@article {49600, title = {Diarrhea in young children from low-income countries leads to large-scale alterations in intestinal microbiota composition.}, volume = {15}, year = {2014}, month = {2014}, pages = {R76}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Diarrheal diseases continue to contribute significantly to morbidity and mortality in infants and young children in developing countries. There is an urgent need to better understand the contributions of novel, potentially uncultured, diarrheal pathogens to severe diarrheal disease, as well as distortions in normal gut microbiota composition that might facilitate severe disease.

RESULTS: We use high throughput 16S rRNA gene sequencing to compare fecal microbiota composition in children under five years of age who have been diagnosed with moderate to severe diarrhea (MSD) with the microbiota from diarrhea-free controls. Our study includes 992 children from four low-income countries in West and East Africa, and Southeast Asia. Known pathogens, as well as bacteria currently not considered as important diarrhea-causing pathogens, are positively associated with MSD, and these include Escherichia/Shigella, and Granulicatella species, and Streptococcus mitis/pneumoniae groups. In both cases and controls, there tend to be distinct negative correlations between facultative anaerobic lineages and obligate anaerobic lineages. Overall genus-level microbiota composition exhibit a shift in controls from low to high levels of Prevotella and in MSD cases from high to low levels of Escherichia/Shigella in younger versus older children; however, there was significant variation among many genera by both site and age.

CONCLUSIONS: Our findings expand the current understanding of microbiota-associated diarrhea pathogenicity in young children from developing countries. Our findings are necessarily based on correlative analyses and must be further validated through epidemiological and molecular techniques.

}, keywords = {Bangladesh, Base Sequence, Case-Control Studies, Child, Preschool, Diarrhea, Infantile, Dysentery, Feces, Female, Gambia, HUMANS, Infant, Infant, Newborn, Intestines, Kenya, Male, Mali, Microbiota, Molecular Typing, Poverty, RNA, Bacterial, RNA, Ribosomal, 16S}, issn = {1474-760X}, doi = {10.1186/gb-2014-15-6-r76}, author = {Pop, Mihai and Walker, Alan W and Paulson, Joseph and Lindsay, Brianna and Antonio, Martin and Hossain, M Anowar and Oundo, Joseph and Tamboura, Boubou and Mai, Volker and Astrovskaya, Irina and Corrada Bravo, Hector and Rance, Richard and Stares, Mark and Levine, Myron M and Panchalingam, Sandra and Kotloff, Karen and Ikumapayi, Usman N and Ebruke, Chinelo and Adeyemi, Mitchell and Ahmed, Dilruba and Ahmed, Firoz and Alam, Meer Taifur and Amin, Ruhul and Siddiqui, Sabbir and Ochieng, John B and Ouma, Emmanuel and Juma, Jane and Mailu, Euince and Omore, Richard and Morris, J Glenn and Breiman, Robert F and Saha, Debasish and Parkhill, Julian and Nataro, James P and Stine, O Colin} } @article {49608, title = {RNA-sequencing of the brain transcriptome implicates dysregulation of neuroplasticity, circadian rhythms and GTPase binding in bipolar disorder.}, volume = {19}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Nov}, pages = {1179-85}, abstract = {

RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq) is a powerful technique to investigate the complexity of gene expression in the human brain. We used RNA-seq to survey the brain transcriptome in high-quality postmortem dorsolateral prefrontal cortex from 11 individuals diagnosed with bipolar disorder (BD) and from 11 age- and gender-matched controls. Deep sequencing was performed, with over 350 million reads per specimen. At a false discovery rate of <5\%, we detected five differentially expressed (DE) genes and 12 DE transcripts, most of which have not been previously implicated in BD. Among these, Prominin 1/CD133 and ATP-binding cassette-sub-family G-member2 (ABCG2) have important roles in neuroplasticity. We also show for the first time differential expression of long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) in BD. DE transcripts include those of serine/arginine-rich splicing factor 5 (SRSF5) and regulatory factor X4 (RFX4), which along with lncRNAs have a role in mammalian circadian rhythms. The DE genes were significantly enriched for several Gene Ontology categories. Of these, genes involved with GTPase binding were also enriched for BD-associated SNPs from previous genome-wide association studies, suggesting that differential expression of these genes is not simply a consequence of BD or its treatment. Many of these findings were replicated by microarray in an independent sample of 60 cases and controls. These results highlight common pathways for inherited and non-inherited influences on disease risk that may constitute good targets for novel therapies.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Bipolar Disorder, Circadian Rhythm, Female, Genome-Wide Association Study, GTP Phosphohydrolases, HUMANS, Male, Meta-Analysis as Topic, Microarray Analysis, Middle Aged, Neuronal Plasticity, Polymerase Chain Reaction, Prefrontal Cortex, Principal Component Analysis, Sequence Analysis, RNA, Transcriptome, Young Adult}, issn = {1476-5578}, doi = {10.1038/mp.2013.170}, author = {Akula, N and Barb, J and Jiang, X and Wendland, J R and Choi, K H and Sen, S K and Hou, L and Chen, D T W and Laje, G and Johnson, K and Lipska, B K and Kleinman, J E and Corrada-Bravo, H and Detera-Wadleigh, S and Munson, P J and McMahon, F J} } @article {38421, title = {The partitioned LASSO-patternsearch algorithm with application to gene expression data}, journal = {BMC bioinformaticsBMC Bioinformatics}, volume = {13}, year = {2012}, note = {http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22587526?dopt=Abstract}, type = {10.1186/1471-2105-13-98}, abstract = {BACKGROUND: In systems biology, the task of reverse engineering gene pathways from data has been limited not just by the curse of dimensionality (the interaction space is huge) but also by systematic error in the data. The gene expression barcode reduces spurious association driven by batch effects and probe effects. The binary nature of the resulting expression calls lends itself perfectly to modern regularization approaches that thrive in high-dimensional settings. RESULTS: The Partitioned LASSO-Patternsearch algorithm is proposed to identify patterns of multiple dichotomous risk factors for outcomes of interest in genomic studies. A partitioning scheme is used to identify promising patterns by solving many LASSO-Patternsearch subproblems in parallel. All variables that survive this stage proceed to an aggregation stage where the most significant patterns are identified by solving a reduced LASSO-Patternsearch problem in just these variables. This approach was applied to genetic data sets with expression levels dichotomized by gene expression bar code. Most of the genes and second-order interactions thus selected and are known to be related to the outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: We demonstrate with simulations and data analyses that the proposed method not only selects variables and patterns more accurately, but also provides smaller models with better prediction accuracy, in comparison to several alternative methodologies.}, keywords = {algorithms, Breast Neoplasms, Computer simulation, Female, Gene expression, Gene Expression Profiling, Genomics, HUMANS, Models, Genetic}, author = {Shi, Weiliang and Wahba, Grace and Irizarry, Rafael A. and H{\'e}ctor Corrada Bravo and Wright, Stephen J.} } @article {49746, title = {Direct targeting of Sec23a by miR-200s influences cancer cell secretome and promotes metastatic colonization.}, journal = {Nat Med}, volume = {17}, year = {2011}, month = {2011 Sep}, pages = {1101-8}, abstract = {

Although the role of miR-200s in regulating E-cadherin expression and epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition is well established, their influence on metastatic colonization remains controversial. Here we have used clinical and experimental models of breast cancer metastasis to discover a pro-metastatic role of miR-200s that goes beyond their regulation of E-cadherin and epithelial phenotype. Overexpression of miR-200s is associated with increased risk of metastasis in breast cancer and promotes metastatic colonization in mouse models, phenotypes that cannot be recapitulated by E-cadherin expression alone. Genomic and proteomic analyses revealed global shifts in gene expression upon miR-200 overexpression toward that of highly metastatic cells. miR-200s promote metastatic colonization partly through direct targeting of Sec23a, which mediates secretion of metastasis-suppressive proteins, including Igfbp4 and Tinagl1, as validated by functional and clinical correlation studies. Overall, these findings suggest a pleiotropic role of miR-200s in promoting metastatic colonization by influencing E-cadherin-dependent epithelial traits and Sec23a-mediated tumor cell secretome.

}, keywords = {Animals, Cadherins, Cell Line, Tumor, Female, Gene Expression Profiling, Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic, HUMANS, Mass Spectrometry, Mice, Mice, Inbred BALB C, Microarray Analysis, MicroRNAs, Neoplasm Metastasis, Statistics, Nonparametric, Vesicular Transport Proteins}, issn = {1546-170X}, doi = {10.1038/nm.2401}, author = {Korpal, Manav and Ell, Brian J and Buffa, Francesca M and Ibrahim, Toni and Blanco, Mario A and Celi{\`a}-Terrassa, Toni and Mercatali, Laura and Khan, Zia and Goodarzi, Hani and Hua, Yuling and Wei, Yong and Hu, Guohong and Garcia, Benjamin A and Ragoussis, Jiannis and Amadori, Dino and Harris, Adrian L and Kang, Yibin} } @article {49643, title = {Schistosoma mansoni: Microarray analysis of gene expression induced by host sex.}, journal = {Exp Parasitol}, volume = {120}, year = {2008}, month = {2008 Dec}, pages = {357-63}, abstract = {

