{
  "abstract": "The mechanisms enabling disseminating tumor cells to survive and colonize peritoneal niches during ovarian cancer metastasis remain incompletely understood. Here, we present MetTag, a single-cell barcoding and transcriptome profiling approach with time-stamped batch identifiers to resolve temporal dynamics of dissemination. Sequencing of MetTag barcodes reveals enrichment of early-disseminated clones across metastatic sites, and targeted depletion of pioneers diminishes the outgrowth of later arriving cells. MetTag-coupled single-cell RNA sequencing uncovers a distinct interferon-gamma-centric transcriptional trajectory enriched among pioneer clones. CRISPR/Cas9 screening and subsequent interferon-gamma receptor 1 knockout in pioneer cells significantly reduces metastatic burden, highlighting a critical window where active interferon-gamma signaling shapes the post-seeding metastatic niche and outgrowth. Mechanistically, the tumor-intrinsic interferon-gamma response and peritoneal macrophages cooperatively shield disseminating tumor cells from anoikis. Our study defines the temporal clonal architecture of peritoneal metastasis, revealing a first come, first served dissemination principle, where pioneer fitness determines the success of subsequent colonizers.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "Department of Pathology, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, USA.",
    "Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center, Dallas, TX, USA.",
    "Department of Urology, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, USA.",
    "Lyda Hill Department of Bioinformatics, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, USA.",
    "Cecil H. And Ida Green Center for Systems Biology, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, USA.",
    "Quantitative Biomedical Research Center, Department of Health Data Science & Biostatistics, Peter O'Donnell Jr. School of Public Health, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, USA.",
    "Department of Pediatrics, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, USA.",
    "Department of Biological Sciences, College of Science, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN, USA.",
    "Department of Immunology, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, USA.",
    "Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, USA.",
    "Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN, USA.",
    "Mike and Josie Harper Cancer Research Institute, University of Notre Dame, 1234 N. Notre Dame Avenue, South Bend, IN, USA.",
    "Department of Pathology, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, USA. Siyuan.Zhang@UTSouthwestern.edu.",
    "Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center, Dallas, TX, USA. Siyuan.Zhang@UTSouthwestern.edu."
  ],
  "article_type": "research article",
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 19,
  "authors": [
    {
      "affs": [
        0,
        1
      ],
      "name": "Emilija Aleksandrovic",
      "orcid": "0000-0001-6698-2893"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        1,
        2
      ],
      "name": "Shaneann R Fross"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0,
        1
      ],
      "name": "Samantha M Golomb"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0,
        1
      ],
      "name": "Wei Ma"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0,
        1
      ],
      "name": "Xiyu Liu"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        1,
        3
      ],
      "name": "Zhuo Zhao"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0,
        1
      ],
      "name": "Nikitha M Das"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0,
        1
      ],
      "name": "Tanner C Reese"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        3,
        4
      ],
      "name": "Hazel M Borges"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0,
        1
      ],
      "name": "Ates Tenekeci"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        5,
        6
      ],
      "name": "Lei Yu",
      "orcid": "0000-0001-7817-5319"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        7
      ],
      "name": "Jacqueline Lopez",
      "orcid": "0000-0001-9608-7611"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0,
        1
      ],
      "name": "Min Zhao"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        1,
        8
      ],
      "name": "Zhenyu Zhong",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-9441-7645"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        3,
        4
      ],
      "name": "Kevin M Dean",
      "orcid": "0000-0003-0839-2320"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        9
      ],
      "name": "Jayanthi Lea"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        5,
        6
      ],
      "name": "Lin Xu",
      "orcid": "0000-0001-5815-4457"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        10,
        11
      ],
      "name": "M Sharon Stack"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        12,
        13
      ],
      "name": "Siyuan Zhang",
      "orcid": "0000-0003-0910-3666"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/0we1eqf50p91z.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.1038/s41467-026-77222-8",
  "fulltext_url": "https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC13639036",
  "id": "0we1eqf50p91z",
  "issns": [
    "2041-1723"
  ],
  "landing_url": "https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42834039",
  "language": "eng",
  "licence": "CC-BY-NC-ND",
  "licence_label": "CC BY-NC-ND",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "openalex",
      "2730|Cancer Cells and Metastasis"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7207691579",
  "pdf_url": "https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC13639036?pdf=render",
  "pmcid": "PMC13639036",
  "pmid": "42834039",
  "published": "2026-09-03",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/0we1eqf50p91z.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:18:10Z",
      "native_id": "MED:42834039",
      "source": "europepmc",
      "url": "https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42834039"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "medicine",
      "origin": "openalex:2730|Cancer Cells and Metastasis",
      "subfield": "oncology"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Tumor-intrinsic IFNγ signaling and niche adaptation drive early colonization in ovarian cancer metastasis.",
  "title_text": "Tumor-intrinsic IFNγ signaling and niche adaptation drive early colonization in ovarian cancer metastasis.",
  "type": "peer-reviewed",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:18:10Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/0we1eqf50p91z",
  "venue": "Nature communications",
  "versions": []
}