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Bibliography on: The Denisovans, Another Human Ancestor

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Robert J. Robbins is a biologist, an educator, a science administrator, a publisher, an information technologist, and an IT leader and manager who specializes in advancing biomedical knowledge and supporting education through the application of information technology. More About:  RJR | OUR TEAM | OUR SERVICES | THIS WEBSITE

RJR: Recommended Bibliography 18 Mar 2024 at 01:51 Created: 

The Denisovans, Another Human Ancestor

Wikipedia: The Denisovans are an extinct species or subspecies of human in the genus Homo. In March 2010, scientists announced the discovery of a finger bone fragment of a juvenile female who lived about 41,000 years ago, found in the remote Denisova Cave in the Altai Mountains in Siberia, a cave that has also been inhabited by Neanderthals and modern humans. Two teeth belonging to different members of the same population have since been reported. In November 2015, a tooth fossil containing DNA was reported to have been found and studied. A bone needle dated to 50,000 years ago was discovered at the archaeological site in 2016 and is described as the most ancient needle known. Analysis of the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) of the finger bone showed it to be genetically distinct from the mtDNAs of Neanderthals and modern humans. Subsequent study of the nuclear genome from this specimen suggests that Denisovans shared a common origin with Neanderthals, that they ranged from Siberia to Southeast Asia, and that they lived among and interbred with the ancestors of some modern humans. A comparison with the genome of a Neanderthal from the same cave revealed significant local interbreeding with local Neanderthal DNA representing 17% of the Denisovan genome, while evidence was also detected of interbreeding with an as yet unidentified ancient human lineage.

Created with PubMed® Query: ( denisovan OR denisova ) NOT pmcbook NOT ispreviousversion

Citations The Papers (from PubMed®)

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RevDate: 2024-03-08

Geier A, Trost J, Wang K, et al (2024)

PNPLA3 fatty liver allele was fixed in Neanderthals and segregates neutrally in humans.

Gut pii:gutjnl-2023-331594 [Epub ahead of print].

OBJECTIVE: Fat deposition is modulated by environmental factors and genetic predisposition. Genome-wide association studies identified PNPLA3 p.I148M (rs738409) as a common variant that increases risk of developing liver steatosis. When and how this variant evolved in humans has not been studied to date.

DESIGN: Here we analyse ancient DNA to track the history of this allele throughout human history. In total, 6444 published ancient (modern humans, Neanderthal, Denisovan) and 3943 published present day genomes were used for analysis after extracting genotype calls for PNPLA3 p.I148M. To quantify changes through time, logistic and, by grouping individuals according to geography and age, linear regression analyses were performed.

RESULTS: We find that archaic human individuals (Neanderthal, Denisovan) exclusively carried a fixed PNPLA3 risk allele, whereas allele frequencies in modern human populations range from very low in Africa to >50% in Mesoamerica. Over the last 15 000 years, distributions of ancestral and derived alleles roughly match the present day distribution. Logistic regression analyses did not yield signals of natural selection during the last 10 000 years.

CONCLUSION: Archaic human individuals exclusively carried a fixed PNPLA3 allele associated with fatty liver, whereas allele frequencies in modern human populations are variable even in the oldest samples. Our observation might underscore the advantage of fat storage in cold climate and particularly for Neanderthal under ice age conditions. The absent signals of natural selection during modern human history does not support the thrifty gene hypothesis in case of PNPLA3 p.I148M.

RevDate: 2024-03-06

Hautavoine H, Arnaud J, Balzeau A, et al (2024)

Quantifying hominin morphological diversity at the end of the middle Pleistocene: Implications for the origin of Homo sapiens.

American journal of biological anthropology [Epub ahead of print].

OBJECTIVES: The Middle Pleistocene (MP) saw the emergence of new species of hominins: Homo sapiens in Africa, H. neanderthalensis, and possibly Denisovans in Eurasia, whose most recent common ancestor is thought to have lived in Africa around 600 ka ago. However, hominin remains from this period present a wide range of morphological variation making it difficult to securely determine their taxonomic attribution and their phylogenetic position within the Homo genus. This study proposes to reconsider the phenetic relationships between MP hominin fossils in order to clarify evolutionary trends and contacts between the populations they represent.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: We used a Geometric Morphometrics approach to quantify the morphological variation of the calvarium of controversial MP specimens from Africa and Eurasia by using a comparative sample that can be divided into 5 groups: H. ergaster, H. erectus, H. neanderthalensis, and H. sapiens, as well as individuals from current modern human populations. We performed a Generalized Procrustes Analysis, a Principal Component Analysis, and Multinomial Principal Component Logistic Regressions to determine the phenetic affinities of the controversial Middle Pleistocene specimens with the other groups.

RESULTS: MP African and Eurasian specimens represent several populations, some of which show strong affinities with H. neanderthalensis in Europe or H. sapiens in Africa, others presenting multiple affinities.

DISCUSSION: These MP populations might have contributed to the emergence of these two species in different proportions. This study proposes a new framework for the human evolutionary history during the MP.

RevDate: 2024-03-04

Tyrinova T, Batorov E, Aristova T, et al (2024)

Decreased circulating myeloid-derived suppressor cell count at the engraftment is one of the risk factors for multiple myeloma relapse after autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.

Heliyon, 10(5):e26362.

Recent studies demonstrated that myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) are involved in the pathogenesis and progression of multiple myeloma (MM). Nevertheless, data on the quantitative and functional changes in MDSCs during standard MM treatment remain poorly understood. Here, we determined that monocytic MDSCs (M-MDSC; CD14[+]HLA-DR[low/-]) and granulocytic MDSCs (PMN-MDSC; Lin[-]HLA-DR[-]CD33[+]CD66b[+]) in MM patients in remission following induction therapy (IT) were significantly increased, while early MDSCs (E-MDSCs; Lin[-]HLA-DR[-]CD33[+]CD66b[-]) were decreased compared to the donor group. In progression, MM patients had the most pronounced decrease in E-MDSCs and enhanced levels of PMN-MDSCs. IT was accompanied with a decrease in the expression of arginase-1 (Arg-1). In MM patients with relapse or resistance to IT, Arg-1[+] cell frequency in M-MDSCs and E-MDSCs, as well as PD-L1[+] M-MDSCs, was increased, which may facilitate tumor immunosuppression. G-CSF administration led to a significant increment in the MDSC subsets. At the engraftment, circulating M-MDSC and PMN-MDSCs were temporarily increased, with a gradual decline to the pre-transplant levels in 12 months. The percentage of E-MDSCs was decreased at the leukocyte recovery. Patients with a higher (>Me) M-MDSC count at the engraftment had a shorter post-transplant leukopenia duration (Me 11 vs. 13 days; pU = 0.0086). The advanced MM stage, depth of response, and lower relative count of circulating E-MDSCs at the engraftment were independent risk factors associated with a lower progression-free survival. The obtained data allow us to hypothesize that MDSCs may play a positive role at the stage of leukocyte recovery by ameliorating the long-term anti-tumor response in MM.

RevDate: 2024-02-26

Kerdoncuff E, Skov L, Patterson N, et al (2024)

50,000 years of Evolutionary History of India: Insights from ~2,700 Whole Genome Sequences.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology pii:2024.02.15.580575.

India has been underrepresented in whole genome sequencing studies. We generated 2,762 high coverage genomes from India - including individuals from most geographic regions, speakers of all major languages, and tribal and caste groups - providing a comprehensive survey of genetic variation in India. With these data, we reconstruct the evolutionary history of India through space and time at fine scales. We show that most Indians derive ancestry from three ancestral groups related to ancient Iranian farmers, Eurasian Steppe pastoralists and South Asian hunter-gatherers. We uncover a common source of Iranian-related ancestry from early Neolithic cultures of Central Asia into the ancestors of Ancestral South Indians (ASI), Ancestral North Indians (ANI), Austro-asiatic-related and East Asian-related groups in India. Following these admixtures, India experienced a major demographic shift towards endogamy, resulting in extensive homozygosity and identity-by-descent sharing among individuals. At deep time scales, Indians derive around 1-2% of their ancestry from gene flow from archaic hominins, Neanderthals and Denisovans. By assembling the surviving fragments of archaic ancestry in modern Indians, we recover ~1.5 Gb (or 50%) of the introgressing Neanderthal and ~0.6 Gb (or 20%) of the introgressing Denisovan genomes, more than any other previous archaic ancestry study. Moreover, Indians have the largest variation in Neanderthal ancestry, as well as the highest amount of population-specific Neanderthal segments among worldwide groups. Finally, we demonstrate that most of the genetic variation in Indians stems from a single major migration out of Africa that occurred around 50,000 years ago, with minimal contribution from earlier migration waves. Together, these analyses provide a detailed view of the population history of India and underscore the value of expanding genomic surveys to diverse groups outside Europe.

RevDate: 2024-02-17

Zeberg H, Jakobsson M, S Pääbo (2024)

The genetic changes that shaped Neandertals, Denisovans, and modern humans.

Cell pii:S0092-8674(23)01403-4 [Epub ahead of print].

Modern human ancestors diverged from the ancestors of Neandertals and Denisovans about 600,000 years ago. Until about 40,000 years ago, these three groups existed in parallel, occasionally met, and exchanged genes. A critical question is why modern humans, and not the other two groups, survived, became numerous, and developed complex cultures. Here, we discuss genetic differences among the groups and some of their functional consequences. As more present-day genome sequences become available from diverse groups, we predict that very few, if any, differences will distinguish all modern humans from all Neandertals and Denisovans. We propose that the genetic basis of what constitutes a modern human is best thought of as a combination of genetic features, where perhaps none of them is present in each and every present-day individual.

RevDate: 2024-02-16

Denisova SA, Shchenkov SV, VV Lebedenkov (2024)

Microanatomy and ultrastructure of the nervous system of adult Renicola parvicaudatus (Digenea: Renicolidae).

Journal of morphology, 285(2):e21672.

