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McDonald Bidstrup posted an update 6 months, 3 weeks ago
In this study, we performed a spinal muscular atrophy carrier screening investigation with NGS-based method. First, the validation for NGS-based method was implemented in 2255 samples using real-time PCR. The concordance between the NGS-based method and real-time PCR for the detection of SMA carrier and patient were up to 100%. Then, we applied this NGS-based method in 10,585 self-reported normal couples (34 Chinese ethnic groups from 5 provinces in South China) for SMA carrier screening. The overall carrier frequency was 1 in 73.8 (1.4%). It varied substantially between ethnic groups, highest in Dai ethnicity (4.3%), and no significant difference was found between five provinces. One couple was detected as carriers with an elevated risk of having an SMA affected baby. The distribution of SMN1SMN2 genotype was also revealed in this study. Among the individuals with normal phenotype, the exon 7 copy-number ratio of SMN1 to SMN2 proved the gene conversion between them. With NGS-based method, we investigated SMA carrier status in Chinese population for the first time, and our results demonstrated that it is a promising alternative for SMA carrier screening and could provide data support and reference for future clinical application.Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is a therapeutically challenging disease with poor survival rates, owing to late diagnosis and early dissemination. These tumors frequently undergo perineural invasion, spreading along nerves regionally and to distant sites. The RET receptor tyrosine kinase is implicated in increased aggressiveness, local invasion, and metastasis in multiple cancers, including PDAC. RET mediates directional motility and invasion towards sources of its neurotrophic factor ligands, suggesting that it may enhance perineural invasion of tumor cells towards nerves. RET is expressed as two main isoforms, RET9 and RET51, which differ in their protein interactions and oncogenic potentials, however, the contributions of RET isoforms to neural invasion have not been investigated. In this study, we generated total RET and isoform-specific knockdown PDAC cell lines and assessed the contributions of RET isoforms to PDAC invasive spread. Our data show that RET activity induces cell polarization and actin remodeling through activation of CDC42 and RHOA GTPases to promote directional motility in PDAC cells. Further, we show that RET interacts with the adaptor protein TKS5 to induce invadopodia formation, enhance matrix degradation and promote tumor cell invasion through a SRC and GRB2-dependent mechanism. Finally, we show that RET51 is the predominant isoform contributing to these RET-mediated invasive processes in PDAC. Simnotrelvir in vivo Together, our work suggests that RET expression in pancreatic cancers may enhance tumor aggressiveness by promoting perineural invasion, and that RET expression may be a valuable marker of invasiveness, and a potential therapeutic target in the treatment of these cancers.In the present day, it is possible to incorporate targeted mutations or replace a gene using genome editing techniques such as customisable CRISPR/Cas9 system. Although induction of DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) by genome editing tools can be repaired by both non-homologous end joining (NHEJ) and homologous recombination (HR), the skewness of the former pathway in human and other mammals normally result in imprecise repair. Scientists working at the crossroads of DNA repair and genome editing have devised new strategies for using a specific pathway to their advantage. Refinement in the efficiency of precise gene editing was witnessed upon downregulation of NHEJ by knockdown or using small molecule inhibitors on one hand, and upregulation of HR proteins and addition of HR stimulators, other hand. The exploitation of cell cycle phase differences together with appropriate donor DNA length/sequence and small molecules has provided further improvement in precise genome editing. The present article reviews the mechanisms of improving the efficiency of precise genome editing in several model organisms and in clinics.Rapid within-species evolution can alter community structure, yet the mechanisms underpinning this effect remain unknown. Populations that rapidly evolve large amounts of phenotypic diversity are likely to interact with more species and have the largest impact on community structure. However, the evolution of phenotypic diversity is, in turn, influenced by the presence of other species. Here, we investigate how microbial community structure changes as a consequence of rapidly evolved within-species diversity using Pseudomonas fluorescens as a focal species. Evolved P. fluorescens populations showed substantial phenotypic diversification in resource-use (and correlated genomic change) irrespective of whether they were pre-adapted in isolation or in a community context. Manipulating diversity revealed that more diverse P. fluorescens populations had the greatest impact on community structure, by suppressing some bacterial taxa, but facilitating others. These findings suggest that conditions that promote the evolution of high within-population diversity should result in a larger impact on community structure.The small size of bacterial cells necessitates rapid adaption to sudden environmental changes. In Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus, an obligate predator of bacteria common in oligotrophic environments, the non-replicative, highly motile attack phase (AP) cell must invade a prey to ensure replication. AP cells swim fast and respire at high rates, rapidly consuming their own contents. How the predator survives in the absence of prey is unknown. We show that starvation for prey significantly alters swimming patterns and causes exponential decay in prey-searching cells over hours, until population-wide swim-arrest. Swim-arrest is accompanied by changes in energy metabolism, enabling rapid swim-reactivation upon introduction of prey or nutrients, and a sweeping change in gene expression and gene regulation that largely differs from those of the paradigmatic stationary phase. Swim-arrest is costly as it imposes a fitness penalty in the form of delayed growth. We track the control of the swim arrest-reactivation process to cyclic-di-GMP (CdG) effectors, including two motility brakes.