This webinar outlines a study that sought to characterize the landscape of alternative polyadenylation (APA) in the lung cancer transcriptome in order to gain insight into the role of APA in cancer progression.

APA involves the selection of an alternate poly(A) site on the pre-mRNA that leads to generation of isoforms of various length. In cancer, APA is emerging as an alternative mechanism for proto-oncogene activation in the absence of somatic mutations. Recent studies show a correlation of APA profiles with cancer prognosis, suggesting that APA is an important mechanism of cancer progression. In addition, environmental exposures such as temperature and exogenous hormones can also induce APA as a stress-response mechanism.

In this webinar, Dr. Adriana Zingone of the National Cancer Institute, Center for Cancer Research discusses her team's work to characterize APA in the lung cancer transcriptome and to test a hypothesis that smoking modulates differential usage of polyadenylation sites within mRNA transcripts.