Genome catastrophe driven by break-induced-replication during a telomere crisis

Dysfunctional telomeres play a key role in promoting genome instability during cancer progression. We performed whole genome sequencing to investigated the impact of a transit through a telomere-driven crisis on the structural integrity of the genome. We find direct evidence of telomere involvement in driving large scale complex structural rearrangement patterns during crisis. The repair signatures and configuration of these rearrangements were consistent with repair by the break-induced replication pathway. These findings have important implications for our understanding of cancer genome evolution.