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Comparison of hemolytic activity of the intermediate subunit of Entamoeba histolytica and Entamoeba dispar lectins.
2017
Galactose and N-acetyl-D-galactosamine-inhibitable lectin of Entamoeba histolytica has roles in pathogenicity and induction of protective immunity in rodent models of amoebiasis. Recently, the intermediate subunit of the lectin, Igl1, of E. histolytica has been shown to have hemolytic activity. However, the corresponding lectin is also expressed in a non-virulent species, Entamoeba dispar, and another subunit, Igl2, is expressed in the protozoa. Therefore, in this study, we compared the activities of Igl1 and Igl2 subunits from E. histolytica and E. dispar using various regions of recombinant Igl proteins expressed in Escherichia coli. The recombinant E. dispar Igl proteins had comparable h…
Relative risk rather than absolute risk reduction should be preferred to sensitise the public to preventive actions.
2021
We thank Lawrence and colleagues1 for their interest in our work,2 about which they raised some comments as the need of expressing results in absolute rather than relative risks. As they appropriately mentioned in their correspondence, absolute risk is an important parameter for the estimation of the effect of an intervention and must sometimes be preferred to relative risk. However, when discussing with health professionals and policymakers, using absolute risk reductions, expressed as percentages, may incorrectly lead to an intervention being considered unnecessary. As example, what would be the point of reducing by 30% the occurrence of an event affecting 2% of the population? This is ex…
Adaptation of gene loci to heterochromatin in the course of Drosophila evolution is associated with insulator proteins.
2020
AbstractPericentromeric heterochromatin is generally composed of repetitive DNA forming a transcriptionally repressive environment. Dozens of genes were embedded into pericentromeric heterochromatin during evolution of Drosophilidae lineage while retaining activity. However, factors that contribute to insusceptibility of gene loci to transcriptional silencing remain unknown. Here, we find that the promoter region of genes that can be embedded in both euchromatin and heterochromatin exhibits a conserved structure throughout the Drosophila phylogeny and carries motifs for binding of certain chromatin remodeling factors, including insulator proteins. Using ChIP-seq data, we demonstrate that ev…
Timing of complementary feeding and associations with maternal and infant characteristics: A Norwegian cross-sectional study.
2018
Norwegian Health authorities recommend solid food to be introduced between child age 4-6 months, depending on both the mother´s and infant's needs. The aim of this paper is to describe timing of complementary feeding in a current sample of Norwegian mother/infant-dyads and explore potential associations between timing of introduction to solid foods and a wide range of maternal and infant characteristics known from previous literature to influence early feeding interactions. The paper is based on data from the Norwegian randomized controlled trial Early Food for Future Health. In 2016, a total of 715 mothers completed a web-based questionnaire at child age 5.5 months. We found that 5% of the…
Maternal DNA lineages at the gate of Europe in the 10th century AD
2018
Given the paucity of archaeogenetic data available for medieval European populations in comparison to other historical periods, the genetic landscape of this age appears as a puzzle of dispersed, small, known pieces. In particular, Southeastern Europe has been scarcely investigated to date. In this paper, we report the study of mitochondrial DNA in 10th century AD human samples from Capidava necropolis, located in Dobruja (Southeastern Romania, Southeastern Europe). This geographical region is particularly interesting because of the extensive population flux following diverse migration routes, and the complex interactions between distinct population groups during the medieval period. We suc…
Social regulation of insulin signaling and the evolution of eusociality in ants
2018
The benefits of being well fed In eusocial insects, the vast majority of individuals sacrifice their reproductive potential to support the reproductive queen. Although this system has evolved repeatedly, there is still much debate surrounding its origin. Working with seven different species of ants, Chandra et al. used a transcriptomic approach to show that a single gene is consistently up-regulated in queens. This gene seems to confer reproductive status through integration with increased nutrition. In a clonal ant, larval signals disrupt this gene up-regulation, destabilizing the division of reproductive labor. Increasing levels of the associated peptide override these larval signals and …
Insights into the red algae and eukaryotic evolution from the genome of Porphyra umbilicalis (Bangiophyceae, Rhodophyta).
2017
Porphyra umbilicalis (laver) belongs to an ancient group of red algae (Bangiophyceae), is harvested for human food, and thrives in the harsh conditions of the upper intertidal zone. Here we present the 87.7-Mbp haploid Porphyra genome (65.8% G + C content, 13,125 gene loci) and elucidate traits that inform our understanding of the biology of red algae as one of the few multicellular eukaryotic lineages. Novel features of the Porphyra genome shared by other red algae relate to the cytoskeleton, calcium signaling, the cell cycle, and stress-Tolerance mechanisms including photoprotection. Cytoskeletal motor proteins in Porphyra are restricted to a small set of kinesins that appear to be the on…
Diversification of spatiotemporal expression and copy number variation of the echinoid hbox12/pmar1/micro1 multigene family
2017
Changes occurring during evolution in the cis-regulatory landscapes of individual members of multigene families might impart diversification in their spatiotemporal expression and function. The archetypal member of the echinoid hbox12/pmar1/micro1 family is hbox12-a, a homeobox-containing gene expressed exclusively by dorsal blastomeres, where it governs the dorsal/ventral gene regulatory network during embryogenesis of the sea urchin Paracentrotus lividus. Here we describe the inventory of the hbox12/pmar1/micro1 genes in P. lividus, highlighting that gene copy number variation occurs across individual sea urchins of the same species. We show that the various hbox12/pmar1/micro1 genes grou…
A TRAPPC6B splicing variant associates to restless legs syndrome
2016
Abstract INTRODUCTION: RLS is a common movement disorders with a strong genetic component in its pathophysiology, but, up to now, no causative mutation has been reported. METHODS: We re-evaluated the previously described RLS2 family by exome sequencing. RESULTS: We identified fifteen variations in the 14q critical region. The c.485G > A transition of the TRAPPC6B gene segregates with the RLS2 haplotype, is absent in 200 local controls and is extremely rare in 12988 exomes from the Exome Variant Server (EVS). This variant alters a splicing site and hampers the normal transcript processing by promoting exon 3-skipping as demonstrated by minigene transfection and by patient transcripts. CON…
The exonuclease Xrn1 activates transcription and translation of mRNAs encoding membrane proteins
2019
The highly conserved 5’–3’ exonuclease Xrn1 regulates gene expression in eukaryotes by coupling nuclear DNA transcription to cytosolic mRNA decay. By integrating transcriptome-wide analyses of translation with biochemical and functional studies, we demonstrate an unanticipated regulatory role of Xrn1 in protein synthesis. Xrn1 promotes translation of a specific group of transcripts encoding membrane proteins. Xrn1-dependence for translation is linked to poor structural RNA contexts for translation initiation, is mediated by interactions with components of the translation initiation machinery and correlates with an Xrn1-dependence for mRNA localization at the endoplasmic reticulum, the trans…