Microbes are pretty promiscuous with their genetic information and they share it across species fairly easily.
However, researchers from the University of Zurich now reveal that so-called epigenetic factors play a role in the formation of metastases in malignant skin cancer.
A highly active epigenetic factor in cancer cells The readability of genes is controlled by epigenetic factors, namely factors
whether epigenetic factors are especially active in melanoma cells --and stumbled across EZH2, an epigenetic control protein found very frequently in malignant melanoma cells compared to normal cells.
Joining forces with dermatologists and oncologists from the University Hospital in Zurich and backed by the University Research Priority Program"Translational Cancer Research,
the epigenetic factor EZH2 controls genes that govern tumor growth as well as genes that are important for the formation of metastases.
Epigenetic factors like EZH2 therefore appear to be highly promising targets for future cancer treatments,
#Neuroscientists lead global consortium to crack brain's genetic code In the largest collaborative study of the brain to date,
An international team of roughly 300 scientists known as the Enhancing Neuro Imaging Genetics through Meta Analysis (ENIGMA) Network pooled brain scans
"ENIGMA's scientists screen brain scans and genomes worldwide for factors that help or harm the brain--this crowdsourcing and sheer wealth of data gives us the power to crack the brain's genetic code,
The ENIGMA researchers screened millions of"spelling differences"in the genetic code to see which ones affected the size of key parts of the brain in magnetic resonance images (MRIS) from 30,717 individuals.
of mouse Ngly1 gene expression. Published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science the paper details how lack of the Ngly1 protein results in the incomplete removal of the sugar portion of glycoproteins--a process called deglycosylation.
New method improves single-cell genomics analyses Single-cell RNA-sequencing is a relatively new technology that helps scientists understand how genes are expressed in different types of healthy tissue and in cancers.
It provides data on the gene expression profiles of hundreds of individual cells in a single experiment producing an exact picture of the individual cell types.
With single-cell genomics we take cells from a tissue and group them into different types based on their expression profile identifying subtypes that may have a range of functional roles.
or biological processes can be taken into account making it possible to create a more accurate picture of gene expression in different cell types
If all you have is gene expression data from single cells you need a way to identify
Our model now makes it possible to create such profiles using single-cell genomics s
The emergence of fluorescent proteins and transgenic techniques over the past 20 years has transformed biomedical research even delivering neurons that flash as they fire in the living brain.
SCAPE can also be combined with optogenetics and other tissue manipulations during imaging because unlike other systems it does not require any movement of the imaging objective lens
and gene therapy, said Daiger, the report's senior author and holder of the Thomas Stull Matney Ph d. Endowed Professorship in Environmental and Genetic sciences at UTHEALTH School of Public health."
"For approximately three decades, Daiger, a member of the Human genetics Center at the UTHEALTH School of Public health, has been following the progress of hundreds of families across the country with retinitis pigmentosa."
study author Vincent Lynch, Phd, assistant professor of human genetics at the University of Chicago.""Most remarkably, we found the genetic changes that likely underlie the evolution of pregnancy are linked to domesticated transposable elements that invaded the genome in early mammals.
So I guess we owe the evolution of pregnancy to what are effectively genomic parasites."
The team found that this process was driven by ancient transposons--stretches of non-protein coding DNA that can change their position within the genome.
Sometimes called"jumping genes""transposons are thought generally to be genomic parasites that serve only to replicate themselves.
By randomly inserting themselves into other places in the genome, transposons appear to have passed on this activation mechanism to nearby genes."
genome-wide changes that allowed numerous genes to be activated by the same signal--in this case, progesterone,
Stunning advances in gene-sequencing technologies in concert with their plummeting costs have turned many scientists'attention to minute variations in the genome--the entire toolbox of genes carried in virtually every cell in the body--in the hope of predicting people's future health.
if you sequence someone's genome you can tell what diseases they're going have 50 years later said Mark Davis Phd professor of microbiology and immunology and director of Stanford's Institute for Immunity Transplantation and Infection.
