23940299	Methodology	Glioblastoma	Next Generation Sequencing	Five3 Genomics, LLC, Santa Cruz, CA, 9506	Sanborn JZ, Salama SR, Grifford M, Brennan CW, Mikkelsen T, Jhanwar S, Katzman S, Chin L, Haussler D	Double minute chromosomes in glioblastoma multiforme are revealed by precise reconstruction of oncogenic amplicons	Cancer Research	2013 Oct 	DNA sequencing offers a powerful tool in oncology based on the precise definition of structural rearrangements and copy number in tumor genomes. Here, we describe the development of methods to compute copy number and detect structural variants to locally reconstruct highly rearranged regions of the tumor genome with high precision from standard, short-read, paired-end sequencing datasets. We find that circular assemblies are the most parsimonious explanation for a set of highly amplified tumor regions in a subset of glioblastoma multiforme samples sequenced by The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) consortium, revealing evidence for double minute chromosomes in these tumors. Further, we find that some samples harbor multiple circular amplicons and, in some cases, further rearrangements occurred after the initial amplicon-generating event. Fluorescence in situ hybridization analysis offered an initial confirmation of the presence of double minute chromosomes. Gene content in these assemblies helps identify likely driver oncogenes for these amplicons. RNA-seq data available for one double minute chromosome offered additional support for our local tumor genome assemblies, and identified the birth of a novel exon made possible through rearranged sequences present in the double minute chromosomes. Our method was also useful for analysis of a larger set of glioblastoma multiforme tumors for which exome sequencing data are available, finding evidence for oncogenic double minute chromosomes in more than 20% of clinical specimens examined, a frequency consistent with previous estimates.	Homo sapiens				>=30	2	Yes
23972288	Methodology	Breast cancer	Next Generation Sequencing	Department of Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, 1515 Holcombe Blvd, Houston, Texas 77030, USA	Chen K, Navin NE, Wang Y, Schmidt HK, Wallis JW, Niu B, Fan X, Zhao H, McLellan MD, Hoadley KA, Mardis ER, Ley TJ, Perou CM, Wilson RK, Ding L	BreakTrans: uncovering the genomic architecture of gene fusions	Genome Biology	2013 Aug	Producing gene fusions through genomic structural rearrangements is a major mechanism for tumor evolution. Therefore, accurately detecting gene fusions and the originating rearrangements is of great importance for personalized cancer diagnosis and targeted therapy. We present a tool, BreakTrans, that systematically maps predicted gene fusions to structural rearrangements. Thus, BreakTrans not only validates both types of predictions, but also provides mechanistic interpretations. BreakTrans effectively validates known fusions and discovers novel events in a breast cancer cell line. Applying BreakTrans to 43 breast cancer samples in The Cancer Genome Atlas identifies 90 genomically validated gene fusions. BreakTrans is available at http://bioinformatics.mdanderson.org/main/BreakTrans. 	Homo sapiens		phs000178		>=50	2	NA
25938371	Methodology	Glioblastoma	Next Generation Sequencing	Department of Computational Biology, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, Tennessee, USA	Chen X, Gupta P, Wang J, Nakitandwe J, Roberts K, Dalton JD, Parker M, Patel S, Holmfeldt L, Payne D, Easton J, Ma J, Rusch M, Wu G, Patel A, Baker SJ, Dyer MA, Shurtleff S, Espy S, Pounds S, Downing JR, Ellison DW, Mullighan CG, Zhang J	CONSERTING: integrating copy-number analysis with structural-variation detection	Nature methods	2015 Jun	We developed Copy Number Segmentation by Regression Tree in Next Generation Sequencing (CONSERTING), an algorithm for detecting somatic copy-number alteration (CNA) using whole-genome sequencing (WGS) data. CONSERTING performs iterative analysis of segmentation on the basis of changes in read depth and the detection of localized structural variations, with high accuracy and sensitivity. Analysis of 43 cancer genomes from both pediatric and adult patients revealed novel oncogenic CNAs, complex rearrangements and subclonal CNAs missed by alternative approaches. 	Homo sapiens		phs000340;phs000352;phs000218;phs000178		>=2	2-3	NA
