Prevalence of specific and recurrent/founder pathogenic variants in BRCA genes in breast and ovarian cancer in North Africa

Abstract Background Elucidation of specific and recurrent/founder pathogenic variants (PVs) in BRCA (BRCA1 and BRCA2) genes can have an impact on breast cancer (BC) and/or ovarian cancer (OC) risk, making genetic testing affordable and accessible. Methods To establish the knowledge about BRCA PVs and to determine the prevalence of the specific and recurrent/founder variants in BRCA genes in BC and/or OC women in North Africa, a systematic review was conducted in Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia. Results Search of the databases yielded 25 relevant references, including eleven studies in Morocco, five in Algeria, and nine in Tunisia. Overall, 15 studies investigated both BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, four studies examined the entire coding region of the BRCA1 gene, and six studies in which the analysis was limited to a few BRCA1 and/or BRCA2 exons. Overall, 76 PVs (44 in BRCA1 and 32 in BRCA2) were identified in 196 BC and/or OC patients (129 BRCA1 and 67 BRCA2 carriers). Eighteen of the 76 (23.7%) PVs [10/44 (22.7%) in BRCA1 and 8/32 (25%) in BRCA2] were reported for the first time and considered to be novel PVs. Among those identified as unlikely to be of North African origin, the BRCA1 c.68_69del and BRCA1 c.5266dupC Jewish founder alleles and PVs that have been reported as recurrent/founder variants in European populations (ex: BRCA1 c.181T > G, BRCA1 c1016dupA). The most well characterized PVs are four in BRCA1 gene [c.211dupA (14.7%), c.798_799detTT (14%), c.5266dup (8.5%), c.5309G > T (7.8%), c.3279delC (4.7%)] and one in BRCA2 [c.1310_1313detAAGA (38.9%)]. The c.211dupA and c.5309G > T PVs were identified as specific founder variants in Tunisia and Morocco, accounting for 35.2% (19/54) and 20.4% (10/49) of total established BRCA1 PVs, respectively. c.798_799delTT variant was identified in 14% (18/129) of all BRCA1 North African carriers, suggesting a founder allele. A broad spectrum of recurrent variants including BRCA1 3279delC, BRCA1 c.5266dup and BRCA2 c.1310_1313detAAGA was detected in 42 patients. BRCA1 founder variants explain around 36.4% (47/129) of BC and outnumber BRCA2 founder variants by a ratio of ≈ 3:1. Conclusion Testing BC and/or OC patients for the panel of specific and recurrent/founder PVs might be the most cost-effective molecular diagnosis strategy.

Download Full-text

Memories of a French Migration Crisis

The Oxford Handbook of Migration Crises ◽

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190856908.013.15 ◽

2018 ◽

pp. 56-72

Author(s):

Laura Jeanne Sims

Keyword(s):

Algerian War ◽

African Origin ◽

North African ◽

Structural Racism ◽

Internment Camps ◽

Collective Memories ◽

War Of Independence ◽

Algerian War Of Independence ◽

Migration Crisis ◽

North African Origin

This chapter examines how the French state created a crisis through its management of the arrival and installation of the Harkis in 1962. The Harkis, Algerians of North African origin who supported the French army during the Algerian War of Independence (1954-1962), faced reprisal violence in Algeria at the end of the war and many were forced to migrate with their families to France. In response, French officials attempted to prevent the Harkis from escaping to France and placed some of those who succeeded in internment camps. Comparing the treatment of the Harkis with that of the Pieds-Noirs, the descendants of European settlers in Algeria who likewise fled to France in 1962, highlights the structural racism underlying French perceptions of and reactions to Harki migration. This chapter also explores the ways in which second-generation Harkis have constructed collective memories of the crisis and their attempts to hold the state responsible for its actions.