Monozygotic twins inherit the same genome. Despite inevitable copying errors when cells divide which cause tiny genetic divergences to accumulate between monozygotic twins over time they remain almost 100 percent genetically identical.
Other Stanford co-authors of the study are Atul Butte MD Phd associate professor of pediatrics (systems medicine) and of genetics;
The scientists obtained fragments of the viral genetic material from the insect samples and joined these fragments together like a puzzle,
thus reconstructing the entire genome sequence.""That alone took four years,"reported lead authors Marco Marklewitz and Florian Zirkel.
During the comparison of the genetic information with other viruses, it was found that Jonchet and Ferak viruses are two phylogenetically independent bunyavirus lineages.
The electrical signals used in electronics are replaced by molecular signals that control gene expression. It is thus now possible to implant simple genetic"programmes"into living cells in response to different combinations of molecules.
"Most regenerative models today derived from genetic experiments are arrow diagrams, showing which gene regulates which other gene.
and biology at Tufts before earning his Ph d. in genetics. Lobo earned a Ph d. in the field before joining the Levin lab. The paper represents a successful application of the growing field of"robot science
#'Chromosome shattering'seen in plants, cancer Plants can undergo the same extreme'chromosome shattering'seen in some human cancers and developmental syndromes,
UC Davis researchers have found. Chromosome shattering, or'chromothripsis,'has until now only been seen in animal cells.
A paper on the work is published in the online journal elife. The process could be applied in plant breeding as a way to create haploid plants with genetic material from only one parent,
said Ek Han Tan, a postdoctoral researcher in the UC Davis Department of Plant Biology and first author on the paper.
it might also allow cancer researchers to use the laboratory plant Arabidopsis as a model to study chromosome behavior in cancer.
Chromothripsis involves slicing chromosomes into apparently random pieces, and reassembling it like a broken vase,
which chromosomes are moved and allocated to daughter cells during cell division. They discovered that when a variant of the model plant Arabidopsis with weakened centromeres is crossed to a plant with normal centromeres,
the cut-and-reassembly process leading to'shattered chromosomes
#Single protein causes Parkinson's disease and multiple system atrophy Typical of neurodegenerative disorders is disrupted the communication between brain cells together with a loss of cells in specific brain regions.
"says Professor Veerle Baekelandt from the Research Group for Neurobiology and Gene therapy.""You could compare it to the construction of a house,
"His research team has completed sequencing its genome to support future research into the genetic elements that allow the bacterium to grow on uranium.
'said Simon Gayther, Ph d.,professor in preventive medicine, Keck School of medicine of USC, corresponding author of the international genome-wide association study (GWAS).'
'By finding these genetic markers, we begin to understand more about the biology of the disease itself.
'By using a genome-wide scan, we could identify genetic variants that were significantly more common in women with MOC compared to those without ovarian cancer.'
#Bacterial genome scalpel can identify key gene regions Arraybacteria use CRISPR-Cas as a self-cleansing defense mechanism and immune system against unwanted DNA invaders such as viruses,
Cutting out one of the islands--the one that contained the milk-utilization genes--reduced the genome by about 5 percent.
Overall, elimination of all four areas reduced the genome by 7 percent.''We did not expect that magnitude of reduction in a relatively small genome,
'Barrangou said.''When you use pinpointed targeting of a specific portion of the genome, you expect a smaller deletion to occur.'
'The researchers say that that the same techniques can be used as a template to study essential and nonessential genomic regions in any bacterium of interest
''This work represents a stunning discovery of the grand and expansive genome rearrangements that occurred in beneficial bacteria that evolved to preserve foods,
to see how seasonal differences in exposure to ultraviolet B radiation, dietary Vitamin d, genetics, and pigmentation affected Vitamin d levels,
genetics and other variables played very small roles in Vitamin d status, although some genetic variations did influence the success of supplementation.
