Relentless accumulation of somatic mutations renders mismatch repair (MMR)-deficient cancers immunogenic. The evolutionary strategies that these hypermutator tumors use to drive immune evasion remain unknown. We identify repetitive homopolymer sequences in MMR genes as genetic ON/OFF switches, which vary mutation rate and bias during tumor evolution to fuel intratumor heterogeneity.
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References
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This is a summary of: Kayhanian, H. et al. Homopolymer switches mediate adaptive mutability in mismatch repair-deficient colorectal cancer. Nat. Genet. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-024-01777-9 (2024).
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Genetic gear switches drive cancer immune evasion. Nat Genet 56, 1333–1334 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-024-01778-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-024-01778-8
