Cancer progression as a sequence of atavistic reversions
Date
2021
Authors
Lineweaver, Charles
Bussey, Kimberly J
Blackburn, Anneke
Davies, Paul C W
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
The Company of Biologists Ltd
Abstract
It has long been recognized that cancer onset and progression represent a type of reversion to an ancestral quasi-unicellular phenotype. This general concept has been refined into the atavistic model of cancer that attempts to provide a quantitative analysis and testable predictions based on genomic data. Over the past decade, support for the multicellular-to-unicellular reversion predicted by the atavism model has come from phylostratigraphy. Here, we propose that cancer onset and progression involve more than a one-off multicellular-to-unicellular reversion, and are better described as a series of reversionary transitions. We make new predictions based on the chronology of the unicellular-eukaryote-to-multicellular-eukaryote transition. We also make new predictions based on three other evolutionary transitions that occurred in our lineage: eukaryogenesis, oxidative phosphorylation and the transition to adaptive immunity. We propose several modifications to current phylostratigraphy to improve age resolution to test these predictions.
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Keywords
Atavisticmodel, cancer, eukaryogenesis, evolution, phylostratigraphy, somaticmutationtheory
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Source
Bioessays
Type
Journal article
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Restricted until
2099-12-31
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