Download Full-text

Further observations on North African and South Iberian Bathyporeia (Crustacea, Amphipoda), with the description of a new species

Contributions to Zoology ◽

10.1163/18759866-0740304006 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 74 (3-4) ◽

pp. 279-300

Author(s):

Cédric d’Udekem d’Acoz ◽

Hind Myrieme Chams Echchaoui ◽

Mohamed Menioui

Keyword(s):

New Species ◽

North Africa ◽

New Records ◽

Southern Spain ◽

North African ◽

Characteristic Species ◽

South Portugal ◽

First Time ◽

A New Species

A new species of amphipod, Bathyporeia watkini sp. nov. from the Atlantic coasts of North Africa is described. This very characteristic species is abundant in some lagoons and estuaries near 28°N. New morphological information on B. elkaimi d’Udekem d’Acoz and Menioui, 2004 is given after specimens that were recently collected on the Atlantic coasts of southern Spain and South Portugal. The male of B. ledoyeri d’Udekem d’Acoz and Menioui, 2004 is described for the first time and new records of North African B. guilliamsoniana (Bate, 1857) and B. chevreuxi d'Udekem d'Acoz and Vader, 2005a are discussed.

Download Full-text

Perinatal outcomes of immigrant women of Turkish, Middle Eastern and North African origin in Berlin, Germany: a comparison of two time periods

Archives of Gynecology and Obstetrics ◽

10.1007/s00404-013-2986-6 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 289 (3) ◽

pp. 505-512 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Jacob Spallek ◽

Jessica Lehnhardt ◽

Anna Reeske ◽

Oliver Razum ◽

Matthias David

Keyword(s):

Immigrant Women ◽

Middle Eastern ◽

Perinatal Outcomes ◽

African Origin ◽

North African ◽

Time Periods ◽

North African Origin

Download Full-text

Paths of Prayers in Ottoman North Africa

Journal of Islamic Manuscripts ◽

10.1163/1878464x-01203006 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 (3-4) ◽

pp. 295-341

Author(s):

Deniz Beyazit

Keyword(s):

New York ◽

Seventeenth Century ◽

Ottoman Empire ◽

North Africa ◽

Complex Dynamics ◽

North African ◽

The North ◽

Local Traditions ◽

First Time ◽

Visual Apparatus

Abstract This article discusses The Met’s unpublished Dalāʾil al-khayrāt—2017.301—(MS New York, TMMA 2017.301), together with a group of comparable manuscripts. The earliest known dated manuscript within the corpus, it introduces several iconographic elements that are new to the Dalāʾil, and which compare with the traditions developing in the Mashriq and the Ottoman world in particular. The article discusses Dalāʾil production in seventeenth-century North Africa and its development in the Ottoman provinces, Tunisia, and/or Algeria. The manuscripts illustrate how an Ottoman visual apparatus—among which the theme of the holy sanctuaries at Mecca and Medina, appearing for the first time in MS New York, TMMA 2017.301—is established for Muhammadan devotion in Maghribī Dalāʾils. The manuscripts belong to the broader historic, social, and artistic contexts of Ottoman North Africa. Our analysis captures the complex dynamics of Ottomanization of the North African provinces of the Ottoman Empire, remaining strongly rooted in their local traditions, while engaging with Ottoman visual idioms.

Download Full-text

The demography of the Canary Islands from a genetic perspective

Human Molecular Genetics ◽

10.1093/hmg/ddaa262 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Rosa Fregel ◽

Alejandra C Ordóñez ◽

Javier G Serrano

Keyword(s):

Canary Islands ◽

Demographic History ◽

American Continent ◽

North African ◽

European Colonization ◽

History Of ◽

The Impact ◽

First Time ◽

Canarian Archipelago ◽

North African Origin

Abstract The establishment of European colonies across the world had important demographic consequences because it brought together diverse and distant civilizations for the first time. One clear example of this phenomenon is observed in the Canary Islands. The modern Canarian population is mainly the result of the admixture of natives of North African origin and European colonizers. However, additional migratory flows reached the islands due to the importation of enslaved Africans to cultivate sugarcane and the intense commercial contact with the American continent. In this review, we evaluate how the genetic analysis of indigenous, historical, and current populations has provided a glimpse into the Canary Islands’ complex genetic composition. We show that each island subpopulation’s characterization is needed to fully disentangle the demographic history of the Canarian archipelago. Finally, we discuss what research avenues remain to be explored to improve our knowledge of the impact that the European colonization had on its native population.