To test how Vitamin d status affected the immune system and HIV-1 in particular the researchers exposed blood samples from Xhosa and Cape mixed participants taken during the summer
DHFR is a small enzyme that plays an essential role in the building of genetic material and proteins,
and pollen, are thought to activate entirely different parts of the same bee genome--converting one larva into the queen while others,
scientists estimate as many as 500,000 cruciform-forming sequences may exist on average in a normal human genome.
Small cruciforms enable DNA replication and gene expression, essential for human life. But scientists have suspected also these small cruciforms--a structure of DNA itself--to be linked to mutations that can elevate cancer risk.
'We found that short inverted repeats are enriched indeed at translocation breakpoints in human cancer genomes,
Bacolla is a research associate in the Vasquez Lab.'What we found in our study was that the sites of chromosome breaks are not random along the DNA double helix;
built by the short inverted repeats, mark the spots for chromosome breaks, mutations, and potentially initiate cancer development.'
and chromosome translocations is a novel and significant aspect of NCI grant supported studies on mechanisms of genomic instability.
and translocations in the mouse genome using human sequences from these cancer breakpoints, 'Vasquez said.
Does this really occur now in the context of chromosomes in living organisms? Is it tissue specific?
which are regulated mainly at the protein level rather than the gene expression level. Instead, the researchers developed a sophisticated protein-tracking technique based on the presence of a hypoxia-responsive protein called Hif-1alpha.
"This fate-mapping approach, based on protein stabilization rather than gene expression, is an important tool for studying hypoxia in the whole organism.
'Extra'DNA base found to be stable in mammals Array'This modification to DNA is found in very specific positions in the genome--the places which regulate genes,
but the fact that we've demonstrated it can be stable in living tissue shows that it could regulate gene expression and potentially signal other events in cells.'
The way these bases are ordered determines the makeup of the genome. In addition to G, C a and T, there are also small chemical modifications,
or epigenetic marks, which affect how the DNA sequence is interpreted and control how certain genes are switched on or off.
The study of these marks and how they affect gene activity is known as epigenetics. 5fc is one of these marks,
making it likely that it plays a key role in the genome. Using high-resolution mass spectrometry,
its position in the genome suggests that it has a key role in the regulation of gene expression.'
In collaboration with Pr Véronique Del Marmol (Department of Dermatology, Erasme Hospital, ULB) and the group of Pr François Fuks (Laboratory of cancer epigenetics, Faculty of medicine, ULB), Larsimont and colleagues demonstrated that
cause adult-onset mitochondrial encephalomyopathy Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) technology offers an incredible opportunity for the rapid and relatively low-cost characterization of individual genomes,
the UNC School of medicine Department of Microbiology and Immunology and the Department of Genetics. e found that AIM2 inhibits tumorigenesis in multiple animal models of colorectal cancer by restricting the pro-survival signaling molecule, Akt,
Distinguished Professor in the UNC School of medicine Department of Genetics and a UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center member.
or DNA molecule representing a genome of a virus--an action that leads to a massive,
This included an approach called chemical genetics where synthetic chemicals are used in combination with introducing genetic changes to the DNA of the parasite.
high throughput single-cell gene expression and time-lapse imaging simultaneously in the same human embryo.
Through single cell gene expression profiling--the measurement of the activity of hundreds of genes at once--Chavez
online genetic research tool"This work actually started mainly because of the demand of MU scientists, "said Jianlin Cheng, an associate professor of computer science in the MU College of Engineering."
The process has increased the speed that researchers can note the differences in gene expression among genomes
analyze it through as many as five steps against the complete genomes of five species: human, mouse, Drosophila melanogaster (a type of fly), TAIR10 arabidopsis (a small flowering plant) and Clostridium perfringens (a type of bacterium.
#Gene therapy restores hearing in deaf mice Using gene therapy, researchers at Boston Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical school have restored hearing in mice with a genetic form of deafness.
