Registered report: A coding-independent function of gene and pseudogene mRNAs regulates tumour biology
The Reproducibility Project: Cancer Biology seeks to address growing concerns about reproducibility in scientific research by conducting replications of selected experiments from a number of high-profile papers in the field of cancer biology. The papers, which were published between 2010 and 2012, were selected on the basis of citations and Altmetric scores (<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib9">Errington et al., 2014</xref>). This Registered report describes the proposed replication plan of key experiments from ‘A coding-independent function of gene and pseudogene mRNAs regulates tumour biology’ by <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib26">Poliseno et al. (2010)</xref>, published in Nature in 2010. The key experiments to be replicated are reported in Figures 1D, 2F-H, and 4A. In these experiments, Poliseno and colleagues report microRNAs miR-19b and miR-20a transcriptionally suppress both PTEN and PTENP1 in prostate cancer cells (Figure 1D; <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib26">Poliseno et al., 2010</xref>). Decreased expression of PTEN and/or PTENP1 resulted in downregulated PTEN protein levels (Figure 2H), downregulation of both mRNAs (Figure 2G), and increased tumor cell proliferation (Figure 2F; <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib26">Poliseno et al., 2010</xref>). Furthermore, overexpression of the PTEN 3′ UTR enhanced PTENP1 mRNA abundance limiting tumor cell proliferation, providing additional evidence for the co-regulation of PTEN and PTENP1 (Figure 4A; <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bib26">Poliseno et al., 2010</xref>). The Reproducibility Project: Cancer Biology is collaboration between the Center for Open Science and Science Exchange, and the results of the replications will be published in eLife.