Mechanisms of HERV-K (HML-2) transcription during human mammary epithelial cell transformation

Elevated transcript expression of the endogenous retrovirus family HERV-K (HML-2) is seen in the majority of breast cancers, although the identity of the individual loci contributing to this expression as well as their mechanism of activation is unclear. Using high-throughput next-generation sequencing techniques optimized for the capture of HML-2 expression, we produced a complete profile of the HML-2 transcriptome before and after human mammary epithelial cell transformation. Overall design: Using Illumina MiSeq sequencing, we profiled the HERV-K (HML-2) mRNA expression in four human mammary epithelial cell lines of varying tumorigenicity.