The digenean complex life cycle includes various morphological forms with different locomotory and behavioral activities, and the functional specialization of their nervous system is of importance for the transmission of these parasites. Adult digeneans acquire many adaptive features associated with the final settlement in a vertebrate host. Our study describes the general morphology and ultrastructure of the nervous system of the adult renicolid digenean Renicola parvicaudatus parasitizing the renal tubules of herring gulls. Using immunocytochemical and electron microscopic methods, we identified the distinctive characteristics of ganglia and synapses in the studied species. A comparative analysis of the organization of the nervous system of adult individuals and their continuously-swimming stylet cercariae revealed a number of stage-related differences in the composition of ganglia, the distribution of serotonin- and FMRFamide-immunoreactive neurons, the cytomorphology of neuron somata and free sensory endings. Thus, in adults, the presence of FMRFamide-positive neuron somata, accessory muscle bundles in the ganglionic cortex, and eight types of neuronal vesicles was detected, but no glia-like elements were identified. Their neurons are characterized by a larger volume of cytoplasm and also show greater ultrastructural diversity. Although the sensory papillae of adults do not vary in their external morphology as much as those of larvae, their sensory bulbs are more diverse in cytomorphology. Following our previous data on the "support" cell processes related to various tissues of the larvae and considered as glia-like structures, we also briefly present the identified features of the parenchyma, attachment organs and excretory system of adult individuals. The excretory system of adult R. parvicaudatus is characterized by the presence of unique terminal cells with several flame tufts, which are not typical either for the larvae of this species or for other digeneans studied so far. We also used molecular phylogenetic analysis to clarify species identification.

RevDate: 2024-02-15

Denisová N, Piercey SJ, M Wälle (2024)

Mineralogy and mineral chemistry of the ABM replacement-style volcanogenic massive sulfide deposit, Finlayson Lake district, Yukon, Canada.

Mineralium deposita, 59(3):473-503.

UNLABELLED: The ABM deposit is a bimodal-felsic, replacement-style volcanogenic massive sulfide deposit (VMS) that is hosted by back-arc affinity rocks of the Yukon-Tanana terrane in the Finlayson Lake VMS district, Yukon, Canada. Massive sulfide zones occur as stacked and stratabound lenses subparallel to the volcanic stratigraphy, surrounded by pervasive white mica and/or chlorite alteration. Remnant clasts of volcanic rocks and preserved bedding occur locally within the massive sulfide lenses and indicate that mineralization formed through subseafloor replacement of pre-existing strata. Three mineral assemblages occur at the ABM deposit: (1) a pyrite-chalcopyrite-magnetite-pyrrhotite assemblage that is associated with Cu-Bi-Se-Co-enrichment and occurs at the center of the massive sulfide lenses; (2) a pyrite-sphalerite assemblage, which occurs more commonly towards lens margins and is enriched in Zn-Pb-Ag-Au-Hg-As-Sb-Ba; and (3) a minor assemblage comprising chalcopyrite-pyrrhotite-pyrite stringers associated with pervasive chlorite alteration, which occurs mostly at the sulfide lens margins. Petrographic observations of preserved primary, zone refining, and metamorphic textures in combination with in situ geochemistry show that the pyrite-sphalerite assemblage formed at lower temperatures (< 270 °C) than the other two mineral assemblages (~ 270-350 °C), and that mineral chemistry in all mineral assemblages was affected by greenschist facies metamorphism, although the effects are limited to recrystallization, small-scale remobilization (< 1 m) and trace element redistribution.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00126-023-01217-4.

RevDate: 2024-02-10

Végh EI, K Douka (2024)

SpecieScan: Semi-Automated taxonomic identification of bone collagen peptides from MALDI-ToF MS spectra.

Bioinformatics (Oxford, England) pii:7604576 [Epub ahead of print].

MOTIVATION: Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry (ZooMS) is a palaeoproteomics method for the taxonomic determination of collagen, which traditionally involves challenging manual spectra analysis with limitations in quantitative results. As the ZooMS reference database expands, a faster and reproducible identification tool is necessary. This paper presents SpecieScan, an open-access algorithm for automating taxa identification from raw MALDI-ToF Mass Spectrometry (MS) data.

RESULTS: SpecieScan was developed using R (pre-processing) and Python (automation). The algorithm's output includes identified peptide markers, closest matching taxonomic group (taxon, family, order), correlation scores with the reference databases, and contaminant peaks present in the spectra. Testing on original MS data from bones discovered at several archaeological sites, including Denisova Cave, as well as publicly available externally produced data, achieved >90% accuracy at the genus-level and ∼92% accuracy at the family-level for data of mammalian bone collagen previously analysed using manual methods.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The SpecieScan algorithm, original raw data, results, reference databases, and contamination lists are freely available on the web and can be found on Github (https://github.com/mesve/SpecieScan).

RevDate: 2024-01-26

Larivière D, Abueg L, Brajuka N, et al (2024)

Scalable, accessible and reproducible reference genome assembly and evaluation in Galaxy.

RevDate: 2024-01-12

Borodko DD, Zhenilo SV, FS Sharko (2023)

Search for differentially methylated regions in ancient and modern genomes.

Vavilovskii zhurnal genetiki i selektsii, 27(7):820-828.

Currently, active research is focused on investigating the mechanisms that regulate the development of various pathologies and their evolutionary dynamics. Epigenetic mechanisms, such as DNA methylation, play a significant role in evolutionary processes, as their changes have a faster impact on the phenotype compared to mutagenesis. In this study, we attempted to develop an algorithm for identifying differentially methylated regions associated with metabolic syndrome, which have undergone methylation changes in humans during the transition from a hunter-gatherer to a sedentary lifestyle. The application of existing whole-genome bisulfite sequencing methods is limited for ancient samples due to their low quality and fragmentation, and the approach to obtaining DNA methylation profiles differs significantly between ancient hunter-gatherer samples and modern tissues. In this study, we validated DamMet, an algorithm for reconstructing ancient methylomes. Application of DamMet to Neanderthal and Denisovan genomes showed a moderate level of correlation with previously published methylation profiles and demonstrated an underestimation of methylation levels in the reconstructed profiles by an average of 15-20 %. Additionally, we developed a new Python-based algorithm that allows for the comparison of methylomes in ancient and modern samples, despite the absence of methylation profiles in modern bone tissue within the context of obesity. This analysis involves a two-step data processing approach, where the first step involves the identification and filtration of tissue-specific methylation regions, and the second step focuses on the direct search for differentially methylated regions in specific areas associated with the researcher's target condition. By applying this algorithm to test data, we identified 38 differentially methylated regions associated with obesity, the majority of which were located in promoter regions. The pipeline demonstrated sufficient efficiency in detecting these regions. These results confirm the feasibility of reconstructing DNA methylation profiles in ancient samples and comparing them with modern methylomes. Furthermore, possibilities for further methodological development and the implementation of a new step for studying differentially methylated positions associated with evolutionary processes are discussed.

RevDate: 2024-01-08

Ziv I, Avni I, Dinstein I, et al (2024)

Oculomotor randomness is higher in autistic children and increases with the severity of symptoms.

Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research [Epub ahead of print].

A variety of studies have suggested that at least some children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) view the world differently. Differences in gaze patterns as measured by eye tracking have been demonstrated during visual exploration of images and natural viewing of movies with social content. Here we analyzed the temporal randomness of saccades and blinks during natural viewing of movies, inspired by a recent measure of "randomness" applied to micro-movements of the hand and head in ASD (Torres et al., 2013; Torres & Denisova, 2016). We analyzed a large eye-tracking dataset of 189 ASD and 41 typically developing (TD) children (1-11 years old) who watched three movie clips with social content, each repeated twice. We found that oculomotor measures of randomness, obtained from gamma parameters of inter-saccade intervals (ISI) and blink duration distributions, were significantly higher in the ASD group compared with the TD group and were correlated with the ADOS comparison score, reflecting increased "randomness" in more severe cases. Moreover, these measures of randomness decreased with age, as well as with higher cognitive scores in both groups and were consistent across repeated viewing of each movie clip. Highly "random" eye movements in ASD children could be associated with high "neural variability" or noise, poor sensory-motor control, or weak engagement with the movies. These findings could contribute to the future development of oculomotor biomarkers as part of an integrative diagnostic tool for ASD.

RevDate: 2024-01-03

Ojomoko LO, Kryukova EV, Egorova NS, et al (2023)

Inhibition of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors by oligoarginine peptides and polyamine-related compounds.

Frontiers in pharmacology, 14:1327603 pii:1327603.

Oligoarginine peptides, known mostly for their cell-penetrating properties, are also inhibitors of the nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs). Since octa-arginine (R8) inhibits α9α10 nAChR and suppresses neuropathic pain, we checked if other polycationic compounds containing amino and/or guanidino groups could be effective and tested the activity of the disulfide-fixed "cyclo"R8, a series of biogenic polyamines (putrescine, spermidine, and spermine), C-methylated spermine analogs, agmatine and its analogs, as well as acylpolyamine argiotoxin-636 from spider venom. Their inhibitory potency on muscle-type, α7 and α9α10 nAChRs was determined using radioligand analysis, electrophysiology, and calcium imaging. "Cyclo"R8 showed similar activity to that of R8 against α9α10 nAChR (IC50 ≈ 60 nM). Biogenic polyamines as well as agmatine and its analogs displayed low activity on muscle-type Torpedo californica, as well as α7 and α9α10 nAChRs, which increased with chain length, the most active being spermine and its C-methylated derivatives having IC50 of about 30 μM against muscle-type T. californica nAChR. Argiotoxin-636, which contains a polyamine backbone and terminal guanidino group, also weakly inhibited T. californica nAChR (IC50 ≈ 15 μM), but it revealed high potency against rat α9α10 nAChR (IC50 ≈ 200 nM). We conclude that oligoarginines and similar polycationic compounds effectively inhibiting α9α10 nAChR may serve as a basis for the development of analgesics to reduce neuropathic pain.

RevDate: 2024-01-03

Levinstein Hallak K, S Rosset (2024)

Dating ancient splits in phylogenetic trees, with application to the human-Neanderthal split.

BMC genomic data, 25(1):4.