Download Full-text

The de novo genome assembly and annotation of a female domestic dromedary of North African origin

Molecular Ecology Resources ◽

10.1111/1755-0998.12443 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 16 (1) ◽

pp. 314-324 ◽

Cited By ~ 44

Author(s):

Robert R. Fitak ◽

Elmira Mohandesan ◽

Jukka Corander ◽

Pamela A. Burger

Keyword(s):

Genome Assembly ◽

De Novo ◽

African Origin ◽

North African ◽

De Novo Genome Assembly ◽

North African Origin

Download Full-text

Current Research and Recent Radiocarbon Dates from Northern Africa, III

The Journal of African History ◽

10.1017/s0021853700023616 ◽

1988 ◽

Vol 29 (2) ◽

pp. 145-176 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

Angela E. Close

Keyword(s):

North Africa ◽

Good Evidence ◽

Nile Valley ◽

Archaeological Research ◽

North African ◽

Radiocarbon Dates ◽

Plant Foods ◽

Khartoum Mesolithic ◽

Subsistence Activities ◽

First Time

This article reports on developments in archaeological research in North Africa during the last four years, as these are reflected in the 350, or thereabouts, radiocarbon (and thermoluminescence) dates that have appeared since the last review. The number of new dates, and new data, becoming available indicate that North African archaeology is flourishing, although, in contrast to the earlier decades of this century, the focus seems now to be moving toward the eastern part of the region, and toward matters of adaptation rather than of simple classification, as exemplified by the new interpretations of the Dhar Tichitt Neolithic in Mauritania.The lower Nile Valley has yielded evidence for an intensification of subsistence activities in the Late Palaeolithic in two areas, Makhadma and Kubbaniya, both involving fish-harvesting and the latter also witnessing the use of plant-foods on a scale hitherto undocumented for this period.At the beginning of the Holocene, there is now good evidence for an eighth millennium bc Neolithic in northern Niger, complete with sophisticated ceramics, which complements the evidence already known for similar phenomena further east in the Sahara. There is even a possibility that the Khartoum Mesolithic of the central Nile Valley might be equally old. Our understanding of the Sudanese Neolithic has greatly increased. For the first time, there appears to be a development from the Khartoum Mesolithic into the Khartoum Neolithic, albeit located outside the Valley. The Khartoum Neolithic is more or less confined to the fourth millennium bc, but did give rise to the later Kadada Neolithic. After Kadada, the focus of settlement seems to have shifted outside the Valley until Meroitic times.In the protohistoric and historic periods, we have a better understanding of the chronology of the Egyptian Predynastic, although not yet of its development; what models exist will be radically modified if the pyramids are indeed as old as the dates on them now indicate. Finally, far from the Nile Valley in northern Niger, there comes detailed evidence of the development of a precocious metallurgical tradition within a Neolithic context.

Download Full-text

The micromammal fauna from Negratín-1 (Guadix Basin, southern Spain): new evidence of African-Iberian mammal exchanges during the Late Miocene

Journal of Paleontology ◽

10.1666/09-009.1 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 83 (6) ◽

pp. 854-879 ◽

Cited By ~ 34

Author(s):

Raef Minwer-Bararat ◽

Antonio García-Alix ◽

Jordi Agustí ◽

Elvira Martín Suárez ◽

Matthijs Freudenthal

Keyword(s):

North Africa ◽

Late Miocene ◽

Climatic Conditions ◽

Southern Spain ◽

Messinian Salinity Crisis ◽

African Origin ◽

Mammal Fauna ◽

Faunal List ◽

First Time ◽

New Evidence

A rich and diverse micromammal fauna from the late Turolian (MN13) locality of Negratín-1 (Guadix Basin, southern Spain) is described. The faunal list of this site includes Apodemus gudrunae, Occitanomys alcalai, Stephanomys dubari, Paraethomys meini, Myocricetodon jaegeri, Debruijnimys almenarensis, Apocricetus alberti, Ruscinomys sp., Eliomys sp., Atlantoxerus sp., Parasorex ibericus, and Soricidae indet. This is the most nearly complete mammal fauna from the Miocene of the Guadix Basin and allows precise correlations with localities from other Iberian areas. In addition, some of the taxa identified in Negratín-1 are useful as palaeoecological indicators (Myocricetodon, Debruijnimys, Atlantoxerus), evidencing warm and dry climatic conditions. But the principal interest of the fauna from Negratín-1 is the presence of several species of African origin, the gerbillids Debruijnimys almenarensis and Myocricetodon jaegeri, which are recognized for the first time in Europe. We also ascribe to M. jaegeri the population from the upper Turolian karst infilling of Almenara-M. This finding constitutes new evidence for faunal exchanges between North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula during the Messinian Salinity Crisis.

Download Full-text