Schistosoma mansoni is a digenetic trematode and a human parasite responsible for high social and economic impact. Although some authors have studied the effect of host hormones on parasites, not much is known about the effects of host sex on gene expression in Schistosomes. In order to study gene transcripts associated with the host sex, we compared the gene expression profiles of both male and female unisexual adult S. mansoni parasites raised on either male or female hosts, using DNA microarrays. Our results show that host sex caused differential expression of at least 11 genes in female parasites and of 134 in male parasites. Of the differentially expressed genes in female worms, 10 were preferentially expressed in female worms from male mice, while of the 134 differentially expressed genes in male parasites, 79 (59\%) were preferentially expressed in worms from female mice. Further investigation of the role of each of those genes will help understand better their importance in the pathogenesis of Schistosomiasis.

}, keywords = {Animals, Biomphalaria, Female, Gene expression, Host-Parasite Interactions, Male, Mice, Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis, Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction, RNA, Helminth, Schistosoma mansoni, Schistosomiasis mansoni, Sex Factors}, issn = {1090-2449}, doi = {10.1016/j.exppara.2008.09.005}, author = {Waisberg, M and Lobo, F P and Cerqueira, G C and Passos, L K J and Carvalho, O S and El-Sayed, N M and Franco, G R} } @article {49641, title = {Analysis of fat body transcriptome from the adult tsetse fly, Glossina morsitans morsitans.}, journal = {Insect Mol Biol}, volume = {15}, year = {2006}, month = {2006 Aug}, pages = {411-24}, abstract = {

Tsetse flies (Diptera: Glossinidia) are vectors of pathogenic African trypanosomes. To develop a foundation for tsetse physiology, a normalized expressed sequence tag (EST) library was constructed from fat body tissue of immune-stimulated Glossina morsitans morsitans. Analysis of 20,257 high-quality ESTs yielded 6372 unique genes comprised of 3059 tentative consensus (TC) sequences and 3313 singletons (available at http://aksoylab.yale.edu). We analysed the putative fat body transcriptome based on homology to other gene products with known functions available in the public domain. In particular, we describe the immune-related products, reproductive function related yolk proteins and milk-gland protein, iron metabolism regulating ferritins and transferrin, and tsetse{\textquoteright}s major energy source proline biosynthesis. Expression analysis of the three yolk proteins indicates that all are detected in females, while only the yolk protein with similarity to lipases, is expressed in males. Milk gland protein, apparently important for larval nutrition, however, is primarily synthesized by accessory milk gland tissue.

}, keywords = {Adipose Tissue, Animals, Base Sequence, Computational Biology, DNA Primers, Egg Proteins, Expressed Sequence Tags, Female, Gene Expression Profiling, Insect Vectors, Male, Molecular Sequence Data, Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction, Sequence Analysis, DNA, Sex Factors, Tsetse Flies}, issn = {0962-1075}, doi = {10.1111/j.1365-2583.2006.00649.x}, author = {Attardo, G M and Strickler-Dinglasan, P and Perkin, S A H and Caler, E and Bonaldo, M F and Soares, M B and El-Sayeed, N and Aksoy, S} } @article {49686, title = {Sex-lethal splicing autoregulation in vivo: interactions between SEX-LETHAL, the U1 snRNP and U2AF underlie male exon skipping.}, journal = {Development}, volume = {130}, year = {2003}, month = {2003 Feb}, pages = {463-71}, abstract = {

Alternative splicing of the Sex-lethal pre-mRNA has long served as a model example of a regulated splicing event, yet the mechanism by which the female-specific SEX-LETHAL RNA-binding protein prevents inclusion of the translation-terminating male exon is not understood. Thus far, the only general splicing factor for which there is in vivo evidence for a regulatory role in the pathway leading to male-exon skipping is sans-fille (snf), a protein component of the spliceosomal U1 and U2 snRNPs. Its role, however, has remained enigmatic because of questions about whether SNF acts as part of an intact snRNP or a free protein. We provide evidence that SEX-LETHAL interacts with SANS-FILLE in the context of the U1 snRNP, through the characterization of a point mutation that interferes with both assembly into the U1 snRNP and complex formation with SEX-LETHAL. Moreover, we find that SEX-LETHAL associates with other integral U1 snRNP components, and we provide genetic evidence to support the biological relevance of these physical interactions. Similar genetic and biochemical approaches also link SEX-LETHAL with the heterodimeric splicing factor, U2AF. These studies point specifically to a mechanism by which SEX-LETHAL represses splicing by interacting with these key splicing factors at both ends of the regulated male exon. Moreover, because U2AF and the U1 snRNP are only associated transiently with the pre-mRNA during the course of spliceosome assembly, our studies are difficult to reconcile with the current model that proposes that the SEX-LETHAL blocks splicing at the second catalytic step, and instead argue that the SEX-LETHAL protein acts after splice site recognition, but before catalysis begins.