BACKGROUND: We tackle the problem of estimating species TMRCAs (Time to Most Recent Common Ancestor), given a genome sequence from each species and a large known phylogenetic tree with a known structure (typically from one of the species). The number of transitions at each site from the first sequence to the other is assumed to be Poisson distributed, and only the parity of the number of transitions is observed. The detailed phylogenetic tree contains information about the transition rates in each site. We use this formulation to develop and analyze multiple estimators of the species' TMRCA. To test our methods, we use mtDNA substitution statistics from the well-established Phylotree as a baseline for data simulation such that the substitution rate per site mimics the real-world observed rates.

RESULTS: We evaluate our methods using simulated data and compare them to the Bayesian optimizing software BEAST2, showing that our proposed estimators are accurate for a wide range of TMRCAs and significantly outperform BEAST2. We then apply the proposed estimators on Neanderthal, Denisovan, and Chimpanzee mtDNA genomes to better estimate their TMRCA with modern humans and find that their TMRCA is substantially later, compared to values cited recently in the literature.

CONCLUSIONS: Our methods utilize the transition statistics from the entire known human mtDNA phylogenetic tree (Phylotree), eliminating the requirement to reconstruct a tree encompassing the specific sequences of interest. Moreover, they demonstrate notable improvement in both running speed and accuracy compared to BEAST2, particularly for earlier TMRCAs like the human-Chimpanzee split. Our results date the human - Neanderthal TMRCA to be [Formula: see text] years ago, considerably later than values cited in other recent studies.

RevDate: 2023-12-30

Ivchenko GS, Lobzhanidze NN, Rusina DS, et al (2023)

[Mild post-COVID syndrome in young patients].

Terapevticheskii arkhiv, 95(8):674-678.

BACKGROUND: Many COVID-19 survivors suffer from post-COVID syndrome, which significantly worsens the quality of life. Its presentation is quite diverse, with cognitive disorders being of particular importance. Liver injury due to the direct virus action and the treatment of the new coronavirus infection can persist for a long time during the recovery period and lead to hyperammonemia, which can cause cognitive disorders, including minimal hepatic encephalopathy.

AIM: To study cognitive disorders in post-COVID syndrome and the possibility of their treatment with L-ornithine-L-aspartate.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study included 30 students from 18 to 24 years old who had COVID-19 and decreased attention, memory impairment, and other cognitive disorders inherent in hepatic encephalopathy of latent (grade 0) or mild (grade 1) severity, without pronounced impairment of intelligence, memory, speech, and learning ability. Hyperammonemia, elevated alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, and ã-glutamyl transpeptidase, signs of hepatic encephalopathy according to psychometric tests, were reported in young people. All patients in the study were treated with L-ornithine-L-aspartate to correct the ammonia blood level and improve signs of hepatic encephalopathy and the general condition.

RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: An improvement in the objective findings, liver enzymes, a decrease in ammonia level, and an improvement in testing results for changes in cognitive functions were reported.

RevDate: 2023-12-19

Zhao H, Liu LL, Sun J, et al (2023)

A human-specific insertion promotes cell proliferation and migration by enhancing TBC1D8B expression.

Science China. Life sciences [Epub ahead of print].

Human-specific insertions play important roles in human phenotypes and diseases. Here we reported a 446-bp insertion (Insert-446) in intron 11 of the TBC1D8B gene, located on chromosome X, and traced its origin to a portion of intron 6 of the EBF1 gene on chromosome 5. Interestingly, Insert-446 was present in the human Neanderthal and Denisovans genomes, and was fixed in humans after human-chimpanzee divergence. We have demonstrated that Insert-446 acts as an enhancer through binding transcript factors that promotes a higher expression of human TBC1D8B gene as compared with orthologs in macaques. In addition, over-expression TBC1D8B promoted cell proliferation and migration through "a dual finger" catalytic mechanism (Arg538 and Gln573) in the TBC domain in vitro and knockdown of TBC1D8B attenuated tumorigenesis in vivo. Knockout of Insert-446 prevented cell proliferation and migration in cancer and normal cells. Our results reveal that the human-specific Insert-446 promotes cell proliferation and migration by upregulating the expression of TBC1D8B gene. These findings provide a significant insight into the effects of human-specific insertions on evolution.

RevDate: 2023-12-14

Velazquez-Arcelay K, Colbran LL, McArthur E, et al (2023)

Archaic Introgression Shaped Human Circadian Traits.

Genome biology and evolution, 15(12):.

When the ancestors of modern Eurasians migrated out of Africa and interbred with Eurasian archaic hominins, namely, Neanderthals and Denisovans, DNA of archaic ancestry integrated into the genomes of anatomically modern humans. This process potentially accelerated adaptation to Eurasian environmental factors, including reduced ultraviolet radiation and increased variation in seasonal dynamics. However, whether these groups differed substantially in circadian biology and whether archaic introgression adaptively contributed to human chronotypes remain unknown. Here, we traced the evolution of chronotype based on genomes from archaic hominins and present-day humans. First, we inferred differences in circadian gene sequences, splicing, and regulation between archaic hominins and modern humans. We identified 28 circadian genes containing variants with potential to alter splicing in archaics (e.g., CLOCK, PER2, RORB, and RORC) and 16 circadian genes likely divergently regulated between present-day humans and archaic hominins, including RORA. These differences suggest the potential for introgression to modify circadian gene expression. Testing this hypothesis, we found that introgressed variants are enriched among expression quantitative trait loci for circadian genes. Supporting the functional relevance of these regulatory effects, we found that many introgressed alleles have associations with chronotype. Strikingly, the strongest introgressed effects on chronotype increase morningness, consistent with adaptations to high latitude in other species. Finally, we identified several circadian loci with evidence of adaptive introgression or latitudinal clines in allele frequency. These findings identify differences in circadian gene regulation between modern humans and archaic hominins and support the contribution of introgression via coordinated effects on variation in human chronotype.

RevDate: 2023-12-05

Wroblewski TH, Witt KE, Lee SB, et al (2023)

Pharmacogenetic variation in Neanderthals and Denisovans and implications for human health and response to medications.

Genome biology and evolution pii:7459155 [Epub ahead of print].

Modern humans carry both Neanderthal and Denisovan (archaic) genome elements that are part of the human gene pool and affect the life and health of living individuals. The impact of archaic DNA may be particularly evident in pharmacogenes - genes responsible for the processing of exogenous substances such as food, pollutants, and medications - as these can relate to changing environmental effects, and beneficial variants may have been retained as modern humans encountered new environments. However, the health implications and contribution of archaic ancestry in pharmacogenes of modern humans remain understudied. Here, we explore eleven key cytochrome P450 genes (CYP450) involved in 75% of all drug metabolizing reactions in three Neanderthal and one Denisovan individuals and examine archaic introgression in modern human populations. We infer the metabolizing efficiency of these eleven CYP450 genes in archaic individuals and find important predicted phenotypic differences relative to modern human variants. We identify several single nucleotide variants shared between archaic and modern humans in each gene, including some potentially function-altering mutations in archaic CYP450 genes, which may result in altered metabolism in living people carrying these variants. We also identified several variants in the archaic CYP450 genes that are novel and unique to archaic humans as well as one gene, CYP2B6, that shows evidence for a gene duplication found only in Neanderthals and modern Africans. Finally, we highlight CYP2A6, CYP2C9, and CYP2J2, genes which show evidence for archaic introgression into modern humans and posit evolutionary hypotheses that explain their allele frequencies in modern populations.

RevDate: 2023-11-29

Agata A, Ohtsuka S, Noji R, et al (2023)

A Neanderthal/Denisovan GLI3 variant contributes to anatomical variations in mice.

Frontiers in cell and developmental biology, 11:1247361.

Changes in genomic structures underlie phenotypic diversification in organisms. Amino acid-changing mutations affect pleiotropic functions of proteins, although little is known about how mutated proteins are adapted in existing developmental programs. Here we investigate the biological effects of a variant of the GLI3 transcription factor (GLI3[R1537C]) carried in Neanderthals and Denisovans, which are extinct hominins close to modern humans. R1537C does not compromise protein stability or GLI3 activator-dependent transcriptional activities. In contrast, R1537C affects the regulation of downstream target genes associated with developmental processes. Furthermore, genome-edited mice carrying the Neanderthal/Denisovan GLI3 mutation exhibited various alterations in skeletal morphology. Our data suggest that an extinct hominin-type GLI3 contributes to species-specific anatomical variations, which were tolerated by relaxed constraint in developmental programs during human evolution.

RevDate: 2023-11-27
CmpDate: 2023-11-27

Mikhailova SV, Ivanoshchuk DE, Orlov PS, et al (2023)

Assessment of the Genetic Characteristics of a Generation Born during a Long-Term Socioeconomic Crisis.

Genes, 14(11):.

BACKGROUND: A socioeconomic crisis in Russia lasted from 1991 to 1998 and was accompanied by a sharp drop in the birth rate. The main factor that influenced the refusal to have children during this period is thought to be prolonged social stress.

METHODS: comparing frequencies of common gene variants associated with stress-induced diseases among generations born before, after, and during this crisis may show which genes may be preferred under the pressure of natural selection during periods of increased social stress in urban populations.

RESULTS: In the "crisis" group, a statistically significant difference from the other two groups was found in rs6557168 frequency (p = 0.001); rs4522666 was not in the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium in this group, although its frequency did not show a significant difference from the other groups (p = 0.118). Frequencies of VNTRs in SLC6A3 and MAOA as well as common variants rs17689918 in CRHR1, rs1360780 in FKBP5, rs53576 in OXTR, rs12720071 and rs806377 in CNR1, rs4311 in ACE, rs1800497 in ANKK1, and rs7412 and rs429358 in APOE did not differ among the groups.

CONCLUSIONS: a generation born during a period of prolonged destructive events may differ from the rest of the gene pool of the population in some variants associated with personality traits or stress-related disorders.

RevDate: 2023-11-28

Denisova K (2023)

Reply to Silber: on discoveries in science.

RevDate: 2023-11-24

Rzhepakovsky I, Piskov S, Avanesyan S, et al (2023)

Composite of bacterial cellulose and gelatin: A versatile biocompatible scaffold for tissue engineering.

International journal of biological macromolecules pii:S0141-8130(23)05268-6 [Epub ahead of print].