Their work, published online July 8 by the journal Science Translational Medicine, could pave the way for gene therapy in people with hearing loss caused by genetic mutations."
"Our gene therapy protocol is not yet ready for clinical trials--we need to tweak it a bit more
The researchers tested gene therapy in two types of mutant mice. One type had the TMC1 gene completely deleted,
or AAV1, together with a promoter--a genetic sequence that turns the gene on only in certain sensory cells of the inner ear known as hair cells.
In the recessive deafness model, gene therapy with TMC1 restored the ability of sensory hair cells to respond to sound--producing a measurable electrical current--and also restored activity in the auditory portion of the brainstem.
but with gene therapy, they jump as high as a normal mouse, "says Holt. The force of their jump was measured by a plate on the floor underneath them;
In the dominant deafness model, gene therapy with a related gene, TMC2, was successful at the cellular and brain level,
and is already in use in human gene therapy trials for blindness, heart disease, muscular dystrophy and other conditions.
Holt hopes to partner with clinicians at Boston Children's Department of Otolaryngology and elsewhere to start clinical trials of TMC1 gene therapy within 5 to 10 years."
"Holt believes that other forms of genetic deafness may also be amenable to the same gene therapy strategy.
"I can envision patients with deafness having their genome sequenced and a tailored, precision medicine treatment injected into their ears to restore hearing,
However, Holt's study also showed that gene therapy with TMC2 could compensate for loss of a functional TMC1 gene,
"The implications of successful gene therapy are profound, and we are delighted to be associated with this study program,
when they divide each new cell has a complete genome. Mitotic spindles are made of microtubules
A cell needs to share chromosomes accurately when it divides otherwise the two new cells can end up with the wrong number of chromosomes.
This is called aneuploidy and this has been linked to a range of tumours in different body organs.
The mitotic spindle is responsible for sharing the chromosomes and the researchers at the University believe that the mesh is needed to give structural support.
and cells had trouble sharing chromosomes during division. Dr Emma Smith, senior science communications officer at Cancer Research UK, said:"
"Problems in cell division are common in cancer-cells frequently end up with the wrong number of chromosomes.
This early research provides the first glimpse of a structure that helps share out a cell's chromosomes correctly
#Gene therapy advance thwarts brain cancer in rats Researchers funded by the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging
rather than potentially harmful viruses, is a significant step that reinvigorates the potential for gene therapy to treat deadly gliomas as well as other cancers."
Next, the gene therapy system was tested in live rats with brain gliomas. Because it is important that the nanoparticles spread throughout the entire tumor,
#New cell division mechanism discovered Canadian and British researchers have discovered that chromosomes play an active role in animal cell division.
and it was unknown until now that chromosomes could play an active role at this step in cytokinesis.
the separation of chromosomes followed by splitting of the cell into two new daughter cells by cytokinesis."
called microtubules, were involved in pulling chromosomes to opposite poles of the cell during the division process."
"At this time, microtubules physically separate the chromosomes via their central kinetochores while other microtubules signal to the cortex of the cell where its equator is, i e.,
Furthermore until now, it was believed that the chromosomes only played a passive role: that they were pulled by the microtubules
Chromosomes'active role Initially working with the cells of fruit flies using powerful genetic tools and sophisticated microscopy,
the research team discovered that chromosomes emit signals that influence the cortex of the cell to reinforce microtubule action.
"When chromosomes are segregated, they approach the membrane at the poles of the cell, and thanks to this enzyme's actions, this contributes to the softening of the polar membrane,
The majority of clinical studies published on the use of DNA in blood to determine tumor genotype,
which limits the significance of the findings as well as the ability to research possible correlations between genotype and clinical outcome.