}, keywords = {Alternative Splicing, Amino Acid Sequence, Animals, Animals, Genetically Modified, Drosophila melanogaster, Drosophila Proteins, Exons, Female, Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental, Genes, Insect, Homeostasis, Male, Models, Genetic, Molecular Sequence Data, Nuclear Proteins, Point Mutation, Ribonucleoprotein, U1 Small Nuclear, Ribonucleoproteins, RNA Splicing, RNA-Binding Proteins, Sequence Homology, Amino Acid, Sex Differentiation}, issn = {0950-1991}, author = {Nagengast, Alexis A and Stitzinger, Shane M and Tseng, Chin-Hsiu and Mount, Stephen M and Salz, Helen K} } @article {49699, title = {P element-mediated in vivo deletion analysis of white-apricot: deletions between direct repeats are strongly favored.}, journal = {Genetics}, volume = {136}, year = {1994}, month = {1994 Mar}, pages = {1001-11}, abstract = {

We have isolated and characterized deletions arising within a P transposon, P[hswa], in the presence of P transposase. P[hswa] carries white-apricot (wa) sequences, including a complete copia element, under the control of an hsp70 promoter, and resembles the original wa allele in eye color phenotype. In the presence of P transposase, P[hswa] shows a high overall rate (approximately 3\%) of germline mutations that result in increased eye pigmentation. Of 234 derivatives of P[hswa] with greatly increased eye pigmentation, at least 205 carried deletions within copia. Of these, 201 were precise deletions between the directly repeated 276-nucleotide copia long terminal repeats (LTRs), and four were unique deletions. High rates of transposase-induced precise deletion were observed within another P transposon carrying unrelated 599 nucleotide repeats (yeast 2 mu FLP; recombinase target sites) separated by 5.7 kb. Our observation that P element-mediated deletion formation occurs preferentially between direct repeats suggests general methods for controlling deletion formation.

}, keywords = {Alleles, Animals, Animals, Genetically Modified, Base Sequence, Crosses, Genetic, DNA, DNA Transposable Elements, Drosophila, Eye Color, Female, Genes, Insect, Male, Molecular Sequence Data, Nucleotidyltransferases, PHENOTYPE, Recombination, Genetic, Repetitive Sequences, Nucleic Acid, Sequence Deletion, Transformation, Genetic, Transposases}, issn = {0016-6731}, author = {Kurkulos, M and Weinberg, J M and Roy, D and Mount, S M} } @article {49698, title = {Suppressor U1 snRNAs in Drosophila.}, journal = {Genetics}, volume = {138}, year = {1994}, month = {1994 Oct}, pages = {365-78}, abstract = {

Although the role of U1 small nuclear RNAs (snRNAs) in 5{\textquoteright} splice site recognition is well established, suppressor U1 snRNAs active in intact multicellular animals have been lacking. Here we describe suppression of a 5{\textquoteright} splice site mutation in the Drosophila melanogaster white gene (wDR18) by compensatory changes in U1 snRNA. Mutation of positions -1 and +6 of the 5{\textquoteright} splice site of the second intron (ACG[GTGAGT to ACC]GTGAGC) results in the accumulation of RNA retaining this 74-nucleotide intron in both transfected cells and transgenic flies. U1-3G, a suppressor U1 snRNA which restores base-pairing at position +6 of the mutant intron, increases the ratio of spliced to unspliced wDR18 RNA up to fivefold in transfected Schneider cells and increases eye pigmentation in wDR18 flies. U1-9G, which targets position -1, suppresses wDR18 in transfected cells less well. U1-3G,9G has the same effect as U1-3G although it accumulates to lower levels. Suppression of wDR18 has revealed that the U1b embryonic variant (G134 to U) is active in Schneider cells and pupal eye discs. However, the combination of 9G with 134U leads to reduced accumulation of both U1b-9G and U1b-3G,9G, possibly because nucleotides 9 and 134 both participate in a potential long-range intramolecular base-pairing interaction. High levels of functional U1-3G suppressor reduce both viability and fertility in transformed flies. These results show that, despite the difficulties inherent in stably altering splice site selection in multicellular organisms, it is possible to obtain suppressor U1 snRNAs in flies.