Synthesis of 0.4 ± 0.03 g/L per day of pure and porous bacterial cellulose (BC) scaffolds (scaffBC) and BC scaffolds modified with gelatin (scaffBC/Gel) was carried out using the Medusomyces gisevii Sa-28 bacterial strain. FT-IR spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction analysis showed that the scaffolds largely consist of crystalline cellulose I (Iα, Iß). Heating of BC with gelatin to 60 °C with subsequent lyophilization led to its modification by adsorption and binding of low-molecular fractions of gelatin and the formation of small pores between the fibers, which increased the biocompatibility and solubility of BC. The solubility of scaffBC and scaffBC/Gel was 20.8 % and 44.4 %, respectively, which enhances degradation in vivo. Light microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and microcomputed tomography showed a uniform distribution of pores with a diameter of 100-500 μm. The chicken chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) model and subcutaneous implantation in rats confirmed low immunogenicity and intense formation of collagen fibers in both scaffolds and active germination of new blood vessels in scaffBC and scaffBC/Gel. The proliferative cellular activity of fibroblasts confirmed the safety of scaffolds. Taken together, the results obtained show that scaffBC/Gel can be used for the engineering of hard and soft tissues, which opens opportunities for further research.

RevDate: 2023-11-28

Marshenya SN, Dembitskiy AD, Fedorov DS, et al (2023)

NaGaPO4F - a KTiOPO4-structured solid sodium-ion conductor.

Dalton transactions (Cambridge, England : 2003), 52(46):17426-17437.

Advanced ionic conductors are crucial for a large variety of contemporary technologies spanning solid state ion batteries, fuel cells, gas sensors, water desalination, etc. In this work, we report on a new member of KTiOPO4-structured materials, NaGaPO4F, with sodium-ion conductivity. NaGaPO4F has been obtained for the first time via a facile two-step synthesis consisting of a hydrothermal preparation of an ammonia-based precursor, NH4GaPO4F, followed by an ion exchange reaction with NaNO3. Its crystal structure was precisely refined using a combination of synchrotron X-ray powder diffraction and electron diffraction tomography. The material is thermally stable upon 450 °C showing no significant structural transformations or degradation but only a ∼1% cell volume expansion. Na-ion mobility in NaGaPO4F was investigated by a joint experimental and computational approach comprising solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and density functional theory (DFT). DFT and bond-valence site energy (BVSE) calculations reveal 3D diffusion of sodium in the [GaPO4F] framework with migration barriers amounting to 0.22 and 0.44 eV, respectively, while NMR yields 0.3-0.5 eV that, being coupled with a calculated bandgap of ∼4.25 eV, makes NaGaPO4F a promising fast Na-ion conductor.

RevDate: 2023-11-10
CmpDate: 2023-11-10

Katargina LA, Chesnokova NB, Denisova EV, et al (2023)

[The role of endothelin-1 in the pathogenesis of familial exudative vitreoretinopathy].

Vestnik oftalmologii, 139(5):14-18.

UNLABELLED: Familial exudative vitreoretinopathy (FEVR) is a rare hereditary disease characterized by pathological retinal vascularization with a progressive and variable course. The mechanisms of disease progression remain unclear. One substance that plays an important role in the pathogenesis of retinal vascular diseases is endothelin (ET). It was found that tissue hypoxia enhances the expression of the gene encoding ET-1, and ET-1 can be locally produced in the eye.

PURPOSE: The study evaluates the possible role of endothelin-1 in the pathogenesis of FEVR.

MATERIAL AND METHODS: The study included 85 patients with FEVR aged from 1 months to 17 years who were examined in Helmholtz National Medical Research Center of Eye Diseases. The concentration of ET-1 was evaluated in 19 patients with FEVR in the blood serum (n=17), lacrimal fluid (n=18) and 16 patients from the control group.

RESULTS: The median of ET-1 in the lacrimal fluid in patients with FEVR was 13.74 pg/mL, respectively, which exceeded the same indicator of the control group 4.66 pg/mL by 2.5 times (p<0.001). The median of ET-1 in the blood serum exceeded the control group by 2.4 times (21.61 pg/mL and 9.21 pg/mL, respectively, p<0.001).

CONCLUSIONS: An increase in the concentration of ET-1 in the lacrimal fluid and blood serum of patients with FEVR in comparison with the control group indicates its involvement in the pathogenesis of the disease.

RevDate: 2023-11-04

Gaggiano C, Gupta V, Agrawal R, et al (2023)

Knowledge and Current Practices in Monogenic Uveitis: An International Survey by IUSG and AIDA Network.

Ophthalmology and therapy [Epub ahead of print].

INTRODUCTION: This study aims to explore awareness, knowledge, and diagnostic/therapeutic practices in monogenic uveitis (mU) among uveitis experts.

METHODS: This is an explorative, cross-sectional survey study. An anonymous, semi-structured, electronic survey was delivered to uveitis experts from the Autoinflammatory Diseases Alliance (AIDA) Network and International Uveitis Study Group (IUSG). We included respondents answering ≥ 50% of the survey.

RESULTS: Seventy-seven participants rated their knowledge of mU as proficient (3.9%), adequate (15.6%), sufficient (16.9%), or poor (63.6%). When asked about the first mU gene they thought of, 60.4% mentioned NOD2, 3.9% mentioned NLRP3 or MEFV, and 49.4% provided incorrect or no answers. Success rates in clinical scenarios varied from 15.6% to 55.8% and were higher for ophthalmologists working in multidisciplinary teams (p < 0.01). Genetic testing was ordered for suspected mU by 41.6% of physicians. The availability of molecular techniques did not significantly differ based on geography (p > 0.05). The public healthcare system ensured a higher percentage of tests prescribed were obtained by patients compared to private insurances (p < 0.00). In terms of disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs), tumor necrosis factor-α inhibitors were the most familiar to uveitis experts. The difficulties with off-label therapy procedures were the primary barrier to DMARDs prescription for patients with mU and correlated inversely with the obtained/prescribed drug ratio for interleukin-1 (p < 0.01) and interleukin-6 (p < 0.01) inhibitors.

CONCLUSIONS: This survey identifies proficiency areas, gaps, and opportunities for targeted improvements in patients care. The comprehensive outputs may inform evidence-based guidelines, empowering clinicians with standardized approaches, and drive an AIDA Network-IUSG unified effort to advance scientific knowledge and clinical practice.

RevDate: 2023-11-02
CmpDate: 2023-11-02

Danchenko EA, Ertuzun IA, Bugaeva LI, et al (2023)

Analysis of General Toxicity of Ergoferon.

Bulletin of experimental biology and medicine, 175(5):644-648.

For antibody-based drugs, it is important and relevant to study their toxic effects, which can often become limiting when prescribing this type of therapy. General toxicity of antiviral drug Ergoferon based on technologically processed antibodies was studied on sexually mature animals. Analysis of acute toxicity showed the absence of lethal outcomes when the drug was administered to adult rats at the maximum tolerated doses. In a study of repeated dose toxicity, no adverse effects of the drug were detected.

RevDate: 2023-10-23
CmpDate: 2023-10-23

Sokolov S, Shchenkov S, Frolov E, et al (2023)

Molecular and morphological screening of Podocotyle spp. (Trematoda: Opecoelidae) sheds light on their diversity in Northwest Pacific and eastern European Arctic.

Journal of helminthology, 97:e78 pii:S0022149X23000603.

Podocotyle is a genus of marine opecoelid digeneans that parasitize a wide variety of fish as adults. We present the first phylogenetic analysis of several Podocotyle isolates using nuclear 28S rDNA and mitochondrial cox1 DNA regions. New sequences were obtained for Podocotyle specimens from fish caught in the Sea of Okhotsk and the White Sea. Based on morphological and molecular data, eight Podocotyle lineages of species rank were revealed. However, this diversity is poorly formalized within the current taxonomic model of the genus. As a result, we identified Podocotyle cf. angulata, Podocotyle cf. atomon, Podocotyle cf. reflexa, Podocotyle atomon of Sokolov et al., 2019, Podocotyle sp. of Denisova et al., 2023, Podocotyle sp. 1, Podocotyle sp. 2 and Podocotyle sp. 3. We also highlight the unresolved question of the life cycles of representatives of Podocotyle whose intramolluscan stages parasitize the intertidal snails Littorina spp.

RevDate: 2023-11-03
CmpDate: 2023-11-03

Alenkina IV, Chukin AV, Leitus G, et al (2024)

Analysis of the iron states in iron-containing pharmaceutical products using Mössbauer spectroscopy.

Journal of pharmaceutical and biomedical analysis, 237:115745.

Iron-containing pharmaceuticals, namely: (i) PreNatal with ferrous fumarate, (ii) Tardyferon® with ferrous sulfate, (iii) Fenules with water free ferrous sulfate, (iv) Iron Complex with iron glycinate, citrate, (v) Gentle Iron, (vi) Hema-Plex® and (vii) Iron Bisglycinate with iron (ferrous) bisglycinate chelate (iron compounds are given as declared by the manufactures) were studied by [57]Fe Mössbauer spectroscopy with X-ray diffraction and magnetization measurements for analysis of the iron state. The obtained results demonstrate that the iron compound announced by the manufacturer in each pharmaceutical is not homogeneous and exists as some modifications of this compound or results of its transformation/oxidation probably due to its instability. The presence of ferrous and ferric compounds is observed, and the relative ferric iron fractions are roughly determined for each pharmaceutical product. This analysis clearly shows the differences between the iron compounds proclaimed by the manufacturers and those obtained by Mössbauer spectroscopy. That justifies as to why this technique should be used for the control and analysis of the iron-containing pharmaceuticals.

RevDate: 2023-10-19

Villanea FA, Peede D, Kaufman EJ, et al (2023)

The MUC19 gene in Denisovans, Neanderthals, and Modern Humans: An Evolutionary History of Recurrent Introgression and Natural Selection.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology.

