Tumorigenesis has been widely recognized as an evolutionary process, with distinct characteristics and attributes compared to species evolution. With the extensive tumor sequencing data, we are now able to explore the genomic features of cancer populations site by site. Recently, we have discovered some mutations that recurrently appear in cancer populations and cannot be explained by natural mutation rates alone. We refer to these mutations as cancer driving nucleotides (CDNs), which may be positive selected and play a significant role in tumorigenesis. Simultaneously, we analyzed the CDNs in the context of species evolution, and found that these CDNs (sites), especially those with ultra-high mutation hits in cancer populations, are quite conservative in vertebrates, implying their involvement in crucial biological functions.
Ultra-micro evolution against the backdrop of macro-evolution, a perspective from positive selected sites.