26415501	Methodology	hTERT RPE-1 cell line	Next Generation Sequencing	European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Genome Biology Unit, Heidelberg, Germany	Mardin BR, Drainas AP, Waszak SM, Weischenfeldt J, Isokane M, Stutz AM, Raeder B, Efthymiopoulos T, Buccitelli C, Segura-Wang M, Northcott P, Pfister SM, Lichter P, Ellenberg J, Korbel JO	A cell-based model system links chromothripsis with hyperploidy	Molecular Systems Biology	2015 Sep	A remarkable observation emerging from recent cancer genome analyses is the identification of chromothripsis as a one-off genomic catastrophe, resulting in massive somatic DNA structural rearrangements (SRs). Largely due to lack of suitable model systems, the mechanistic basis of chromothripsis has remained elusive. We developed an integrative method termed complex alterations after selection and transformation (CAST), enabling efficient in vitro generation of complex DNA rearrangements including chromothripsis, using cell perturbations coupled with a strong selection barrier followed by massively parallel sequencing. We employed this methodology to characterize catastrophic SR formation processes, their temporal sequence, and their impact on gene expression and cell division. Our in vitro system uncovered a propensity of chromothripsis to occur in cells with damaged telomeres, and in particular in hyperploid cells. Analysis of primary medulloblastoma cancer genomes verified the link between hyperploidy and chromothripsis in vivo. CAST provides the foundation for mechanistic dissection of complex DNA rearrangement processes.	Homo sapiens			PRJEB8037	>=22	2-5	Yes
23759584	Methodology			Biocomputation Group; Centro Nacional de Biotecnologia-CSIC; Madrid, Spain	Carlos Oscar Sanchez Solorzano, Alberto Pascual-Montano, Ainhoa Sanchez de Diego, Carlos Martinez-A, Karel H.M. van Wely	Chromothripsis: Breakage-fusion-bridge over and over again	Cell Cycle	2013 Jun	The acquisition of massive but localized chromosome translocations, a phenomenon termed chromothripsis, has received widespread attention since its discovery over a year ago. Until recently, chromothripsis was believed to originate from a single catastrophic event, but the molecular mechanisms leading to this event are yet to be uncovered. Because a thorough interpretation of the data are missing, the phenomenon itself has wrongly acquired the status of a mechanism used to justify many kinds of complex rearrangements. Although the assumption that all translocations in chromothripsisoriginate from a single event has met with criticism, satisfactory explanations for the intense but localized nature of this phenomenon are still missing. Here, we show why the data used to describe massive catastrophic rearrangements are incompatible with a model comprising a single event only and propose a molecular mechanism in which a combination of known cellular pathways accounts for chromothripsis. Instead of a single traumatic event, the protection of undamaged chromosomes by telomeres can limit repetitive breakage-fusion-bridge events to a single chromosome arm. Ultimately, common properties of chromosomal instability, such as aneuploidy and centromere fission, might establish the complex genetic pattern observed in this genomic state.					NA	NA	NA
25608562	Methodology		Next Generation Sequencing	Leukaemia Research Cytogenetics Group, Northern Institute for Cancer Research, Newcastle University, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, United Kingdom	Harrison CJ	Blood Spotlight on iAMP21 acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), a high-risk pediatric disease.	Blood	2015 Feb	Intrachromosomal amplification of chromosome 21 (iAMP21) defines a distinct cytogenetic subgroup of childhood B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Breakage-fusion-bridge cycles followed by chromothripsis and other complex structural rearrangements of chromosome 21 underlie the mechanism giving rise to iAMP21. Patients with iAMP21 are older (median age 9 years), with a low white cell count. They have a high relapse rate when treated as standard risk. Recent studies have shown improved outcome on intensive therapy. Molecular targets for therapy are being sought.	Homo sapiens				NA	NA	NA
25572114	Methodology			Center for Computational Molecular Biology, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA	Weinreb C, Oesper L, Raphael BJ	Open adjacencies and k-breaks: detecting simultaneous rearrangements in cancer genomes.	BMC Genomics	2014 Oct	BACKGROUND: The evolution of a cancer genome has traditionally been described as a sequential accumulation of mutations - including chromosomal rearrangements - over a period of time. Recent research suggests, however, that numerous rearrangements may be acquired simultaneously during a single cataclysmic event, leading to the proposal of new mechanisms of rearrangement such as chromothripsis and chromoplexy. RESULTS: We introduce two measures, open adjacency rate (OAR) and copy-number asymmetry enrichment (CAE), that assess the prevalence of simultaneously formed breakpoints, or k-breaks with k >2, compared to the sequential accumulation of standard rearrangements, or 2-breaks. We apply the OAR and the CAE to genome sequencing data from 121 cancer genomes from two different studies. CONCLUSIONS: We find that the OAR and CAE correlate well with previous analyses of chromothripsis/chromoplexy but make differing predictions on a small subset of genomes. These results lend support to the existence of simultaneous rearrangements, but also demonstrate the difficulty of characterizing such rearrangements using different criterion.					NA	NA	NA