All humans carry a small fraction of archaic ancestry across the genome, the legacy of gene flow from Neanderthals, Denisovans, and other hominids into the ancestors of modern humans. While the effects of Neanderthal ancestry on human fitness and health have been explored more thoroughly, there are fewer examples of adaptive introgression of Denisovan variants. Here, we study the gene MUC19, for which some modern humans carry a Denisovan-like haplotype. MUC19 is a mucin, a glycoprotein that forms gels with various biological functions, from lubrication to immunity. We find the diagnostic variants for the Denisovan-like MUC19 haplotype at high frequencies in admixed Latin American individuals among global population, and at highest frequency in 23 ancient Indigenous American individuals, all predating population admixture with Europeans and Africans. We find that some Neanderthals--Vindija and Chagyrskaya--carry the Denisovan-like MUC19 haplotype, and that it was likely introgressed into human populations through Neanderthal introgression rather than Denisovan introgression. Finally, we find that the Denisovan-like MUC19 haplotype carries a higher copy number of a 30 base-pair variable number tandem repeat relative to the Human-like haplotype, and that copy numbers of this repeat are exceedingly high in American populations. Our results suggest that the Denisovan-like MUC19 haplotype served as the raw genetic material for positive selection as American populations adapted to novel environments during their movement from Beringia into North and then South America.

RevDate: 2023-10-26
CmpDate: 2023-10-26

Solovev AS, Denisova EM, Kurbatova EA, et al (2023)

Synthesis of methylphosphorylated oligomannosides structurally related to lipopolysaccharide O-antigens of Klebsiella pneumoniae serotype O3 and their application for detection of specific antibodies in rabbit and human sera.

Organic & biomolecular chemistry, 21(41):8306-8319.

Methylphosphorylated mono-, di- and trimannosides structurally related to the lipopolysaccharide (LPS) O-antigens of Klebsiella pneumoniae of serotype O3 were synthesized and conjugated with a biotin tag. The stereo- and regioselective assembly of target carbohydrate chains was conducted using uniform monosaccharide synthetic blocks. After that, a methylphosphate group was introduced by coupling with a methyl-H-phosphonate reagent followed by oxidation and deprotection to give the target oligosaccharides. The [1]H and [13]C NMR spectra of the obtained compounds showed a good fit with the spectrum of the corresponding natural polysaccharide. The newly prepared biotinylated oligosaccharides along with the previously reported biotinylated glycoconjugates related to galactan I and galactan II of K. pneumoniae LPS were used for the ELISA detection of antibodies in anti-K. pneumoniae rabbit sera. Anti-O3 serum antibodies specifically recognized the synthesized oligosaccharide ligands with terminal methylphosphomannosyl residues, whereas anti-O1 serum antibodies recognized the oligosaccharide related to K. pneumoniae galactan II. The analysis of human sera from patients with confirmed Klebsiella infection also revealed the presence of antibodies against the synthesized oligosaccharides in clinical cases. Thus, the described compounds together with other Klebsiella related antigenic oligosaccharides could be potentially used as molecular probes for K. pneumoniae serological diagnostics development and strain serotyping.

RevDate: 2023-10-20

Yee SW, Ferrández-Peral L, Alentorn P, et al (2023)

Illuminating the Function of the Orphan Transporter, SLC22A10 in Humans and Other Primates.

Research square.

SLC22A10 is classified as an orphan transporter with unknown substrates and function. Here we describe the discovery of the substrate specificity and functional characteristics of SLC22A10. The human SLC22A10 tagged with green fluorescent protein was found to be absent from the plasma membrane, in contrast to the SLC22A10 orthologs found in great apes. Estradiol-17β-glucuronide accumulated in cells expressing great ape SLC22A10 orthologs (over 4-fold, p<0.001). In contrast, human SLC22A10 displayed no uptake function. Sequence alignments revealed two amino acid differences including a proline at position 220 of the human SLC22A10 and a leucine at the same position of great ape orthologs. Site-directed mutagenesis yielding the human SLC22A10-P220L produced a protein with excellent plasma membrane localization and associated uptake function. Neanderthal and Denisovan genomes show human-like sequences at proline 220 position, corroborating that SLC22A10 were rendered nonfunctional during hominin evolution after the divergence from the pan lineage (chimpanzees and bonobos). These findings demonstrate that human SLC22A10 is a unitary pseudogene and was inactivated by a missense mutation that is fixed in humans, whereas orthologs in great apes transport sex steroid conjugates.

RevDate: 2023-11-21
CmpDate: 2023-09-29

Bacon AM, Bourgon N, Dufour E, et al (2023)

Palaeoenvironments and hominin evolutionary dynamics in southeast Asia.

Scientific reports, 13(1):16165.

Secure environmental contexts are crucial for hominin interpretation and comparison. The discovery of a Denisovan individual and associated fauna at Tam Ngu Hao 2 (Cobra) Cave, Laos, dating back to 164-131 ka, allows for environmental comparisons between this (sub)tropical site and the Palearctic Denisovan sites of Denisova Cave (Russia) and Baishiya Karst Cave (China). Denisovans from northern latitudes foraged in a mix of forested and open landscapes, including tundra and steppe. Using stable isotope values from the Cobra Cave assemblage, we demonstrate that, despite the presence of nearby canopy forests, the Denisovan individual from Cobra Cave primarily consumed plants and/or animals from open forests and savannah. Using faunal evidence and proxy indicators of climates, results herein highlight a local expansion of rainforest at ~ 130 ka, raising questions about how Denisovans responded to this local climate change. Comparing the diet and habitat of the archaic hominin from Cobra Cave with those of early Homo sapiens from Tam Pà Ling Cave (46-43 ka), Laos, it appears that only our species was able to exploit rainforest resources.

RevDate: 2023-10-12
CmpDate: 2023-10-09

Roca-Umbert A, Garcia-Calleja J, Vogel-González M, et al (2023)

Human genetic adaptation related to cellular zinc homeostasis.

PLoS genetics, 19(9):e1010950.

SLC30A9 encodes a ubiquitously zinc transporter (ZnT9) and has been consistently suggested as a candidate for positive selection in humans. However, no direct adaptive molecular phenotype has been demonstrated. Our results provide evidence for directional selection operating in two major complementary haplotypes in Africa and East Asia. These haplotypes are associated with differential gene expression but also differ in the Met50Val substitution (rs1047626) in ZnT9, which we show is found in homozygosis in the Denisovan genome and displays accompanying signatures suggestive of archaic introgression. Although we found no significant differences in systemic zinc content between individuals with different rs1047626 genotypes, we demonstrate that the expression of the derived isoform (ZnT9 50Val) in HEK293 cells shows a gain of function when compared with the ancestral (ZnT9 50Met) variant. Notably, the ZnT9 50Val variant was found associated with differences in zinc handling by the mitochondria and endoplasmic reticulum, with an impact on mitochondrial metabolism. Given the essential role of the mitochondria in skeletal muscle and since the derived allele at rs1047626 is known to be associated with greater susceptibility to several neuropsychiatric traits, we propose that adaptation to cold may have driven this selection event, while also impacting predisposition to neuropsychiatric disorders in modern humans.

RevDate: 2023-09-22

Peyrégne S, Slon V, J Kelso (2023)

More than a decade of genetic research on the Denisovans.

Nature reviews. Genetics [Epub ahead of print].

Denisovans, a group of now extinct humans who lived in Eastern Eurasia in the Middle and Late Pleistocene, were first identified from DNA sequences just over a decade ago. Only ten fragmentary remains from two sites have been attributed to Denisovans based entirely on molecular information. Nevertheless, there has been great interest in using genetic data to understand Denisovans and their place in human history. From the reconstruction of a single high-quality genome, it has been possible to infer their population history, including events of admixture with other human groups. Additionally, the identification of Denisovan DNA in the genomes of present-day individuals has provided insights into the timing and routes of dispersal of ancient modern humans into Asia and Oceania, as well as the contributions of archaic DNA to the physiology of present-day people. In this Review, we synthesize more than a decade of research on Denisovans, reconcile controversies and summarize insights into their population history and phenotype. We also highlight how our growing knowledge about Denisovans has provided insights into our own evolutionary history.

RevDate: 2023-11-02
CmpDate: 2023-11-02

Ge X, Lu Y, Chen S, et al (2023)

Genetic Origins and Adaptive Evolution of the Deng People on the Tibetan Plateau.

Molecular biology and evolution, 40(10):.

The Tibetan Plateau is populated by diverse ethnic groups, but most of them are underrepresented in genomics studies compared with the Tibetans (TIB). Here, to gain further insight into the genetic diversity and evolutionary history of the people living in the Tibetan Plateau, we sequenced 54 whole genomes of the Deng people with high coverage (30-60×) and analyzed the data together with that of TIB and Sherpas, as well as 968 ancient Asian genomes and available archaic and modern human data. We identified 17.74 million novel single-nucleotide variants from the newly sequenced genomes, although the Deng people showed reduced genomic diversity and a relatively small effective population size. Compared with the other Tibetan highlander groups which are highly admixed, the Deng people are dominated by a sole ancestry that could be traced to some ancient northern East Asian populations. The divergence between Deng and Tibetan people (∼4,700-7,200 years) was more recent than that between highlanders and the Han Chinese (Deng-HAN, ∼9,000-14,000 years; TIB-HAN, 7,200-10,000 years). Adaptive genetic variants (AGVs) identified in the Deng are only partially shared with those previously reported in the TIB like HLA-DQB1, whereas others like KLHL12 were not reported in TIB. In contrast, the top candidate genes harboring AGVs as previously identified in TIB, like EPAS1 and EGLN1, do not show strong positive selection signals in Deng. Interestingly, Deng also showed a different archaic introgression scenario from that observed in the TIB. Our results suggest that convergent adaptation might be prevalent on the Tibetan Plateau.

RevDate: 2023-09-30
CmpDate: 2023-09-29

Flegontov P, Işıldak U, Maier R, et al (2023)

Modeling of African population history using f-statistics is biased when applying all previously proposed SNP ascertainment schemes.

