Molecular_origins_of_mutational_signatures_2_and_13_

Recent studies on mutational signatures in cancer genomes identified specific patterns of mutations (namely, signatures 2 and 13), which appear in more than 50% of the cancer types and reflect patterns of mutations caused by family of APOBEC cytidine deaminases in the setting of viral and retroviral restriction. Here, we set to determine whether APOBEC enzymes are indeed underlying causes of mutational signatures 2 and 13, by knocking-out individual APOBEC genes in human cancer cell lines which continue to acquire relevant signatures over time in vitro.