Epigenomic changes after acupuncture treatment in patients suffering from burnout

Author(s):  
Marc Petitpierre ◽  
Ludwig Stenz ◽  
Ariane Paoloni-Giacobino

Introduction: The effects of acupuncture treatment in patients suffering from burnout may imply an epigenetic control mediated by DNA methylation changes. In this observational study, a genome-wide characterization of epigenetic changes in blood DNA, before and after acupuncture treatment, was performed in a cohort of 11 patients suffering from burnout. Methods: Burnout was assessed using the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) and DNA was extracted from blood samples and analyzed by Illumina EPIC BeadChip. Results: Before acupuncture, all patients suffered of emotional exhaustion (EE) (MBI-EE score, 44±6), 81% suffered of depersonalization (DP) (MBI-DP score, 16±6), and 72% of low feelings of personal accomplishment (PA) (MBI-PA score, 29±9). After acupuncture, all MBI dimensions improved significantly (EE, 16±11 [p=1.5*10-4]; DP, 4±5 [p=5.3*10-4]; and PA, 40±6 [p=4.1*10-3]). For each patient, both methylomes obtained before and after acupuncture co-clustered in the multidimensional scaling plot, indicating a high level of similarity. Genes corresponding to the 10 most differentially methylated CpGs showed enrichment in the brain dopaminergic signalling, steroid synthesis and in the insulin sensitivity pathways. Conclusion: Acupuncture treatment was found to be highly effective on all burnout dimensions and the epigenetic targets identified were involved in some major disturbances of this syndrome.

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Di Guardo ◽  
B. Farneti ◽  
I. Khomenko ◽  
G. Modica ◽  
A. Mosca ◽  
...  

AbstractAlmond is appreciated for its nutraceutical value and for the aromatic profile of the kernels. In this work, an almond collection composed of 96 Sicilian accessions complemented with 10 widely cultivated cultivars was phenotyped for the production of volatile organic compounds using a proton-transfer time-of-flight mass spectrometer and genotyped using the Illumina Infinium®18 K Peach SNP array. The profiling of the aroma was carried out on fresh and roasted kernels enabling the detection of 150 mass peaks. Sixty eight, for the most related with sulfur compounds, furan containing compounds, and aldehydes formed by Strecker degradation, significantly increased during roasting, while the concentration of fifty-four mass peaks, for the most belonging to alcohols and terpenes, significantly decreased. Four hundred and seventy-one robust SNPs were selected and employed for population genetic studies. Structure analysis detected three subpopulations with the Sicilian accessions characterized by a different genetic stratification compared to those collected in Apulia (South Italy) and the International cultivars. The linkage-disequilibrium (LD) decay across the genome was equal to r2 = 0.083. Furthermore, a high level of collinearity (r2 = 0.96) between almond and peach was registered confirming the high synteny between the two genomes. A preliminary application of a genome-wide association analysis allowed the detection of significant marker-trait associations for 31 fresh and 33 roasted almond mass peaks respectively. An accurate genetic and phenotypic characterization of novel germplasm can represent a valuable tool for the set-up of marker-assisted selection of novel cultivars with an enhanced aromatic profile.


Author(s):  
Eglė Slabšinskienė ◽  
Andrej Gorelik ◽  
Aistė Kavaliauskienė ◽  
Apolinaras Zaborskis

Although burnout has been described as a serious hazard for personal and professional lives and has been surveyed among dentists in many countries, no study has been published regarding burnout among dentists in Lithuania. This study aimed to evaluate the burnout level among Lithuanian dentists and its association with demographic variables, job satisfaction, and other job-related variables. The data were collected among dentists online or during professional conferences while using an anonymous questionnaire (n = 380). The Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) was used to evaluate the burnout level. A Poisson regression was applied for the analysis of relationships between variables. We observed that 42.3% of the respondents had a high emotional exhaustion (EE) (95% confidence interval (CI): 37.4–42.3%), while 18.7% (95% CI: 15.0–22.9%) and 28,2% (95% CI: 23.4–32.6%) had high depersonalization (DP) and low personal accomplishment (PA), respectively. Nonetheless, 15.3% (95% CI: 11.8–18.9%) of the study population experienced a high level of overall burnout. An original job satisfaction index was elaborated. It was significantly associated with sum scores of all burnout dimensions: with the EE sum score (Ratio of Sum Score Means (RSSM) 1.54; 95% CI: 1.46–1.62), DP sum score (RSSM 1.59; 95% CI: 1.45–1.74), and PA sum score (RSSM 0.88; 95% CI: 0.84–0.92). It was concluded that Lithuanian dentists can be characterised by high burnout intensity and high prevalence of burnout, being especially evident in emotional exhaustion. The dentist with low job satisfaction appeared to be the most vulnerable to all burnout dimensions.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (24) ◽  
pp. eabg3097
Author(s):  
Bo Zhao ◽  
Yanpeng Xi ◽  
Junghyun Kim ◽  
Sibum Sung