PLoS genetics, 19(9):e1010931.

f-statistics have emerged as a first line of analysis for making inferences about demographic history from genome-wide data. Not only are they guaranteed to allow robust tests of the fits of proposed models of population history to data when analyzing full genome sequencing data-that is, all single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the individuals being analyzed-but they are also guaranteed to allow robust tests of models for SNPs ascertained as polymorphic in a population that is an outgroup in a phylogenetic sense to all groups being analyzed. True "outgroup ascertainment" is in practice impossible in humans because our species has arisen from a substructured ancestral population that does not descend from a homogeneous ancestral population going back many hundreds of thousands of years into the past. However, initial studies suggested that non-outgroup-ascertainment schemes might produce robust enough results using f-statistics, and that motivated widespread fitting of models to data using non-outgroup-ascertained SNP panels such as the "Affymetrix Human Origins array" which has been genotyped on thousands of modern individuals from hundreds of populations, or the "1240k" in-solution enrichment reagent which has been the source of about 70% of published genome-wide data for ancient humans. In this study, we show that while analyses of population history using such panels work well for studies of relationships among non-African populations and one African outgroup, when co-modeling more than one sub-Saharan African and/or archaic human groups (Neanderthals and Denisovans), fitting of f-statistics to such SNP sets is expected to frequently lead to false rejection of true demographic histories, and failure to reject incorrect models. Analyzing panels of SNPs polymorphic in archaic humans, which has been suggested as a solution for the ascertainment problem, has limited statistical power and retains important biases. However, by carrying out simulations of diverse demographic histories, we show that bias in inferences based on f-statistics can be minimized by ascertaining on variants common in a union of diverse African groups; such ascertainment retains high statistical power while allowing co-analysis of archaic and modern groups.

RevDate: 2023-11-28

Denisova K (2023)

English translation of the first study reporting cyclical periods of increased respiration and eye and body motility during sleep in infants in 1926, with commentary.

Sleep pii:7250121 [Epub ahead of print].

This is the first English translation of the work Periodic phenomena in the sleep in children, published in 1926 in the Journal Novoe v refleksologii i fiziologii nervnoi sistemy (Vol. 2, pp. 338-345) by Maria Denisova and Nicholai Figurin; it is the first study to report data on what is currently termed Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep. The authors acquired continuous quantitative respiration data, as well as eye and body movements during sleep in children for up to 6 hours, and discovered several novel features of sleep cycles in healthy infants from birth to about 1 year of age.First, the study reports cyclical periods of increased respiration and eye and body movements, with rapid ocular movements visible under relaxed eyelids (separation:0.5-1 mm). These observations suggest atonia of REM sleep.Second, the length of the complete cycle (alternating active and quiet sleep phases or states) is about 50 minutes, an estimate that is consistent with later work.Third, the study identifies infant-specific ordering of sleep states, with the active phase beginning after sleep onset, followed by the quiescence phase. Importantly, these published data on sleep cycles precede all published studies related to the state now termed REM sleep by about 30 years (i.e.publishing in Science and in the Journal of Applied Physiology in the 1950s by Eugene Aserinski and Nathaniel Kleitman). In the historical commentary accompanying this translation, the findings of those later works are carefully compared to the original data on respiration and ocular and body motility cycles during sleep in infants, first reported and published by Denisova and Figurin(1926).

RevDate: 2023-10-19

Yee SW, Ferrández-Peral L, Alentorn P, et al (2023)

Illuminating the Function of the Orphan Transporter, SLC22A10 in Humans and Other Primates.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology.

SLC22A10 is classified as an orphan transporter with unknown substrates and function. Here we describe the discovery of the substrate specificity and functional characteristics of SLC22A10. The human SLC22A10 tagged with green fluorescent protein was found to be absent from the plasma membrane, in contrast to the SLC22A10 orthologs found in great apes. Estradiol-17β-glucuronide accumulated in cells expressing great ape SLC22A10 orthologs (over 4-fold, p<0.001). In contrast, human SLC22A10 displayed no uptake function. Sequence alignments revealed two amino acid differences including a proline at position 220 of the human SLC22A10 and a leucine at the same position of great ape orthologs. Site-directed mutagenesis yielding the human SLC22A10-P220L produced a protein with excellent plasma membrane localization and associated uptake function. Neanderthal and Denisovan genomes show human-like sequences at proline 220 position, corroborating that SLC22A10 were rendered nonfunctional during hominin evolution after the divergence from the pan lineage (chimpanzees and bonobos). These findings demonstrate that human SLC22A10 is a unitary pseudogene and was inactivated by a missense mutation that is fixed in humans, whereas orthologs in great apes transport sex steroid conjugates.

RevDate: 2023-08-24
CmpDate: 2023-08-18

Essel E (2023)

Releasing secrets bound to ancient remains with modern DNA extraction techniques: an interview with Elena Essel.

BioTechniques, 75(2):42-46.

Elena Essel (Msc) spoke to Ebony Torrington, Managing Editor of BioTechniques. Essel is a molecular biologist in Matthias Meyer's Advanced DNA Sequencing Techniques group at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig (Germany). Essel studied biology at University of Erlangen-Nuremberg (Erlangen, Germany) for her bachelor's and in Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg (Halle an der Saale, Germany) for her master's. Essel worked in Meyer's group on DNA extraction of very degraded material for her master's thesis. Meyer is an expert in developing new cutting-edge methods for researching ancient DNA, with a focus on skeletal remains, and more recently on sediment remains. Essel now focusses on DNA sampling and extraction aspects of the pipeline at Meyer's lab for the ancient DNA workflow.

RevDate: 2023-08-14

Cherkashina NI, Pavlenko ZV, Pushkarskaya DV, et al (2023)

Synthesis and Properties of Polystyrene Composite Material with Hazelnut Shells.

Polymers, 15(15):.

In this study we evaluated the potential use of hazelnut shell powder in the production of a composite material. Polystyrene was used as a polymer matrix. This work presents the results of modifying hazelnut powder particles to create a polystyrene shell on their surfaces. Modification of the filler increased its contact angle wetted with water from θ=60.16±1.03° to θ=87.02±1.10°. Composite materials containing from 10 to 50 wt.% of modified hazelnut shell powder were prepared and studied. As a result of the experiments, it was found that the composites have optimal physical, mechanical, and operational properties at the following ratio: polystyrene 60-80 wt.%, modified hazelnut shell powder 20-40 wt.%. If the introduction of polystyrene was more than 90 wt.%, the flexural strength and Vickers hardness were quite low at the load of 200 g, and accordingly, the durability of such materials was not satisfactory. These samples are characterized by small percentages of hazelnut shells; therefore, the resulting material will be of pale, unsaturated color. The upper limit of the working temperature range for the composite lies between 265.0-376.0 °C, depending on the percentage of the hazelnut shell powder filling.

RevDate: 2023-09-22
CmpDate: 2023-08-14

Ruan J, Timmermann A, Raia P, et al (2023)

Climate shifts orchestrated hominin interbreeding events across Eurasia.

Science (New York, N.Y.), 381(6658):699-704.

When, where, and how often hominin interbreeding happened is largely unknown. We study the potential for Neanderthal-Denisovan admixture using species distribution models that integrate extensive fossil, archaeological, and genetic data with transient coupled general circulation model simulations of global climate and biomes. Our Pleistocene hindcast of past hominins' habitat suitability reveals pronounced climate-driven zonal shifts in the main overlap region of Denisovans and Neanderthals in central Eurasia. These shifts, which influenced the timing and intensity of potential interbreeding events, can be attributed to the response of climate and vegetation to past variations in atmospheric carbon dioxide and Northern Hemisphere ice-sheet volume. Therefore, glacial-interglacial climate swings likely played an important role in favoring gene flow between archaic humans.

RevDate: 2023-09-27
CmpDate: 2023-08-14

Maasch JRMA, Torres MDT, Melo MCR, et al (2023)

Molecular de-extinction of ancient antimicrobial peptides enabled by machine learning.

Cell host & microbe, 31(8):1260-1274.e6.

Molecular de-extinction could offer avenues for drug discovery by reintroducing bioactive molecules that are no longer encoded by extant organisms. To prospect for antimicrobial peptides encrypted within extinct and extant human proteins, we introduce the panCleave random forest model for proteome-wide cleavage site prediction. Our model outperformed multiple protease-specific cleavage site classifiers for three modern human caspases, despite its pan-protease design. Antimicrobial activity was observed in vitro for modern and archaic protein fragments identified with panCleave. Lead peptides showed resistance to proteolysis and exhibited variable membrane permeabilization. Additionally, representative modern and archaic protein fragments showed anti-infective efficacy against A. baumannii in both a skin abscess infection model and a preclinical murine thigh infection model. These results suggest that machine-learning-based encrypted peptide prospection can identify stable, nontoxic peptide antibiotics. Moreover, we establish molecular de-extinction through paleoproteome mining as a framework for antibacterial drug discovery.

RevDate: 2023-08-01

Tkachenko OV, Evseeva NV, Kargapolova KY, et al (2023)

Rhizobacteria Increase the Adaptation Potential of Potato Microclones under Aeroponic Conditions.

Microorganisms, 11(7):.

Adaptation ex vitro is strongly stressful for microplants. Plant-growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) help to increase the adaptation potential of microplants transplanted from test tubes into the natural environment. We investigated the mechanisms of antioxidant protection of PGPR-inoculated potato microclones adapting to ex vitro growth in an aeroponic system. Potato (Solanum tuberosum L. cv. Nevsky) microplants were inoculated in vitro with the bacteria Azospirillum baldaniorum Sp245 and Ochrobactrum cytisi IPA7.2. On days 1 and 7 of plant growth ex vitro, catalase and peroxidase activities in the leaves of inoculated plants were 1.5-fold higher than they were in non-inoculated plants. The activity of ascorbate peroxidase was reduced in both in vitro and ex vitro treatments, and this reduction was accompanied by a decrease in the leaf content of hydrogen peroxide and malondialdehyde. As a result, inoculation contributed to the regulation of the plant pro/antioxidant system, lowering the oxidative stress and leading to better plant survival ex vitro. This was evidenced by the higher values of measured morphological and physiological variables of the inoculated plants, as compared with the values in the control treatment. Thus, we have shown some PGPR-mediated mechanisms of potato plant protection from adverse environmental factors under aeroponic conditions.

RevDate: 2023-08-08
CmpDate: 2023-08-08

Shpetko YY, Filippenkov IB, Denisova AE, et al (2023)

Isoflurane Anesthesia's Impact on Gene Expression Patterns of Rat Brains in an Ischemic Stroke Model.

Genes, 14(7):.