26017310	Methodology		Next Generation Sequencing	Department of Medical Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, USA	Zhang CZ, Spektor A, Cornils H, Francis JM, Jackson EK, Liu S, Meyerson M, Pellman D	Chromothripsis from DNA damage in micronuclei.	Nature	2015 Jun	Genome sequencing has uncovered a new mutational phenomenon in cancer and congenital disorders called chromothripsis. Chromothripsis is characterized by extensive genomic rearrangements and an oscillating pattern of DNA copy number levels, all curiously restricted to one or a few chromosomes. The mechanism for chromothripsis is unknown, but we previously proposed that it could occur through the physical isolation of chromosomes in aberrant nuclear structures called micronuclei. Here, using a combination of live cell imaging and single-cell genome sequencing, we demonstrate that micronucleus formation can indeed generate a spectrum of genomic rearrangements, some of which recapitulate all known features of chromothripsis. These events are restricted to the mis-segregated chromosome and occur within one cell division. We demonstrate that the mechanism for chromothripsis can involve the fragmentation and subsequent reassembly of a single chromatid from a micronucleus. Collectively, these experiments establish a new mutational process of which chromothripsis is one extreme outcome.	Homo sapiens				NA	NA	NA
23498933	Methodology			Genome Biology Unit, European Molecular Biology Laboratory, 69117 Heidelberg	Korbel JO, Campbell PJ	Criteria for Inference of Chromothripsis in Cancer Genomes	Cell	2013 Mar	Chromothripsis scars the genome when localized chromosome shattering and repair occurs in a one-off catastrophe. Outcomes of this process are detectable as massive DNA rearrangements affecting one or a few chromosomes. Although recent findings suggest a crucial role of chromothripsis in cancer development, the reproducible inference of this process remains challenging, requiring that cataclysmic one-off rearrangements be distinguished from localized lesions that occur progressively. We describe conceptual criteria for the inference of chromothripsis, based on ruling out the alternative hypothesis that stepwise rearrangements occurred. Robust means of inference may facilitate in-depth studies on the impact of, and the mechanisms underlying, chromothripsis.					NA	NA	NA
23132910	Methodology	Uterine leiomyoma		Center for Biomedical Informatics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA	Kim TM, Xi R, Luquette LJ, Park RW, Johnson MD, Park PJ	Functional genomic analysis of chromosomal aberrations in a compendium of 8000 cancer genomes.	Genome Res	2013 Feb	A large database of copy number profiles from cancer genomes can facilitate the identification of recurrent chromosomal alterations that often contain key cancer-related genes. It can also be used to explore low-prevalence genomic events such as chromothripsis. In this study, we report an analysis of 8227 human cancer copy number profiles obtained from 107 array comparative genomic hybridization (CGH) studies. Our analysis reveals similarity of chromosomal arm-level alterations among developmentally related tumor types as well as a number of co-occurring pairs of arm-level alterations. Recurrent (pan-lineage) focal alterations identified across diverse tumor types show an enrichment of known cancer-related genes and genes with relevant functions in cancer-associated phenotypes (e.g., kinase and cell cycle). Tumor type-specific (lineage-restricted) alterations and their enriched functional categories were also identified. Furthermore, we developed an algorithm for detecting regions in which the copy number oscillates rapidly between fixed levels, indicative of chromothripsis. We observed these massive genomic rearrangements in 1%-2% of the samples with variable tumor type-specific incidence rates. Taken together, our comprehensive view of copy number alterations provides a framework for understanding the functional significance of various genomic alterations in cancer genomes.					NA	NA	NA
24646301	Methodology			Ontario Institute for Cancer Research, M5G 0A3, Toronto, Canada	Govind SK, Zia A, Hennings-Yeomans PH, Watson JD, Fraser M, Anghel C, Wyatt AW, van der Kwast T, Collins CC, McPherson JD, Bristow RG, Boutros PC.	ShatterProof: operational detection and quantification of chromothripsis.	BMC Bioinformatics	2014 Mar	BACKGROUND: Chromothripsis, a newly discovered type of complex genomic rearrangement, has been implicated in the evolution of several types of cancers. To date, it has been described in bone cancer, SHH-medulloblastoma and acute myeloid leukemia, amongst others, however there are still no formal or automated methods for detecting or annotating it in high throughput sequencing data. As such, findings of chromothripsis are difficult to compare and many cases likely escape detection altogether. RESULTS: We introduce ShatterProof, a software tool for detecting and quantifying chromothriptic events. ShatterProof takes structural variation calls (translocations, copy-number variations, short insertions and loss of heterozygosity) produced by any algorithm and using an operational definition of chromothripsis performs robust statistical tests to accurately predict the presence and location of chromothriptic events. Validation of our tool was conducted using clinical data sets including matched normal, prostate cancer samples in addition to the colorectal cancer and SCLC data sets used in the original description of chromothripsis. CONCLUSIONS: ShatterProof is computationally efficient, having low memory requirements and near linear computation time. This allows it to become a standard component of sequencing analysis pipelines, enabling researchers to routinely and accurately assess samples for chromothripsis. Source code and documentation can be found at http://search.cpan.org/~sgovind/Shatterproof.					NA	NA	NA