Chromatin structure is critical for gene expression and many other cellular processes. In Arabidopsis thaliana, the floral repressor FLC adopts a self-loop chromatin structure via bridging of its flanking regions. This local gene loop is necessary for active FLC expression. However, the molecular mechanism underlying the formation of this class of gene loops is unknown. Here, we report the characterization of a group of linker histone-like proteins, named the GH1-HMGA family in Arabidopsis, which act as chromatin architecture modulators. We demonstrate that these family members redundantly promote the floral transition through the repression of FLC. A genome-wide study revealed that this family preferentially binds to the 5′ and 3′ ends of gene bodies. The loss of this binding increases FLC expression by stabilizing the FLC 5′ to 3′ gene looping. Our study provides mechanistic insights into how a family of evolutionarily conserved proteins regulates the formation of local gene loops.


Author(s):  
Zhongwei Zou ◽  
Fei Liu ◽  
Shuanglong Huang ◽  
DILANTHA GERARD FERNANDO

Proteins containing Valine-glutamine (VQ) motifs play important roles in plant growth and development, as well as in defense responses to both abiotic and biotic stresses. Blackleg disease, which is caused by Leptosphaeria maculans, is the most important disease in canola (Brassica napus L.) worldwide. H; however, the identification of B. napus VQs and their functions in response to blackleg disease have not yet been reported. In this study, we conducted a genome genome-wide identification and characterization of the VQ gene family in B. napus, including chromosome location, phylogenetic relations, gene structure, motif domain, synteny analysis, and cis-elements categorization of their promoter regions. To understand B. napus VQ gene function in response to blackleg disease, we overexpressed BnVQ7 (BnaA01g36880D, also known as the mitogen-activated protein kinase4 substrate1 (MKS1) gene) in a blackleg-susceptible canola variety Westar. Overexpression The overexpression of BnMKS1 in canola did not improve its resistance to blackleg disease at the seedling stage. H; however, transgenic canola plants overexpressing BnMKS1 displayed an enhanced resistance to L. maculans infection at the adult plant stage. Expression levels of downstream and defense marker genes in cotyledons increased significantly at the necrotrophic stage of L. maculans infection in the overexpression line of BnMKS1, suggesting that the SA salicylic acid (SA)- and jasmonic acid (JA )-mediated signaling pathways were both involved in the defense responses. Together, these results suggest that BnMKS1 might play an important role in the defense against L. maculans.


2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Weizhuo Zhu ◽  
Yiyi Guo ◽  
Yeke Chen ◽  
Dezhi Wu ◽  
Lixi Jiang

Abstract Background Transcription factors GATAs are involved in plant developmental processes and respond to environmental stresses through binding DNA regulatory regions to regulate their downstream genes. However, little information on the GATA genes in Brassica napus is available. The release of the reference genome of B. napus provides a good opportunity to perform a genome-wide characterization of GATA family genes in rapeseed. Results In this study, 96 GATA genes randomly distributing on 19 chromosomes were identified in B. napus, which were classified into four subfamilies based on phylogenetic analysis and their domain structures. The amino acids of BnGATAs were obvious divergence among four subfamilies in terms of their GATA domains, structures and motif compositions. Gene duplication and synteny between the genomes of B. napus and A. thaliana were also analyzed to provide insights into evolutionary characteristics. Moreover, BnGATAs showed different expression patterns in various tissues and under diverse abiotic stresses. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) distributions of BnGATAs in a core collection germplasm are probably associated with functional disparity under environmental stress condition in different genotypes of B. napus. Conclusion The present study was investigated genomic structures, evolution features, expression patterns and SNP distributions of 96 BnGATAs. The results enrich our understanding of the GATA genes in rapeseed.


2006 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco Maccaferri ◽  
Maria Corinna Sanguineti ◽  
Vincenzo Natoli ◽  
José Luis Araus Ortega ◽  
Moncef Ben Salem ◽  
...  

The effectiveness of association mapping (AM) based on linkage disequilibrium (LD) is currently being tested in a number of crops. An important prerequisite for the application of AM is the availability of collections of accessions with a suitable level of genetic variation for target traits and with limited spurious LD due to the presence of population structure. Herein, the results of a genome-wide molecular characterization of a collection of elite durum wheat accessions well-adapted to Mediterranean environments are presented. Ninety-seven highly polymorphic simple sequence repeats and 166 amplified fragment length polymorphism markers were used to characterize 189 durum accessions, mainly cultivars and advanced breeding lines. Genome-wide significant and sizeable LD indices at a centimorgan scale were observed, while LD mainly decayed within 10 cM. On the other hand, effects due to spurious LD were notably lower than those previously observed in a durum wheat collection sampling durum gene pools of more diverse origin. These results, coupled with the high level of genetic variability detected for a number of important morpho-physiological traits and their high heritability, indicate the suitability of this collection for AM studies targeting agronomically important traits.


