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Much of the genetic information that drives animal diversity lies within the vast non-coding regions of the genome. Multi-species sequence conservation in non-coding regions of the genome flags important regulatory elements and more recently, techniques that look for functional signatures predicted for regulatory sequences have added to the identification of thousands more. For some time, biologists have argued that changes in cis-regulatory sequences create the basic genetic framework for evolutionary change. Recent advances support this notion and show that there is extensive genomic variability in non-coding regulatory elements associated with trait variation, speciation and disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Glioblastoma (GBM) is driven by malignant neural stem-like cells that display extensive heterogeneity and phenotypic plasticity, which drive tumor progression and therapeutic resistance. Here, we show that the extracellular matrix-cell adhesion protein integrin-linked kinase (ILK) stimulates phenotypic plasticity and mesenchymal-like, invasive behavior in a murine GBM stem cell model. ILK is required for the interconversion of GBM stem cells between malignancy-associated glial-like states, and its loss produces cells that are unresponsive to multiple cell state transition cues. We further show that an ILK/STAT3 signaling pathway controls the plasticity that enables transition of GBM stem cells to an astrocyte-like state in vitro and in vivo. Finally, we find that ILK expression correlates with expression of STAT3-regulated proteins and protein signatures describing astrocyte-like and mesenchymal states in patient tumors. This work identifies ILK as a pivotal regulator of multiple malignancy-associated GBM phenotypes, including phenotypic plasticity and mesenchymal state., Competing Interests: Declaration of interests The authors declare no competing interests., (Copyright © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)