24476156	Methodology			Institute of Molecular Life Sciences, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland	Cai H, Kumar N, Bagheri HC, von Mering C, Robinson MD, Baudis M	Chromothripsis-like patterns are recurring but heterogeneously distributed features in a survey of 22,347 cancer genome screens.	BMC Genomics	2014 Jan	BACKGROUND: Chromothripsis is a recently discovered phenomenon of genomic rearrangement, possibly arising during a single genome-shattering event. This could provide an alternative paradigm in cancer development, replacing the gradual accumulation of genomic changes with a one-off catastrophic event. However, the term has been used with varying operational definitions, with the minimal consensus being a large number of locally clustered copy number aberrations. The mechanisms underlying these chromothripsis-like patterns (CTLP) and their specific impact on tumorigenesis are still poorly understood. RESULTS: Here, we identified CTLP in 918 cancer samples, from a dataset of more than 22,000 oncogenomic arrays covering 132 cancer types. Fragmentation hotspots were found to be located on chromosome 8, 11, 12 and 17. Among the various cancer types, soft-tissue tumors exhibited particularly high CTLP frequencies. Genomic context analysis revealed that CTLP rearrangements frequently occurred in genomes that additionally harbored multiple copy number aberrations (CNAs). An investigation into the affected chromosomal regions showed a large proportion of arm-level pulverization and telomere related events, which would be compatible to a number of underlying mechanisms. We also report evidence that these genomic events may be correlated with patient age, stage and survival rate. CONCLUSIONS: Through a large-scale analysis of oncogenomic array data sets, this study characterized features associated with genomic aberrations patterns, compatible to the spectrum of chromothripsis-definitions as previously used. While quantifying clustered genomic copy number aberrations in cancer samples, our data indicates an underlying biological heterogeneity behind these chromothripsis-like patterns, beyond a well defined chromthripsis phenomenon.					NA	NA	NA
25344728	Methodology	Osteosarcoma		Joint IRB-BSC Program in Computational Biology, Barcelona Supercomputing Center, Barcelona, Spain	Moncunill V, Gonzalez S, Bea S, Andrieux LO, Salaverria I, Royo C, Martinez L, Puiggros M, Segura-Wang M, Stutz AM, Navarro A, Royo R, Gelpi JL, Gut IG, Lopez-Otin C, Orozco M, Korbel JO, Campo E, Puente XS, Torrents D	Comprehensive characterization of complex structural variations in cancer by directly comparing genome sequence reads.	Nat Biotechnol	2014 Nov	The development of high-throughput sequencing technologies has advanced our understanding of cancer. However, characterizing somatic structural variants in tumor genomes is still challenging because current strategies depend on the initial alignment of reads to a reference genome. Here, we describe SMUFIN (somatic mutation finder), a single program that directly compares sequence reads from normal and tumor genomes to accurately identify and characterize a range of somatic sequence variation, from single-nucleotide variants (SNV) to large structural variants at base pair resolution. Performance tests on modeled tumor genomes showed average sensitivity of 92% and 74% for SNVs and structural variants, with specificities of 95% and 91%, respectively. Analyses of aggressive forms of solid and hematological tumors revealed that SMUFIN identifies breakpoints associated with chromothripsis and chromoplexy with high specificity. SMUFIN provides an integrated solution for the accurate, fast and comprehensive characterization of somatic sequence variation in cancer.					NA	NA	NA
24939897	Methodology			Bioinformatics and Systems Biology Program, University of California, San Diego, CA, USA	Kinsella M, Patel A, Bafna V	The elusive evidence for chromothripsis.	