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Cristen Willer and colleagues report genome-wide association analyses for blood lipid levels in 188,578 individuals. They identify 62 loci newly associated with blood lipid levels, refine the association signals at 12 loci and examine associations with cardiovascular and metabolic traits.
Christian Schaaf, Manuel Gonzalez-Garay and colleagues report the identification of four individuals with truncating mutations on the paternal allele of MAGEL2, a gene within the imprinted domain linked to Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS). The four individuals have PWS or PWS-related phenotypes, and all have autism.
Arul Chinnaiyan and colleagues report that the long noncoding RNA SChLAP1 is overexpressed in a subset of prostate cancers and predicts poor outcome. Mechanistically, they show that SChLAP1 promotes invasiveness and metastasis and antagonizes the functions of the SWI/SNF chromatin-remodeling complex.
Frank Stegmeier, Levi Garraway and colleagues apply a targeted mass spectrometry approach that measures level of histone modifications and identify a recurrent p.E1099K variant in NSD2 in acute lymphoblastic leukemia. When ectopically expressed in a cancer cell line, this variant promotes transformation.
The International Multiple Sclerosis Genetics Consortium reports the discovery of 48 new susceptibility variants for multiple sclerosis through targeted follow-up of immune-related loci. They also report fine mapping of association signals at established susceptibility loci and provide insights into the immune system processes underlying this disease.
Marco Sandri, Helge Amthor, Stefano Piccolo and colleagues show that BMP signaling is a key positive regulator of muscle hypertrophy. They further show that inhibiting BMP signaling causes muscle atrophy, abolishes the hypertrophic phenotype of myostatin knockout mice and exacerbates the effects of denervation and fasting.
Three new studies have used whole-genome sequencing of M. tuberculosis to demonstrate unexpected complexity in the modern evolution of drug-resistant tuberculosis, and a fourth study suggests a close evolutionary relationship between the pathogen and its human host over a period of 70,000 years. Collectively, the observations in these studies suggest that future strategies to tackle drug-resistant tuberculosis must integrate host genetics with detailed strain epidemiology.
Identifying genomic alterations in cancer does not guarantee therapeutic benefit. A new study combining DNA and RNA sequencing with functional validation uncovers new genetic driver alterations in glioblastoma with potential for clinical translation.
In this issue, the Focus on Pan-Cancer Analysis examines the similarities and differences among the genomic and cellular alterations found in the first dozen tumor types to be profiled by The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) Research Network. This first look across cancers offers new tools in genomics and bioinformatics and the prospect of repurposing targeted therapies to be directed by the molecular pathology of tumors in addition to their clinical classification.
The transcription factor PAX5 is required for normal B cell development and is frequently mutated or deleted in B cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL). A new study demonstrates that germline hypomorphic mutations of PAX5 are associated with susceptibility to B-ALL, implicating PAX5 in a growing list of hematopoietic transcription factors mutated in familial leukemia predisposition syndromes.
Larsson Omberg and colleagues write a Commentary describing the collaborative model used by the Pan-Cancer Working Group of The Cancer Genome Atlas. Pan-Cancer members used the Synapse software platform to share and evolve data, results and methods to perform integrative analyses of genome-wide molecular data for 12 cancer types.
Rameen Beroukhim and colleagues analyzed somatic structural alterations in 12 tumor types. Whole-genome doubling was found in over a third of all cancers, associated with TP53 mutation. Fifteen new significantly mutated candidate driver genes were found associated with recurrently amplified or deleted regions.
Chris Sander and colleagues have extracted significant functional events from 12 tumor types. Tumors can be classified as being driven largely by either mutation or copy number changes, and, within this division, subclasses of cross-tissue patterns of events are discerned that suggest sets of combinatorial therapies.
