Ribosome Profiling of mouse skin squamous tumours

Purpose: Ribosome profiling has revolutionized systems-based analysis and which produces a “global snapshot” of all the ribosomes translationally active in a cell at a particular moment. The goals of this study are to first apply ribosome profiling to in vivo samples for the first time and in particular to stem cells and tumours and second to determine which mRNAs are being actively translated in these particular situations. Although much is known about gene expression regulation, little is known about how protein translation regulation can affect stem cell differentiation and tumour progression. Methods: several replicates of ribosome and mRNA profiles of wild-type (WT) and NSun2 -/- mouse skin squamous tumours were generated by deep sequencing, using Illumina HiSeq platform. Results: Our analyses reveal that activation of stress response pathways in vivo drives both a global reduction of protein synthesis and altered translation of specific mRNAs that together promote stem cell functions and tumourigenesis.