Nucleic Acids Res	2014 Jul	The chromothripsis hypothesis suggests an extraordinary one-step catastrophic genomic event allowing a chromosome to 'shatter into many pieces' and reassemble into a functioning chromosome. Recent efforts have aimed to detect chromothripsis by looking for a genomic signature, characterized by a large number of breakpoints (50-250), but a limited number of oscillating copy number states (2-3) confined to a few chromosomes. The chromothripsis phenomenon has become widely reported in different cancers, but using inconsistent and sometimes relaxed criteria for determining rearrangements occur simultaneously rather than progressively. We revisit the original simulation approach and show that the signature is not clearly exceptional, and can be explained using only progressive rearrangements. For example, 3.9% of progressively simulated chromosomes with 50-55 breakpoints were dominated by two or three copy number states. In addition, by adjusting the parameters of the simulation, the proposed footprint appears more frequently. Lastly, we provide an algorithm to find a sequence of progressive rearrangements that explains all observed breakpoints from a proposed chromothripsis chromosome. Thus, the proposed signature cannot be considered a sufficient proof for this extraordinary hypothesis. Great caution should be exercised when labeling complex rearrangements as chromothripsis from genome hybridization and sequencing experiments.					NA	NA	NA
22258507	Methodology			Department of Pediatric Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, 450 Brookline Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA	Crasta K, Ganem NJ, Dagher R, Lantermann AB, Ivanova EV, Pan Y, Nezi L, Protopopov A, Chowdhury D, Pellman D	DNA breaks and chromosome pulverization from errors in mitosis.	Nature	2012 Jan 	The involvement of whole-chromosome aneuploidy in tumorigenesis is the subject of debate, in large part because of the lack of insight into underlying mechanisms. Here we identify a mechanism by which errors in mitotic chromosome segregation generate DNA breaks via the formation of structures called micronuclei. Whole-chromosome-containing micronuclei form when mitotic errors produce lagging chromosomes. We tracked the fate of newly generated micronuclei and found that they undergo defective and asynchronous DNA replication, resulting in DNA damage and often extensive fragmentation of the chromosome in the micronucleus. Micronuclei can persist in cells over several generations but the chromosome in the micronucleus can also be distributed to daughter nuclei. Thus, chromosome segregation errors potentially lead to mutations and chromosome rearrangements that can integrate into the genome. Pulverization of chromosomes in micronuclei may also be one explanation for 'chromothripsis' in cancer and developmental disorders, where isolated chromosomes or chromosome arms undergo massive local DNA breakage and rearrangement.					NA	NA	NA
25367035	Methodology			Rosenstiel Basic Medical Sciences Research Center, Department of Biology, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts 02254, USA	Anand RP, Tsaponina O, Greenwell PW, Lee CS, Du W, Petes TD, Haber JE	Chromosome rearrangements via template switching between diverged repeated sequences.	Genes Dev	2014 Nov	Recent high-resolution genome analyses of cancer and other diseases have revealed the occurrence of microhomology-mediated chromosome rearrangements and copy number changes. Although some of these rearrangements appear to involve nonhomologous end-joining, many must have involved mechanisms requiring new DNA synthesis. Models such as microhomology-mediated break-induced replication (MM-BIR) have been invoked to explain these rearrangements. We examined BIR and template switching between highly diverged sequences in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, induced during repair of a site-specific double-strand break (DSB). Our data show that such template switches are robust mechanisms that give rise to complex rearrangements. Template switches between highly divergent sequences appear to be mechanistically distinct from the initial strand invasions that establish BIR. In particular, such jumps are less constrained by sequence divergence and exhibit a different pattern of microhomology junctions. BIR traversing repeated DNA sequences frequently results in complex translocations analogous to those seen in mammalian cells. These results suggest that template switching among repeated genes is a potent driver of genome instability and evolution.					NA	NA	NA
26070663	Methodology		Next Generation Sequencing	Department of Human Genetics, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia 30322, USA	Weckselblatt B, Hermetz KE, Rudd MK	Unbalanced translocations arise from diverse mutational mechanisms including chromothripsis.	Genome Res	2015 Jul	Unbalanced translocations are a relatively common type of copy number variation and a major contributor to neurodevelopmental disorders. We analyzed the breakpoints of 57 unique unbalanced translocations to investigate the mechanisms of how they form. Fifty-one are simple unbalanced translocations between two different chromosome ends, and six rearrangements have more than three breakpoints involving two to five chromosomes. Sequencing 37 breakpoint junctions revealed that simple translocations have between 0 and 4 base pairs (bp) of microhomology (n = 26), short inserted sequences (n = 8), or paralogous repeats (n = 3) at the junctions, indicating that translocations do not arise primarily from nonallelic homologous recombination but instead form most often via nonhomologous end joining or microhomology-mediated break-induced replication. Three