Arraytumor genotype plays an important role in drug resistance in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer,
but the genotype obtained at diagnosis can vary after different treatment lines. Therefore, DNA analysis using liquid biopsy has clear advantages over DNA analysis with tissue biopsy
as well as the difficulty of assigning a particular genotype for each particular tumor in patients with multiple metastases,
However, recent data from the research group led by Markus Hengstschläger of the Institute for Medical Genetics of the Medical University of Vienna now suggest that another protein complex,
is one of the the largest genetics study to date to link a specific genetic mutation and information processing speed."
"It is well known that genetic variation plays an important role in explaining individual differences in thinking skills such as memory
Previous studies in families and in twins have shown genetics play an important role in cognitive functioning,
they examined genetic variations across 2. 5 million sites along each individual's DNA, looking for associations between genetic variants and performance on several different tests of cognitive function.
"It seems like, through this genetic analysis, we have identified a genetic variant which partly explains the differences in information processing speed between people,
"We now have the technology to measure across the entire genome in a much more fine-grained manner compared to a few years ago, in this case 2. 5 million sites,
we envision the creation of a lubricant genome at some point in the future, "he said.""Having a materials database like this would allow us to pick
a scientist in the Joint Center for Structural genomics at SLAC's Stanford Synchrotron radiation Lightsource who helped to solve the 3-D structure,
has become vital in genomics applications, ranging from cloning research to forensic analysis to paternity tests.
The PCR test requires repeated temperature changes--an average of 30 thermal cycles at three different temperatures--to amplify the genetic sequence,
Researchers from BUSM and the University of Cyprus compared the markers on the surface of the cancer cells to gene expression profile of breast tumors deposited by researchers in international public databases
"explained corresponding author Sam Thiagalingam, Phd, associate professor of genetics & genomics, medicine and pathology & laboratory medicine at BUSM.
genetic manipulation and surgery are therapeutic approaches worth pursuing. Dr. Josep Dalmau, a neurology professor at the University of Pennsylvania not involved with the new study, agrees that the new findings could help to explain the initiation, maintenance,
The emergence of fluorescent proteins and transgenic techniques over the past 20 years has transformed biomedical research,
SCAPE can also be combined with optogenetics and other tissue manipulations during imaging because, unlike other systems,
which had been hidden in plain sight in the sequence of the ribonucleic acid (RNA) that makes up this type of viral genome.
hidden within the stream of letters we use to denote the genetic information, is a second code governing virus assembly.
linking together amino acids in an order specified by the genetic code. When something goes wrong the ribosome can stall,
Two types of lymphocytes, CD4 and CD8, find a way to cross this protective barrier. They attack the brain by destroying the myelin sheath that protects neurons,
which plays a crucial role in dysregulation of the immune system observed in multiple sclerosis. ur studies have shown that MCAM is necessary for the migration of CD4 and CD8 across the blood-brain barrier.
The discovery, reported in the journal Nature Genetics, could have implications for the development of new methods of pain relief.
Using detailed genome mapping, two teams of researchers collaborated to analyse the genetic make-up of 11 families across Europe
and acts like a switch to turn genes on and off (an effect known as epigenetics). The researchers showed that all the genetic variants of PRDM12 in the CIP patients blocked the gene function.