BACKGROUND: Ischemic stroke (IS) is one of the most severe brain diseases. Animal models with anesthesia are actively used to study stroke genomics and pathogenesis. However, the anesthesia-related gene expression patterns of ischemic rat brains remain poorly understood. In this study, we sought to elucidate the impact of isoflurane (ISO) anesthesia on the extent of ischemic brain damage and gene expression changes associated with stroke.

METHODS: We used the transient middle cerebral artery occlusion (tMCAO) model under long-term and short-term ISO anesthesia, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), RNA sequencing, and bioinformatics.

RESULTS: We revealed that the volume of cerebral damage at 24 h after tMCAO was inversely proportional to the duration of ISO anesthesia. Then, we revealed hundreds of overlapping ischemia-related differentially expressed genes (DEGs) with a cutoff of >1.5; Padj < 0.05, and 694 and 1557 DEGs only under long-term and short-term anesthesia, respectively, using sham-operated controls. Concomitantly, unique DEGs identified under short-term anesthesia were mainly associated with neurosignaling systems, whereas unique DEGs identified under long-term anesthesia were predominantly related to the inflammatory response.

CONCLUSIONS: We were able to determine the effects of the duration of anesthesia using isoflurane on the transcriptomes in the brains of rats at 24 h after tMCAO. Thus, specific genome responses may be useful in developing potential approaches to reduce damaged areas after cerebral ischemia and neuroprotection.

RevDate: 2023-08-01
CmpDate: 2023-07-31

Filippenkov IB, Remizova JA, Stavchansky VV, et al (2023)

Synthetic Adrenocorticotropic Peptides Modulate the Expression Pattern of Immune Genes in Rat Brain following the Early Post-Stroke Period.

Genes, 14(7):.

Ischemic stroke is an acute local decrease in cerebral blood flow due to a thrombus or embolus. Of particular importance is the study of the genetic systems that determine the mechanisms underlying the formation and maintenance of a therapeutic window (a time interval of up to 6 h after a stroke) when effective treatment can be provided. Here, we used a transient middle cerebral artery occlusion (tMCAO) model in rats to study two synthetic derivatives of adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH). The first was ACTH(4-7)PGP, which is known as Semax. It is actively used as a neuroprotective drug. The second was the ACTH(6-9)PGP peptide, which is elucidated as a prospective agent only. Using RNA-Seq analysis, we revealed hundreds of ischemia-related differentially expressed genes (DEGs), as well as 131 and 322 DEGs related to the first and second peptide at 4.5 h after tMCAO, respectively, in dorsolateral areas of the frontal cortex of rats. Furthermore, we showed that both Semax and ACTH(6-9)PGP can partially prevent changes in the immune- and neurosignaling-related gene expression profiles disturbed by the action of ischemia at 4.5 h after tMCAO. However, their different actions with regard to predominantly immune-related genes were also revealed. This study gives insight into how the transcriptome depends on the variation in the structure of the related peptides, and it is valuable from the standpoint of the development of measures for early post-stroke therapy.

RevDate: 2023-07-31

Deņisova A, Pilmane M, D Kažoka (2023)

Antimicrobial Peptides and Interleukins in Cleft Soft Palate.

Children (Basel, Switzerland), 10(7):.

Cleft palate is one of the most common and well-studied congenital anomalies; however, the role of protective tissue factors in its pathophysiology is still debated. The aim of our study was to evaluate interleukin and antimicrobial peptide appearance and distribution in cleft palate. Eight soft palate samples were obtained during veloplasty procedures. Immunohistochemical staining was applied to detect HBD-2-, HBD-3-, HBD-4-, LL-37-, IL-10-, and CD-163-positive cells via light microscopy. For statistical evaluation, the Mann-Whitney U test and Spearman's rank correlation coefficient were used. A significant difference between study groups was observed for HBD-2 and IL-10 in epithelial and connective tissue as well as HBD-4 in connective tissue. The number of HBD-3-positive cells was moderate in the patients, and few were observed in the controls. The number of LL-37-positive cells varied from a moderate amount to a numerous amount in both study groups, whilst CD-163 marked a moderate number of positive cells in patients, and a few-to-moderate amount was observed in the controls. Numerous correlations between studied factors were revealed in cleft tissues. The increase in antimicrobial peptides HBD-2 and HBD-4 and anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10 suggested a wide compensatory elevation of the local immune system against cleft-raised tissue changes. The correlations between the studied factors (HBD-2, HBD-3, HBD-4, LL-37, and IL-10) proved the synergistic involvement of common local defense factors in postnatal cleft palate morphopathogenesis.

RevDate: 2023-09-24
CmpDate: 2023-09-08

Pawar H, Rymbekova A, Cuadros-Espinoza S, et al (2023)

Ghost admixture in eastern gorillas.

Nature ecology & evolution, 7(9):1503-1514.

Archaic admixture has had a substantial impact on human evolution with multiple events across different clades, including from extinct hominins such as Neanderthals and Denisovans into modern humans. In great apes, archaic admixture has been identified in chimpanzees and bonobos but the possibility of such events has not been explored in other species. Here, we address this question using high-coverage whole-genome sequences from all four extant gorilla subspecies, including six newly sequenced eastern gorillas from previously unsampled geographic regions. Using approximate Bayesian computation with neural networks to model the demographic history of gorillas, we find a signature of admixture from an archaic 'ghost' lineage into the common ancestor of eastern gorillas but not western gorillas. We infer that up to 3% of the genome of these individuals is introgressed from an archaic lineage that diverged more than 3 million years ago from the common ancestor of all extant gorillas. This introgression event took place before the split of mountain and eastern lowland gorillas, probably more than 40 thousand years ago and may have influenced perception of bitter taste in eastern gorillas. When comparing the introgression landscapes of gorillas, humans and bonobos, we find a consistent depletion of introgressed fragments on the X chromosome across these species. However, depletion in protein-coding content is not detectable in eastern gorillas, possibly as a consequence of stronger genetic drift in this species.

RevDate: 2023-07-28
CmpDate: 2023-07-28

Pigolkin YI, Shigeev SV, Denisova AV, et al (2023)

[Forensic medical assessment of lidocaine and bupivacaine systemic toxicity].

Sudebno-meditsinskaia ekspertiza, 66(4):62-66.

Was to assess the lidocaine and bupivacaine systemic toxicity in forensic medical practice. The number of patients' clinical observations equal three with local anesthetic systemic toxicity (LAST) from the practice of forensic medical experts were studied, and a search of scientific publications for the last 5 years in PubMed database was conducted. The amount of publications, describing cases with LAST, equal four were selected. Differential diagnostic features between LAST and anaphylaxis were considered. The literature data about relationship between lidocaine's concentration in the blood serum and clinical features are shown. The forensic medical assessment of LAST is proposed.

RevDate: 2023-08-17
CmpDate: 2023-08-11

Kaulen LD, Denisova E, Hinz F, et al (2023)

Integrated genetic analyses of immunodeficiency-associated Epstein-Barr virus- (EBV) positive primary CNS lymphomas.

Acta neuropathologica, 146(3):499-514.

Immunodeficiency-associated primary CNS lymphoma (PCNSL) represents a distinct clinicopathological entity, which is typically Epstein-Barr virus-positive (EBV[+]) and carries an inferior prognosis. Genetic alterations that characterize EBV-related CNS lymphomagenesis remain unclear precluding molecular classification and targeted therapies. In this study, a comprehensive genetic analysis of 22 EBV[+] PCNSL, therefore, integrated clinical and pathological information with exome and RNA sequencing (RNASeq) data. EBV[+] PCNSL with germline controls carried a median of 55 protein-coding single nucleotide variants (SNVs; range 24-217) and 2 insertions/deletions (range 0-22). Genetic landscape was largely shaped by aberrant somatic hypermutation with a median of 41.01% (range 31.79-53.49%) of SNVs mapping to its target motifs. Tumors lacked established SNVs (MYD88, CD79B, PIM1) and copy number variants (CDKN2A, HLA loss) driving EBV[-] PCNSL. Instead, EBV[+] PCNSL were characterized by SOCS1 mutations (26%), predicted to disinhibit JAK/STAT signaling, and mutually exclusive gain-of-function NOTCH pathway SNVs (26%). Copy number gains were enriched on 11q23.3, a locus directly targeted for chromosomal aberrations by EBV, that includes SIK3 known to protect from cytotoxic T-cell responses. Losses covered 5q31.2 (STING), critical for sensing viral DNA, and 17q11 (NF1). Unsupervised clustering of RNASeq data revealed two distinct transcriptional groups, that shared strong expression of CD70 and IL1R2, previously linked to tolerogenic tumor microenvironments. Correspondingly, deconvolution of bulk RNASeq data revealed elevated M2-macrophage, T-regulatory cell, mast cell and monocyte fractions in EBV[+] PCNSL. In addition to novel insights into the pathobiology of EBV[+] PCNSL, the data provide the rationale for the exploration of targeted therapies including JAK-, NOTCH- and CD70-directed approaches.

RevDate: 2023-09-09
CmpDate: 2023-09-08

Denisova OV, Merisaari J, Huhtaniemi R, et al (2023)

PP2A-based triple-strike therapy overcomes mitochondrial apoptosis resistance in brain cancer cells.

Molecular oncology, 17(9):1803-1820.

Mitochondrial glycolysis and hyperactivity of the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase-protein kinase B (AKT) pathway are hallmarks of malignant brain tumors. However, kinase inhibitors targeting AKT (AKTi) or the glycolysis master regulator pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase (PDKi) have failed to provide clinical benefits for brain tumor patients. Here, we demonstrate that heterogeneous glioblastoma (GB) and medulloblastoma (MB) cell lines display only cytostatic responses to combined AKT and PDK targeting. Biochemically, the combined AKT and PDK inhibition resulted in the shutdown of both target pathways and priming to mitochondrial apoptosis but failed to induce apoptosis. In contrast, all tested brain tumor cell models were sensitive to a triplet therapy, in which AKT and PDK inhibition was combined with the pharmacological reactivation of protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A) by NZ-8-061 (also known as DT-061), DBK-1154, and DBK-1160. We also provide proof-of-principle evidence for in vivo efficacy in the intracranial GB and MB models by the brain-penetrant triplet therapy (AKTi + PDKi + PP2A reactivator). Mechanistically, PP2A reactivation converted the cytostatic AKTi + PDKi response to cytotoxic apoptosis, through PP2A-elicited shutdown of compensatory mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation and by increased proton leakage. These results encourage the development of triple-strike strategies targeting mitochondrial metabolism to overcome therapy tolerance in brain tumors.