simple translocations fuse genes that are predicted to produce in-frame transcripts of SIRPG-WWOX, SMOC2-PROX1, and PIEZO2-MTA1, which may lead to gain of function. Three complex translocations have inversions, insertions, and multiple breakpoint junctions between only two chromosomes. Whole-genome sequencing and fluorescence in situ hybridization analysis of two de novo translocations revealed at least 18 and 33 breakpoints involving five different chromosomes. Breakpoint sequencing of one maternally inherited translocation involving four chromosomes uncovered multiple breakpoints with inversions and insertions. All of these breakpoint junctions had 0-4 bp of microhomology consistent with chromothripsis, and both de novo events occurred on paternal alleles. Together with other studies, these data suggest that germline chromothripsis arises in the paternal genome and may be transmitted maternally. Breakpoint sequencing of our large collection of chromosome rearrangements provides a comprehensive analysis of the molecular mechanisms behind translocation formation.	Homo sapiens				NA	NA	NA
25034695	Methodology		Next Generation Sequencing	Department of Biology, University of Bari, Bari, Italy	L'Abbate A, Macchia G, D'Addabbo P, Lonoce A, Tolomeo D, Trombetta D, Kok K, Bartenhagen C, Whelan CW, Palumbo O, Severgnini M, Cifola I, Dugas M, Carella M, De Bellis G, Rocchi M, Carbone L, Storlazzi CT	Genomic organization and evolution of double minutes/homogeneously staining regions with MYC amplification in human cancer.	Nucleic Acids Res	2014 Aug	The mechanism for generating double minutes chromosomes (dmin) and homogeneously staining regions (hsr) in cancer is still poorly understood. Through an integrated approach combining next-generation sequencing, single nucleotide polymorphism array, fluorescent in situ hybridization and polymerase chain reaction-based techniques, we inferred the fine structure of MYC-containing dmin/hsr amplicons harboring sequences from several different chromosomes in seven tumor cell lines, and characterized an unprecedented number of hsr insertion sites. Local chromosome shattering involving a single-step catastrophic event (chromothripsis) was recently proposed to explain clustered chromosomal rearrangements and genomic amplifications in cancer. Our bioinformatics analyses based on the listed criteria to define chromothripsis led us to exclude it as the driving force underlying amplicon genesis in our samples. Instead, the finding of coexisting heterogeneous amplicons, differing in their complexity and chromosome content, in cell lines derived from the same tumor indicated the occurrence of a multi-step evolutionary process in the genesis of dmin/hsr. Our integrated approach allowed us to gather a complete view of the complex chromosome rearrangements occurring within MYC amplicons, suggesting that more than one model may be invoked to explain the origin of dmin/hsr in cancer. Finally, we identified PVT1 as a target of fusion events, confirming its role as breakpoint hotspot in MYC amplification.	Homo sapiens				NA	NA	NA
23028374	Methodology		Array CGH	Department of Human Genetics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States of America	Arlt MF, Rajendran S, Birkeland SR, Wilson TE, Glover TW	De Novo CNV Formation in Mouse Embryonic Stem Cells Occurs in the Absence of Xrcc4-Dependent Nonhomologous End Joining	PLOS Genet	2012 Sep	Spontaneous copy number variant (CNV) mutations are an important factor in genomic structural variation, genomic disorders, and cancer. A major class of CNVs, termed nonrecurrent CNVs, is thought to arise by nonhomologous DNA repair mechanisms due to the presence of short microhomologies, blunt ends, or short insertions at junctions of normal and de novo pathogenic CNVs, features recapitulated in experimental systems in which CNVs are induced by exogenous replication stress. To test whether the canonical nonhomologous end joining (NHEJ) pathway of double-strand break (DSB) repair is involved in the formation of this class of CNVs, chromosome integrity was monitored in NHEJ-deficient Xrcc4(-/-) mouse embryonic stem (ES) cells following treatment with low doses of aphidicolin, a DNA replicative polymerase inhibitor. Mouse ES cells exhibited replication stress-induced CNV formation in the same manner as human fibroblasts, including the existence of syntenic hotspot regions, such as in the Auts2 and Wwox loci. The frequency and location of spontaneous and aphidicolin-induced CNV formation were not altered by loss of Xrcc4, as would be expected if canonical NHEJ were the predominant pathway of CNV formation. Moreover, de novo CNV junctions displayed a typical pattern of microhomology and blunt end use that did not change in the absence of Xrcc4. A number of complex CNVs were detected in both wild-type and Xrcc4(-/-) cells, including an example of a catastrophic, chromothripsis event. These results establish that nonrecurrent CNVs can be, and frequently are, formed by mechanisms other than Xrcc4-dependent NHEJ.	Mus musculus				NA	NA	NA
