Profiling ofNUMTs in Gingivobuccal Oral Cancer

Very little information exists on the NUclear MiTochondrial sequences ( NUMT s) in oral squamous cell carcinoma-gingivobuccal (OSCC-GB). We analysed whole genome sequences obtained from paired tumour and blood DNA from 25 patients of OSCC-GB for detecting NUMT s. Nine potential somatic NUMT s and 78 germline NUMT s were identified in these patients. None of the somatic NUMT s could be confirmed by PCR assay. None of the germline NUMT s were found to be specific for OSCC-GB. Although there have been recent reports on detection of somatic NUMT s in other cancer types, our results suggest NUMT s, both somatic and germline, are not involved in OSCC-GB.