Oncogenes without a Neighboring Tumor-Suppressor Gene Are More Prone to Amplification

Focal copy number gains or losses are important genomic hallmarks of cancer. The genomic distribution of oncogenes and tumor-suppressor genes (TSG) in relation to focal copy number aberrations is unclear. Our analysis revealed that the mean distance of TSGs from oncogenes was significantly shorter than that of noncancer genes, suggesting that oncogenes and TSGs tend to be in close physical proximity in the human genome. Such relationship was conserved in mouse and drosophila. Pan-cancer analysis using data from The Cancer Genome Atlas indicated that oncogenes without a nearby TSG are more prone to amplification. In conclusion, our study provides evidence for the nonrandom distribution of oncogenes and TSGs across different species. Our data also support that the existence of a neighboring TSG can suppress amplification of an oncogene, shedding new light on a previously unappreciated protective mechanism of TSGs.