GM103328), Obesity, Cardiorenal, and Metabolic Diseases-COBRE (P20GM104357), and Mississippi Center of Excellence in Perinatal Research (MS-CEPR)-COBRE (P20GM121334). The content of the paper is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health. Special acknowledgments to Dr Jonathan Lindner at University of Southern Mississippi for his great help with the FACS, Dr Sweta Khanal and Dr Alex Flynt at University of Southern Mississippi for his great help with the pathway heatmap establishment.

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  1. Biology Department, Tougaloo College, 500 West County Line Road, Tougaloo, MS, 39174, USA

    Lianna Li & Abednego Nii Adom Commey

  2. Department of Data Science, University of Mississippi Medical Center, 2500 North State Street, Jackson, MS, 39216, USA

    Hao Mei

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Li, L., Mei, H. & Commey, A.N.A. Application of RNA-sequencing to identify transcriptome modification by DCLK1 in colorectal cancer cells. Cancer Gene Ther 27, 691–701 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41417-019-0144-4

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