Search results for "genetics"

A Polygenic Risk Score for Hand Grip Strength Predicts Muscle Strength and Proximal and Distal Functional Outcomes among Older Women

2022

Purpose Hand grip strength (HGS) is a widely used indicator of overall muscle strength and general health. We computed a polygenic risk score (PRS) for HGS, and examined, whether it predicted muscle strength, functional capacity and disability outcomes. Methods Genome-wide association study summary statistics for HGS from the Pan-UK Biobank was utilized. PRSs were calculated in the Finnish Twin Study on Aging (N = 429 women, 63–76 years). Strength tests included HGS, isometric knee extension, and ankle plantar flexion strength. Functional capacity was examined with the Timed Up and Go, six-minute and 10-meter walk tests, and dual-task tests. Disabilities in the basic (ADL) and instrumental …

1993

The formulation of the synthetic theory represented a significant-advance for evolutionary studies, which had previously been hampered by apparently irreconcilable contractions. Combining Mendelian laws with Darwinism, it joined the antitheses in a synthesis which was subsequently refined and completed. Today, its content may not be simply rejected or ignored, although there are those who think of it as little more than a corpse.

Inheritance in the water frog Rana ridibunda Pallas, 1771 - Is it Mendelian or hemiclonal?

2008

The genome of Rana ridibunda has been detected in all known hybridogenetic water frog systems. This raises the question whether R. ridibunda is pre-adapted to reproduce hemiclonally by hybridogenesis. We allozymatically compared genotypes of primary oocytes and somatic cells of R. ridibunda females from several sites in southern France. In case of hemiclonal reproduction only one allele per locus is expected to be detectable in oocytes. However, patterns detected from oocytes of analysed females were not different from those of sexually reproducing water frogs. We therefore conclude that R. ridibunda in southern France reproduces sexually and is not pre-adapted to hemiclonal reproduction.

BIOLOGICAL AND EPIDEMIOLOGICAL EXAMINATION OF TRANSDIAGNOSTIC AND SPECIFIC SYMPTOM DIMENSIONS AT PSYCHOSIS ONSET: FINDINGS FROM THE EUGEI STUDY

2018

Background Current diagnostic models of psychosis have been questioned since Kraepelin’s original dichotomy of dementia praecox and manic depression. Indeed, increasing evidence has suggested that a dimensional approach might be a valid alternative platform for research. However, while an increasing number of studies have investigated how environmental risk factors for affective and non-affective psychosis map onto symptom dimensions, only a few have examined these dimensions in relation to genetic variants as summarised by Polygenic Risk Score (PRS). Furthermore, no studies have examined the putative effect of PRS for Schizophrenia (SZ), Bipolar Disorder (BP), and Major Depressive Disorder…

Chromosome Painting in Cercopithecus petaurista (Schreber, 1774) Compared to Other Monkeys of the Cercopithecini Tribe (Catarrhini, Primates)

2023

The Cercopithecini tribe includes terrestrial and arboreal clades whose relationships are controversial, with a high level of chromosome rearrangements. In order to provide new insights on the tribe’s phylogeny, chromosome painting, using the complete set of human syntenic probes, was performed in Cercopithecus petaurista, a representative species of the Cercopithecini tribe. The results show C. petaurista with a highly rearranged karyotype characterized by the fission of human chromosomes 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 11, and 12. These results compared with the literature data permit us to confirm the monophyly of the Cercopithecini tribe (fissions of chromosomes 5 and 6), as previously proposed by ch…

Functional characterization of the human tRNA methyltransferases TRMT10A and TRMT10B

2020

Abstract The TRM10 family of methyltransferases is responsible for the N1-methylation of purines at position 9 of tRNAs in Archaea and Eukarya. The human genome encodes three TRM10-type enzymes, of which only the mitochondrial TRMT10C was previously characterized in detail, whereas the functional significance of the two presumably nuclear enzymes TRMT10A and TRMT10B remained unexplained. Here we show that TRMT10A is m1G9-specific and methylates a subset of nuclear-encoded tRNAs, whilst TRMT10B is the first m1A9-specific tRNA methyltransferase found in eukaryotes and is responsible for the modification of a single nuclear-encoded tRNA. Furthermore, we show that the lack of G9 methylation cau…

Genetic relationship between clinical and environmental Vibrio cholerae isolates in Tanzania: A comparison using repetitive extragenic palindromic (R…

2015

The bacterium causing cholera, Vibrio cholerae, is a marine organism and coastal waters are important reservoirs of the organism. There are more than 200 serogroups of V. cholerae, of which serogroups O1 and O139 are known to be the causative agent of the cholera. The main virulent factor in V. cholerae is cholera toxin gene (ctx) that is found from the epidemic O1 and O139 strains, but may also be found in some strains other than O1 and O139 (non-O1 and non-O139). In this study, 48 V. cholerae strains isolated from three estuaries of Tanzania and 20 stool isolates were characterized in terms of their serogroups and possession of ctx gene and then compared using two PCR based fingerprinting…

Age- and quality-dependent DNA methylation correlate with melanin-based coloration in a wild bird

2018

Abstract Secondary sexual trait expression can be influenced by fixed individual factors (such as genetic quality) as well as by dynamic factors (such as age and environmentally induced gene expression) that may be associated with variation in condition or quality. In particular, melanin‐based traits are known to relate to condition and there is a well‐characterized genetic pathway underpinning their expression. However, the mechanisms linking variable trait expression to genetic quality remain unclear. One plausible mechanism is that genetic quality could influence trait expression via differential methylation and differential gene expression. We therefore conducted a pilot study examining…

Distinctive attributes for predicted secondary structures at terminal sequences of non-classically secreted proteins from proteobacteria

2008

Abstract C- and N-terminal sequences (64 amino acid residues each) of 89 non-classically secreted type I, type III and type IV proteins (Swiss-Prot/TrEMBL) from proteobacteria were transformed into predicted secondary structures. Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) confirmed the significance of location (C- or N-termini) and secretion type as essential factors in respect of quantitative representations of structured (a-helices, b-strands) and unstructured (coils) elements. The profiles of secondary structures were transcripted using unequal property values for helices, strands and coils and corresponding numerical vectors (independent variables) were subjected to multiple discriminan…

Toward modernizing the systematic review pipeline in genetics: efficient updating via data mining

2012

Purpose: The aim of this study was to demonstrate that modern data mining tools can be used as one step in reducing the labor necessary to produce and maintain systematic reviews. Methods: We used four continuously updated, manually curated resources that summarize MEDLINE-indexed articles in entire fields using systematic review methods (PDGene, AlzGene, and SzGene for genetic determinants of Parkinson disease, Alzheimer disease, and schizophrenia, respectively; and the Tufts Cost-Effectiveness Analysis (CEA) Registry for cost-effectiveness analyses). In each data set, we trained a classification model on citations screened up until 2009. We then evaluated the ability of the model to class…