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With the advent of whole genome sequencing, researchers have identified a deluge of new mutations and uncharacterized variants in melanomas, and in all cancers. So far, scientists have focused on variants that alter the amino acid sequence of proteins (i.e., nonsynonymous changes). In fact, alterations that do not modify protein sequences (i.e., synonymous changes) are often filtered out of analysis. This bias may need to be reexamined. Although synonymous mutations do not alter the protein sequence, they have been shown to affect protein levels and function. To gain additional insight into the molecular alterations of melanoma, researchers conducted a search for unique melanoma genes in a total of 29 samples from treatment-naive patients.
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