QAAFI Director and plant geneticist Professor Robert Henry said a Trailblazer award from The University of Queensland commercialisation arm
with global production of about 650 million tonnes and consumption in a variety of breads across different countries and cultures. rowing global demand for wheat requires ongoing genetic improvement to adapt to changing environmental conditions,
The ability to accurately find rare single-nucleotide mutations is becoming increasingly important as scientists drill down into genomes to find biomarkers for early cancer detection. ee trying to solve the needle-in-a-haystack problem,
Tests on amplified human genome samples showed excellent accuracy as well, they said. Zhang noted the technique should lead to significant savings,
and Molecular genetics. ee discovered what appears to be a basic mechanism of resistance to heat,
including developing ways to package DNA for gene therapy. inding effective packaging for DNA delivery is important
because their infection defences are compromised by genetic errors. UK trial leader Professor Kevin Harrington, Professor of Biological Cancer Therapies at The Institute of Cancer Research, London,
researchers from the RIKEN-MIT Center for Neural Circuit Genetics demonstrated in mice that traces of old memories do remain in the amnestic brain,
the researchers used optogenetic technology to selectively activate neurons that were labeled genetically during their training in chamber A with a blue light-sensitive protein,
Larger scale gene function studies A relatively new method of targeting specific DNA sequences in zebrafish could dramatically accelerate the discovery of gene function and the identification of disease genes in humans, according to scientists at the National Human genome Research
. a senior investigator with NHGRI Translational and Functional genomics Branch and head of the Developmental Genomics Section. hat we have done is to establish an entire pipeline for knocking out many genes and testing their function quickly in a vertebrate
whose genomes have been sequenced completely. The zebrafish is suited better to larger scale gene editing because about 70 percent of zebrafish genes appear to have human counterparts
The results demonstrated that using the CRISPR/Cas9 technique in zebrafish will make it possible to both generate mutants for all genes in the zebrafish genome
they noted in the Genome Research paper. The CRISPR/Cas9 methodology works in mice, too,
you could target every gene in the genome with what would be a relatively modest scientific investment in the low tens of millions of dollars. e
#Small changes have large benefits for crop breeding Researchers from The University of Western australia have developed a new method for breeding crops that will improve the potential for long-term, sustainable genetic improvement.
means there can be more accurate selection and shorter generation intervals with more sustainable long-term genetic improvement.
and improved the potential for long-term and sustainable genetic improvement. oupled with new genomic technology, the new breeding method could speed up genetic improvements for desirable traits such as grain quality and yield.
Source: University of Western Australi
#Scientists invent a new method to synthesize highly valuable amines Researchers at The Scripps Research Institute have created a new method for synthesizing minesa class of organic compounds prominent in drugs and other modern products.
the Ingalls Professor of Cancer Genetics at the university School of medicine and a medical oncologist at University Hospitals Case Medical center Seidman Cancer Center. e have developed a drug that acts like a vitamin for tissue stem cells,
and Mark Chance, who contributed proteomics expertise for studies that showed how SW033291 works. Other participating investigators also contributed substantially:
#Scientists construct first whole genome sequence of bighorn sheep Geneticists at the University of Alberta have constructed the first whole genome sequence of a bighorn sheep in a new study that could have a significant impact on conservation efforts of the species,
To construct a whole genome sequence, the DNA is first run through a sequencer to identify small strings of building blocks, called nucleotides.
The strings of nucleotides are joined then together to produce a complete picture. he process of ordering the nucleotides into a genome is much like assembling a jigsaw puzzle,
which uses an existing genome sequence as a reference point to streamline the process. ere, one starts with the same jigsaw pieces,
and for genome sequencing this usually results in a much more complete picture being put together in less time than de novo assembly.
In this case, the reference used for alignment was the already complete whole genome sequence of a domestic sheep.
Full genome sequences are still relatively rare; for context, only 108 mammals are listed in the National Center for Biotechnology Information database. ntil recently,
generating a genome sequence of any organism was nearly impossible, notes Miller. The majority of organisms sequenced so far have been domestic laboratory species such as fruit flies or lab mice.
and cost-effective enough to be useful in obtaining whole genome sequences of wildlife species, like bighorn sheep.
This opens new avenues of research such as using genomics to plan conservation and management actions for at-risk species. Constructing a whole genome sequence of the bighorn sheep will also help by providing a reference for new studies,
which may make it possible to connect specific pieces of DNA with traits of interestor example,
The findings were published in BMC Genomics. Miller plans to continue his research in conservation genomics through a postdoctoral position at Yale university working with giant Galapagos tortoises,
using genomic methods learned over the course of his Phd to identify individuals that can be part of a captive breeding program u
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