24299711	Methodology	Melanoma		Center for Molecular Medicine and Genetics; Wayne State University School of Medicine; Detroit, MI USA	Liu G, Stevens JB, Horne SD, Abdallah BY, Ye KJ, Bremer SW, Ye CJ, Chen DJ, Heng HH	Genome chaos: survival strategy during crisis.	Cell Cycle	2014 Dec	Genome chaos, a process of complex, rapid genome re-organization, results in the formation of chaotic genomes, which is followed by the potential to establish stable genomes. It was initially detected through cytogenetic analyses, and recently confirmed by whole-genome sequencing efforts which identified multiple subtypes including chromothripsis, chromoplexy, chromoanasynthesis, and chromoanagenesis. Although genome chaos occurs commonly in tumors, both the mechanism and detailed aspects of the process are unknown due to the inability of observing its evolution over time in clinical samples. Here, an experimental system to monitor the evolutionary process of genome chaos was developed to elucidate its mechanisms. Genome chaos occurs following exposure to chemotherapeutics with different mechanisms, which act collectively as stressors. Characterization of the karyotype and its dynamic changes prior to, during, and after induction of genome chaos demonstrates that chromosome fragmentation (C-Frag) occurs just prior to chaotic genome formation. Chaotic genomes seem to form by random rejoining of chromosomal fragments, in part through non-homologous end joining (NHEJ). Stress induced genome chaos results in increased karyotypic heterogeneity. Such increased evolutionary potential is demonstrated by the identification of increased transcriptome dynamics associated with high levels of karyotypic variance. In contrast to impacting on a limited number of cancer genes, re-organized genomes lead to new system dynamics essential for cancer evolution. Genome chaos acts as a mechanism of rapid, adaptive, genome-based evolution that plays an essential role in promoting rapid macroevolution of new genome-defined systems during crisis, which may explain some unwanted consequences of cancer treatment.					NA	NA	NA
23729733	Methodology			University of Oxford, Department of Biochemistry, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3QU, UK	Hammond D, Zeng K, Espert A, Bastos RN, Baron RD, Gruneberg U, Barr FA	Melanoma-associated mutations in protein phosphatase 6 cause chromosome instability and DNA damage owing to dysregulated Aurora-A.	J Cell Sci	2013 Aug	Mutations in the PPP6C catalytic subunit of protein phosphatase 6 (PP6) are drivers for the development of melanoma. Here, we analyse a panel of melanoma-associated mutations in PPP6C and find that these generally compromise assembly of the PP6 holoenzyme and catalytic activity towards a model substrate. Detailed analysis of one mutant, PPP6C-H114Y, in both primary melanoma and engineered cell lines reveals it is destabilized and undergoes increased proteasome-mediated turnover. Global analysis of phosphatase substrates by mass spectrometry identifies the oncogenic kinase Aurora-A as the major PP6 substrate that is dysregulated under these conditions. Accordingly, cells lacking PPP6C or carrying the PPP6C-H114Y allele have elevated Aurora-A kinase activity and display chromosome instability with associated Aurora-A-dependent micronucleation. Chromosomes mis-segregated to these micronuclei are preferentially stained by the DNA damage marker gamma-H2AX, suggesting that loss of PPP6C promotes both chromosome instability and DNA damage. These findings support the view that formation of micronuclei rather than chromosome instability alone explains how loss of PPP6C, and more generally mitotic spindle and centrosome defects, can act as drivers for genome instability in melanoma and other cancers.	Homo sapiens				NA	NA	NA
24071852	Methodology			Broad Institute, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA; Department of Cancer Biology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts, USA	Zack TI, Schumacher SE, Carter SL, Cherniack AD, Saksena G, Tabak B, Lawrence MS, Zhsng CZ, Wala J, Mermel CH, Sougnez C, Gabriel SB, Hernandez B, Shen H, Laird PW, Getz G, Meyerson M, Beroukhim R	Pan-cancer patterns of somatic copy number alteration	Nature Genetics	2013 Oct	Determining how somatic copy number alterations (SCNAs) promote cancer is an important goal. We characterized SCNA patterns in 4,934 cancers from The Cancer Genome Atlas Pan-Cancer data set. Whole-genome doubling, observed in 37% of cancers, was associated with higher rates of every other type of SCNA, TP53 mutations, CCNE1 amplifications and alterations of the PPP2R complex. SCNAs that were internal to chromosomes tended to be shorter than telomere-bounded SCNAs, suggesting different mechanisms underlying their generation. Significantly recurrent focal SCNAs were observed in 140 regions, including 102 without known oncogene or tumor suppressor gene targets and 50 with significantly mutated genes. Amplified regions without known oncogenes were enriched for genes involved in epigenetic regulation. When levels of genomic disruption were accounted for, 7% of region pairs were anticorrelated, and these regions tended to encompass genes whose proteins physically interact, suggesting related functions. These results provide insights into mechanisms of generation and functional consequences of cancer-related SCNAs. 	Homo sapiens				NA	NA	NA
