Somatic Evolution Introduces Distinctive Changes in Proteome Composition in Cancer Types

On the proteome level, somatic evolution in cancer is asymmetric, with several amino acids being irreversibly lost and the others gained across cancer types. However, though the gains and losses of amino acids are consistent in multiple cancer types, their magnitudes and prevalences differ. Here, we analyzed data on circa three million amino acid substitutions in the Catalogue of Somatic Mutations in Cancer (COSMIC) database to investigate profiles of gains and losses of amino acids in 23 human cancer types. We found characteristic differences in amino acid gain/loss profiles in the cancer types, with several of them demonstrating very specific profiles of proteome alterations associated with distinct endogenous or exogenous factors.