2016 ◽  
Vol 96 (5) ◽  
pp. 808-818 ◽  
Author(s):  
Neil Hobson ◽  
Habibur Rahman

Simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers can be applied to genotyping projects at low cost with inexpensive equipment. The objective of this study was to develop SSR markers from the publically-available genome sequence of Brassica rapa and provide the physical position of these markers on the chromosomes for use in breeding and research. To assess the utility of these new markers, a subset of 60 markers were used to genotype 43 accessions of B. rapa. Fifty-five markers from the 10 chromosome scaffolds produced a total of 730 amplicons, which were then used to perform a phylogenetic analysis of the accessions, illustrating their utility in distinguishing between a wide range of germplasm. In agreement with similar studies of genetic diversity, our markers separated accessions into distinct genetic pools including Chinese cabbage, Chinese winter oilseed, European winter oilseed, Canadian spring oilseed, pak-choi, turnip, and yellow sarson. The results further illustrate the presence of a high level of genetic diversity in B. rapa, and demonstrate the potential of these SSR markers for use in breeding and research.


PeerJ ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. e11780
Author(s):  
Ruifang Ma ◽  
Bin Huang ◽  
Zhinuo Huang ◽  
Zhijun Zhang

Background The YABBY gene family is a family of small zinc finger transcription factors associated with plant morphogenesis, growth, and development. In particular, it is closely related to the development of polarity in the lateral organs of plants. Despite being studied extensively in many plant species, there is little information on genome-wide characterization of this gene family in Moso bamboo. Methods In the present study, we identified 16 PeYABBY genes, which were unequally distributed on 11 chromosomes, through genome-wide analysis of high-quality genome sequences of M oso bamboo by bioinformatics tools and biotechnological tools. Gene expression under hormone stress conditions was verified by quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) experiments. Results Based on peptide sequences and similarity of exon-intron structures, we classified the PeYABBY genes into four subfamilies. Analysis of putative cis-acting elements in promoters of these genes revealed that PeYABBYs contained a large number of hormone-responsive and stress-responsive elements. Expression analysis showed that they were expressed at a high level in Moso bamboo panicles, rhizomes, and leaves. Expression patterns of putative PeYABBY genes in different organs and hormone-treated were analyzed using RNA-seq data, results showed that some PeYABBY genes were responsive to gibberellin (GA) and abscisic acid (ABA), indicating that they may play an important role in plant hormone responses. Gene Ontology (GO) analyses of YABBY proteins indicated that they may be involved in many developmental processes, particularly high level of enrichment seen in plant leaf development. In summary, our results provide a comprehensive genome-wide study of the YABBY gene family in bamboos, which could be useful for further detailed studies of the function and evolution of the YABBY genes, and to provide a fundamental basis for the study of YABBY in Gramineae for resistance to stress and hormonal stress.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander F. Gileta ◽  
Christopher J. Fitzpatrick ◽  
Apurva S. Chitre ◽  
Celine L. St. Pierre ◽  
Elizabeth V. Joyce ◽  
...  

AbstractSprague Dawley (SD) rats are one of the most commonly used outbred rat strains. Despite this, the genetic characteristics of SD are poorly understood. We collected behavioral data from 4,625 SD rats acquired predominantly from two commercial vendors, Charles River Laboratories and Harlan Sprague Dawley Inc. Using double-digest genotyping-by-sequencing (ddGBS), we obtained dense, high-quality genotypes at 234,887 SNPs across 4,061 rats. This genetic data allowed us to characterize the variation present in Charles River vs. Harlan SD rats. We found that the two populations are highly diverged (FST > 0.4). We also used these data to perform a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of Pavlovian conditioned approach (PavCA), which assesses the propensity for rats to attribute motivational value to discrete, reward-associated cues. Due to the genetic divergence between rats from Charles River and Harlan, we performed two separate GWAS by fitting a linear mixed model that accounted for within vendor population structure and using meta-analysis to jointly analyze the two studies. We identified 18 independent loci that were significantly associated with one or more metrics used to describe PavCA; we also identified 3 loci that were body weight, which was only measured in a subset of the rats. The genetic characterization of SD rats is a valuable resource for the rat community that can be used to inform future study design.Author SummaryOutbred Sprague Dawley rats are among the most commonly used rats for neuroscience, physiology and pharmacological research. SD rats are sold by several commercial vendors, including Charles River Laboratories and Harlan Sprague Dawley Inc. (now Envigo). Despite their wide spread use, little is known about the genetic diversity of SD. We genotyped more than 4,000 SD rats, which we used to characterize genetic differences between SD rats from Charles River Laboratories and Harlan. Our analysis revealed that the two SD colonies are highly divergent. We also performed a genome-wide association study (GWAS) for Pavlovian conditioned approach (PavCA), which assesses the propensity for rats to attribute motivational value to discrete, reward-associated cues. Our results demonstrate that, despite sharing an identical name, SD rats are obtained from different vendors are genetically very different. We conclude that results obtained using SD rats should not be presented without also carefully noting the vendor.


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