}, keywords = {Alternative Splicing, Animals, Base Sequence, Cell Line, Cell Nucleus, DNA Primers, Drosophila melanogaster, Female, Genes, Suppressor, Genetic Variation, GENOTYPE, Introns, Male, Molecular Sequence Data, Mutagenesis, Site-Directed, Nucleic Acid Conformation, Oligodeoxyribonucleotides, PHENOTYPE, Recombinant Proteins, Ribonucleoprotein, U1 Small Nuclear, RNA, Small Nuclear, Transfection, Transformation, Genetic}, issn = {0016-6731}, author = {Lo, P C and Roy, D and Mount, S M} } @article {49705, title = {Characterization of enhancer-of-white-apricot in Drosophila melanogaster.}, journal = {Genetics}, volume = {126}, year = {1990}, month = {1990 Dec}, pages = {1061-9}, abstract = {

The white-apricot (wa) allele differs from the wild-type white gene by the presence of the retrovirus-like transposable element copia within the transcription unit. Most RNAs derived from wa have 3{\textquoteright} termini within this insertion, and only small amounts of structurally normal RNA are produced. The activity of wa is reduced in trans by a semidominant mutation in the gene Enhancer-of-white-apricot (E(wa). Flies that are wa and heterozygous for the enhancer have eyes which are much lighter than the orange-yellow of wa alone while E(wa) homozygotes have white eyes. This semidominant effect on pigmentation is correlated with a corresponding decrease in white RNA having wild type structure, and flies homozygous for E(wa) have increased levels of aberrant RNAs. Three reverant alleles of E(wa) generated by reversion of the dominant enhancer phenotype with gamma radiation are noncomplementing recessive lethals, with death occurring during the larval stage. The effects on wa eye pigmentation of varying doses of the original E(wa) allele, the wild type allele, and the revertant alleles suggest that the original E(wa) allele produces a product that interferes with the activity of the wild type gene and that the revertants are null alleles. We propose that the E(wa) gene product influences the activity of the downstream copia long terminal repeat in 3{\textquoteright} end formation.

}, keywords = {Alleles, Animals, Blotting, Northern, DNA Transposable Elements, Drosophila melanogaster, Eye Color, Female, Heterozygote, Homozygote, Male, Nucleic Acid Hybridization, PHENOTYPE, Poly A, Reproduction, RNA, RNA, Messenger, Transcription, Genetic}, issn = {0016-6731}, author = {Peng, X B and Mount, S M} } @article {49628, title = {Detection of alloantigens during preimplantation development and early trophoblast differentiation in the mouse by immunoperoxidase labeling.}, journal = {J Exp Med}, volume = {143}, year = {1976}, month = {1976 Feb 1}, pages = {348-59}, abstract = {

An immunoperoxidase-labeling technique allowing visualization of antibody binding to the cell surface at the electron microscopical level has been employed an an analysis of H-2 and non-H-2 alloantigen expression on the early mouse embryo. The presence of non-H-2 antigenic determinants has been confirmed on eight-cell, morula, and blastocyst stages of development. Contrary to previous reports, however, low levels of H-2 antigen have also been detected on the blastocyst. This is the earliest stage at which H-2 has been shown to be expressed on the fertilized mouse egg and may reflect the greater resolution of the immunoperoxidase technique. Using two different models to study the critical peri-implantation stages, those of experimentally induced blastocyst activation and blastocyst outgrowth in vitro, it has been demonstrated that antigen loss occurs on the trophectoderm at the time of implantation, and that this is not necessarily dependent upon maternal influence. It is suggested that the loss may be an important factor in the prevention of maternal immune rejection during the establishment of the fetal allograft. The two major components of the early postimplantation conceptus display a striking differential in antigenic status. The embryonic sac shows a high degree of peroxidase labeling, while the ectoplacental cone trophoblast is unlabeled. These findings add support to the concept of antigenic neutrality of the early trophoblast and its role in the maintenance of a normal fetomaternal immunological equilibrium.

}, keywords = {Animals, Binding Sites, Antibody, Blastocyst, Cell Differentiation, Cell Membrane, Embryo Implantation, Embryonic Development, Epitopes, Female, Histocompatibility Antigens, HLA Antigens, Horseradish Peroxidase, Mice, Mice, Inbred Strains, Pregnancy, Pregnancy, Animal, Trophoblasts}, issn = {0022-1007}, author = {Searle, R F and Sellens, M H and Elson, J and Jenkinson, E J and Billington, W D} }