scholarly journals Testing the impact of a single nucleotide polymorphism in a Plasmodium berghei ApiAP2 transcription factor on experimental cerebral malaria in mice

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Munir Akkaya ◽  
Abhisheka Bansal ◽  
Patrick W. Sheehan ◽  
Mirna Pena ◽  
Clare K. Cimperman ◽  
...  
2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (6) ◽  
pp. eaaw6957 ◽  
Author(s):  
Munir Akkaya ◽  
Abhisheka Bansal ◽  
Patrick W. Sheehan ◽  
Mirna Pena ◽  
Alvaro Molina-Cruz ◽  
...  

The acquisition of malaria immunity is both remarkably slow and unpredictable. At present, we know little about the malaria parasite genes that influence the host’s ability to mount a protective immune response. Here, we show that a single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) resulting in a single amino acid change (S to F) in an ApiAP2 transcription factor in the rodent malaria parasite Plasmodium berghei (Pb) NK65 allowed infected mice to mount a T helper cell 1 (TH1)–type immune response that controlled subsequent infections. As compared to PbNK65S, PbNK65F parasites differentially expressed 46 genes, most of which are predicted to play roles in immune evasion. PbNK65F infections resulted in an early interferon-γ response and a later expansion of germinal centers, resulting in high levels of infected red blood cell–specific TH1-type immunoglobulin G2b (IgG2b) and IgG2c antibodies. Thus, the Pb ApiAP2 transcription factor functions as a critical parasite virulence factor in malaria infections.


Cancers ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 283 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laith N. AL-Eitan ◽  
Bashar H. Al-Ahmad ◽  
Fouad A. Almomani

Breast cancer (BC) pathogenesis is poorly understood and not yet completely determined. BC susceptibility genes are responsible for 20% to 25% of breast cancer risk. The main objective of this study is to identify the genetic polymorphisms within the Harvey rat sarcoma viral oncogene homolog (HRAS1) and interleukin-1 receptor antagonist (IL1-Ra) genes in Jordanian BC female patients and to investigate the genetic association of these polymorphisms with BC. Samples were collected from 150 Jordanian BC patients and 187 healthy age-matched controls. PCR and PCR-RFLP techniques were used to identify genetic polymorphisms within these candidate genes. The single nucleotide polymorphism single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) association web tool SNPStats (v. 3.6) was used to investigate the allelic and genotypic association with BC. Different statistical analyses were used to study the correlation between the investigated genetic variants and several prognosis factors of BC. A genetic association between BC susceptibility and Il-1β rs1143634 was found specifically at the allelic level of E1 as a risk allele (72% in the cases vs. 64.2% in the controls). Another genetic association was found in the IL-Ra gene (86-VNTR (variable number tandem repeat)), which presented one repeat allele (24.1% in cases vs. 15.59% in controls) and could be considered as a risk allele in Jordanian women. In contrast, this study found that there is no genetic association between Il-1β SNP rs16944 and BC. In addition, a significant association was found between the allelic level of the HRAS1 gene and BC susceptibility. Since this study is the first to be conducted on the genetic susceptibility of these genes to BC in the Jordanian population, more investigations on the link between BC and these variants are recommended to determine the impact of these polymorphisms on other ethnic groups.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Junping Yu ◽  
Guolong Zhao ◽  
Wei Li ◽  
Ying Zhang ◽  
Peng Wang ◽  
...  

Abstract Soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] is an important crop providing vegetable oils and proteins. Increasing demand on soy products heightens the urgency of soybean yield improvement. Hybrid breeding with male sterility system is an effective method to improve crop production. Cloning of genic male sterile (GMS) gene combined with biotechnology method can contribute to constructing GMS-based hybrid Seed Production Technology (SPT) to promote soybean performance and yield. In this research, we identified a soybean GMS locus, GmMS6, by combining bulked segregant analysis (BSA)-sequencing and map-based cloning technology. GmMS6 encodes an R2R3 MYB transcription factor, whose mutant allele in ms6 (Ames1) harbors a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) substitution, leading to the 76th Leucine to Histidine change in the DNA binding domain. Phylogenetic analysis demonstrates GmMS6 is a homolog of Tapetal Development and Function 1 (TDF1)/MYB35 that is an anther development key factor co-evolved with angiosperm. It has a recently duplicated homolog GmMS6LIKE (GmMS6L), both of which can rescue the male fertility of Arabidopsis homologous mutant attdf1 while GmMS6L76H cannot, denoting that both proteins are functional and L76 is a critical residue for TDF1’s function. However, compared to anther specific expressed GmMS6, GmMS6L is constitutively expressed at a very low level, explaining deficiency of GmMS6 alone causes pollen abortion. Moreover, the expression levels of major regulatory and structural genes for anther development are significantly decreased in ms6, unveiling that GmMS6 is a core transcription factor regulating soybean anther development.


2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abinaya Manivannan ◽  
Jin-Hee Kim ◽  
Eun-Young Yang ◽  
Yul-Kyun Ahn ◽  
Eun-Su Lee ◽  
...  

Pepper is an economically important horticultural plant that has been widely used for its pungency and spicy taste in worldwide cuisines. Therefore, the domestication of pepper has been carried out since antiquity. Owing to meet the growing demand for pepper with high quality, organoleptic property, nutraceutical contents, and disease tolerance, genomics assisted breeding techniques can be incorporated to develop novel pepper varieties with desired traits. The application of next-generation sequencing (NGS) approaches has reformed the plant breeding technology especially in the area of molecular marker assisted breeding. The availability of genomic information aids in the deeper understanding of several molecular mechanisms behind the vital physiological processes. In addition, the NGS methods facilitate the genome-wide discovery of DNA based markers linked to key genes involved in important biological phenomenon. Among the molecular markers, single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) indulges various benefits in comparison with other existing DNA based markers. The present review concentrates on the impact of NGS approaches in the discovery of useful SNP markers associated with pungency and disease resistance in pepper. The information provided in the current endeavor can be utilized for the betterment of pepper breeding in future.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document