27185889	Methodology			Center of Growth, Metabolism, and Aging, Key Laboratory of Bio-Resources and Eco-Environment, College of Life Sciences, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610064, Sichuan, China	Yang J, Liu J, Ouyang L, Chen Y, Liu B, Cai H	CTLPScanner: a web server for chromothripsis-like pattern detection	Nucleic Acids Res	2016 May	Chromothripsis is a recently observed phenomenon in cancer cells in which one or several chromosomes shatter into pieces with subsequent inaccurate reassembly and clonal propagation. This type of event generates a potentially vast number of mutations within a relatively short-time period, and has been considered as a new paradigm in cancer development. Despite recent advances, much work is still required to better understand the molecular mechanisms of this phenomenon, and thus an easy-to-use tool is in urgent need for automatically detecting and annotating chromothripsis. Here we present CTLPScanner, a web server for detection of chromothripsis-like pattern (CTLP) in genomic array data. The output interface presents intuitive graphical representations of detected chromosome pulverization region, as well as detailed results in table format. CTLPScanner also provides additional information for associated genes in chromothripsis region to help identify the potential candidates involved in tumorigenesis. To assist in performing meta-data analysis, we integrated over 50 000 pre-processed genomic arrays from The Cancer Genome Atlas and Gene Expression Omnibus into CTLPScanner. The server allows users to explore the presence of chromothripsis signatures from public data resources, without carrying out any local data processing. CTLPScanner is freely available at http://cgma.scu.edu.cn/CTLPScanner/.							
26722116	Methodology			Center of Growth, Metabolism, and Aging, Key Laboratory of Bio-Resources and Eco-Environment, College of Life Sciences, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan 610064, China	Yang J, Deng G, Cai H	ChromothripsisDB: a curated database of chromothripsis	Bioinformatics	2016 May	Chromothripsis is a single catastrophic event that can lead to massive genomic rearrangements confined to one or a few chromosomes. It provides an alternative paradigm in cancer development and changes the conventional view that cancer develops in a stepwise progression. The mechanisms underlying chromothripsis and their specific impact on tumorigenesis are still poorly understood, and further examination of a large number of identified chromothripsis samples is needed. Unfortunately, this data are difficult to access, as they are scattered across multiple publications, come in different formats and descriptions, or are hidden in figures and supplementary materials. To improve access to this data and promote meta-analysis, we developed ChromothripsisDB, a manually curated database containing a unified description of all published chromothripsis cases and relevant genomic aberrations. Currently, 423 chromothripsis samples representing 107 research articles are included in our database. ChromothripsisDB represents an extraordinary resource for mining the existing knowledge of chromothripsis, and will facilitate the identification of mechanisms involved in this phenomenon.							
27918550	Methodology			Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research and Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093, USA	Ly P, Teitz LS, Kim DH, Shoshani O, Skaletsky H, Fachinetti D, Page DC, Cleveland DW	Selective Y centromere inactivation triggers chromosome shattering in micronuclei and repair by non-homologous end joining	Nat Cell Biol	2017 Jan	Chromosome missegregation into a micronucleus can cause complex and localized genomic rearrangements known as chromothripsis, but the underlying mechanisms remain unresolved. Here we developed an inducible Y centromere-selective inactivation strategy by exploiting a CENP-A/histone H3 chimaera to directly examine the fate of missegregated chromosomes in otherwise diploid human cells. Using this approach, we identified a temporal cascade of events that are initiated following centromere inactivation involving chromosome missegregation, fragmentation, and re-ligation that span three consecutive cell cycles. Following centromere inactivation, a micronucleus harbouring the Y chromosome is formed in the first cell cycle. Chromosome shattering, producing up to 53 dispersed fragments from a single chromosome, is triggered by premature micronuclear condensation prior to or during mitotic entry of the second cycle. Lastly, canonical non-homologous end joining (NHEJ), but not homology-dependent repair, is shown to facilitate re-ligation of chromosomal fragments in the third cycle. Thus, initial errors in cell division can provoke further genomic instability through fragmentation of micronuclear DNAs coupled to NHEJ-mediated reassembly in the subsequent interphase.