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Cancer cell lines show high heritability for motility but not generation time
Anastasia V Wass1, George Butler1, Tiffany B Taylor1,2
1School of Biological Sciences, University of Reading, Whiteknights, Reading, Berkshire RG6 6AH, UK.
Royal Society Open Science
|May 21, 2020
Summary
Cancer cell motility is highly heritable, providing raw material for tumor evolution. Generation time shows lower heritability, suggesting it has been shaped by selection.
Area of Science:
- Cancer Biology
- Evolutionary Biology
- Cellular Phenotypic Variation
Background:
- Tumor evolution relies on heritable cell differences in survival and replication traits.
- Cancer cells exhibit genetic and phenotypic heterogeneity, but the heritability of these traits is less understood.
Purpose of the Study:
- To estimate the broad-sense heritability (H^2) of cell motility and generation time in cancer cell lines.
- To quantify the evolvability of key cancer cell traits and assess their potential for experimental evolution.
Main Methods:
- In vitro assessment of cell motility and generation time in four cancer cell line populations.
- Estimation of broad-sense heritability (H^2) for these traits across multiple cell generations.
Main Results:
- Cell motility demonstrated strong and stable heritability across cell generations, comparable to traits in natural populations.
- Generation time exhibited significantly lower heritability compared to cell speed.
- Heritability values suggest ample potential for experimental evolution in cancer cell lines.
Conclusions:
- Confirms the assumption that key cancer cell traits possess significant heritability, supporting cancer evolution models.
- Provides the first quantification of evolvability for critical cancer cell traits.
- Lower heritability of generation time suggests it has undergone directional selection, removing heritable variation.
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