RevDate: 2023-10-10
CmpDate: 2023-10-10

Yang C, Zhou Y, Song Y, et al (2023)

The complete and fully-phased diploid genome of a male Han Chinese.

Cell research, 33(10):745-761.

Since the release of the complete human genome, the priority of human genomic study has now been shifting towards closing gaps in ethnic diversity. Here, we present a fully phased and well-annotated diploid human genome from a Han Chinese male individual (CN1), in which the assemblies of both haploids achieve the telomere-to-telomere (T2T) level. Comparison of this diploid genome with the CHM13 haploid T2T genome revealed significant variations in the centromere. Outside the centromere, we discovered 11,413 structural variations, including numerous novel ones. We also detected thousands of CN1 alleles that have accumulated high substitution rates and a few that have been under positive selection in the East Asian population. Further, we found that CN1 outperforms CHM13 as a reference genome in mapping and variant calling for the East Asian population owing to the distinct structural variants of the two references. Comparison of SNP calling for a large cohort of 8869 Chinese genomes using CN1 and CHM13 as reference respectively showed that the reference bias profoundly impacts rare SNP calling, with nearly 2 million rare SNPs miss-called with different reference genomes. Finally, applying the CN1 as a reference, we discovered 5.80 Mb and 4.21 Mb putative introgression sequences from Neanderthal and Denisovan, respectively, including many East Asian specific ones undetected using CHM13 as the reference. Our analyses reveal the advances of using CN1 as a reference for population genomic studies and paleo-genomic studies. This complete genome will serve as an alternative reference for future genomic studies on the East Asian population.

RevDate: 2023-10-19

Larivière D, Abueg L, Brajuka N, et al (2023)

Scalable, accessible, and reproducible reference genome assembly and evaluation in Galaxy.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology.

Improvements in genome sequencing and assembly are enabling high-quality reference genomes for all species. However, the assembly process is still laborious, computationally and technically demanding, lacks standards for reproducibility, and is not readily scalable. Here we present the latest Vertebrate Genomes Project assembly pipeline and demonstrate that it delivers high-quality reference genomes at scale across a set of vertebrate species arising over the last ~500 million years. The pipeline is versatile and combines PacBio HiFi long-reads and Hi-C-based haplotype phasing in a new graph-based paradigm. Standardized quality control is performed automatically to troubleshoot assembly issues and assess biological complexities. We make the pipeline freely accessible through Galaxy, accommodating researchers even without local computational resources and enhanced reproducibility by democratizing the training and assembly process. We demonstrate the flexibility and reliability of the pipeline by assembling reference genomes for 51 vertebrate species from major taxonomic groups (fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals).

RevDate: 2023-11-21
CmpDate: 2023-07-03

Shevchenko JA, Perik-Zavodskii RY, Nazarov KV, et al (2023)

Immunoregulatory properties of erythroid nucleated cells induced from CD34+ progenitors from bone marrow.

PloS one, 18(6):e0287793.

CD 71+ erythroid nucleated cells have pronounced immunoregulatory properties in normal and pathological conditions. Many populations of cells with immunoregulatory properties are considered candidates for cellular immunotherapy for various pathologies. This study characterized the immunoregulatory properties of CD71+ erythroid cells derived from CD34-positive bone marrow cells under the influence of growth factors that stimulate differentiation into erythroid cells. CD34-negative bone marrow cells were used to isolate CD71+ erythroid nuclear cells. The resulting cells were used to assess the phenotype, determine the mRNA spectrum of the genes responsible for the main pathways and processes of the immune response, and obtain culture supernatants for the analysis of immunoregulatory factors. It was found that CD71+ erythroid cells derived from CD34+ cells carry the main markers of erythroid cells, but differ markedly from natural bone marrow CD71+ erythroid cells. The main differences are in the presence of the CD45+ subpopulation, distribution of terminal differentiation stages, transcriptional profile, secretion of certain cytokines, and immunosuppressive activity. The properties of induced CD71+ erythroid cells are closer to the cells of extramedullary erythropoiesis foci than to natural bone marrow CD71+ erythroid cells. Thus, when cultivating CD71+ erythroid cells for clinical experimental studies, it is necessary to take into account their pronounced immunoregulatory activity.

RevDate: 2023-11-13
CmpDate: 2023-10-06

Derenko M, Denisova G, Litvinov A, et al (2023)

Mitogenomics of the Koryaks and Evens of the northern coast of the Sea of Okhotsk.

Journal of human genetics, 68(10):705-712.

Due to the geographical proximity of the northern coast of the Sea of Okhotsk and Kamchatka Peninsula to the Beringia, the indigenous populations of these territories are of great interest for elucidating the human settlement history of northern Asia and America. Meanwhile, there is a clear shortage of genetic studies of the indigenous populations of the northern coast of the Sea of Okhotsk. Here, in order to examine their fine-scale matrilineal genetic structure, ancestry and relationships with neighboring populations, we analyzed 203 complete mitogenomes (174 of which are new) from population samples of the Koryaks and Evens of the northern coast of the Sea of Okhotsk and the Chukchi of the extreme northeast Asia. The patterns observed underscore the reduced level of genetic diversity found in the Koryak, Even, and Chukchi populations, which, along with the high degree of interpopulation differentiation, may be the result of genetic drift. Our phylogeographic analysis reveals common Paleo-Asiatic ancestry for 51.1% of the Koryaks and 17.8% of the Evens. About third of the mitogenomes found in the Koryaks and Evens might be considered as ethno-specific, as these are virtually absent elsewhere in North, Central and East Asia. Coalescence ages of most of these lineages coincide well with the emergence and development of the Tokarev and Old Koryak archaeological cultures associated with the formation of the Koryaks, as well as with the period of separation and split of the North Tungusic groups migrated northwards from the Lake Baikal or the Amur River area.

RevDate: 2023-06-22
CmpDate: 2023-06-15

Shunatova N, Denisova S, Shchenkov S, et al (2023)

Colonial system of integration and communication pores in a polymorphic bryozoan Dendrobeania fruticosa (Bryozoa: Cheilostomata).

Journal of morphology, 284(7):e21601.

Bryozoan colonies are composed of zooids, which can differ in structure and function. Autozooids supply heteromorphic zooids with nutrients, which are usually unable to feed. To date, the ultrastructure of the tissues providing nutrient transfer is almost unexplored. Here, we present a detailed description of the colonial system of integration (CSI) and the different types of pore plates in Dendrobeania fruticosa. All cells of the CSI are joined by tight junctions that isolate its lumen. The lumen of the CSI is not a single structure, but a dense network of small interstices filled with a heterogeneous matrix. In autozooids, the CSI is composed of two types of cells: elongated and stellate. Elongated cells form the central part of the CSI, including two main longitudinal cords and several main branches to the gut and pore plates. Stellate cells compose the peripheral part of the CSI, which is a delicate mesh starting from the central part and reaching various structures of autozooids. Autozooids have two tiny muscular funiculi, which start from the caecum apex and run to the basal wall. Each funiculus includes a central cord of extracellular matrix and two longitudinal muscle cells; together they are enveloped with a layer of cells. The rosette complexes of all types of pore plates in D. fruticosa display a similar cellular composition: a cincture cell and a few special cells; limiting cells are absent. Special cells have bidirectional polarity in interautozooidal and avicularian pore plates. This is probably due to the need for bidirectional transport of nutrients during degeneration-regeneration cycles. Cincture cells and epidermal cells of pore plates contain microtubules and inclusions resembling dense-cored vesicles, which are typical of neurons. Probably, cincture cells are involved in the signal transduction from one zooid to another and can be a part of the colony-wide nervous system.

RevDate: 2023-06-28
CmpDate: 2023-06-14

Rigaud S, Rybin EP, Khatsenovich AM, et al (2023)

Symbolic innovation at the onset of the Upper Paleolithic in Eurasia shown by the personal ornaments from Tolbor-21 (Mongolia).

Scientific reports, 13(1):9545.

Figurative depictions in art first occur ca. 50,000 years ago in Europe, Africa, and Southeast Asia. Considered by most as an advanced form of symbolic behavior, they are restricted to our species. Here, we report a piece of ornament interpreted as a phallus-like representation. It was found in a 42,000 ca.-year-old Upper Paleolithic archaeological layer at the open-air archaeological site of Tolbor-21, in Mongolia. Mineralogical, microscopic, and rugosimetric analyses points toward the allochthonous origin of the pendant and a complex functional history. Three-dimensional phallic pendants are unknown in the Paleolithic record, and this discovery predates the earliest known sexed anthropomorphic representation. It attests that hunter-gatherer communities used sex anatomical attributes as symbols at a very early stage of their dispersal in the region. The pendant was produced during a period that overlaps with age estimates for early introgression events between Homo sapiens and Denisovans, and in a region where such encounters are plausible.

RevDate: 2023-06-13

Kou SH, Li J, Tam B, et al (2023)

TP53 germline pathogenic variants in modern humans were likely originated during recent human history.

NAR cancer, 5(3):zcad025.

TP53 is crucial for maintaining genome stability and preventing oncogenesis. Germline pathogenic variation in TP53 damages its function, causing genome instability and increased cancer risk. Despite extensive study in TP53, the evolutionary origin of the human TP53 germline pathogenic variants remains largely unclear. In this study, we applied phylogenetic and archaeological approaches to identify the evolutionary origin of TP53 germline pathogenic variants in modern humans. In the phylogenic analysis, we searched 406 human TP53 germline pathogenic variants in 99 vertebrates distributed in eight clades of Primate, Euarchontoglires, Laurasiatheria, Afrotheria, Mammal, Aves, Sarcopterygii and Fish, but we observed no direct evidence for the cross-species conservation as the origin; in the archaeological analysis, we searched the variants in 5031 ancient human genomes dated between 45045 and 100 years before present, and identified 45 pathogenic variants in 62 ancient humans dated mostly within the last 8000 years; we also identified 6 pathogenic variants in 3 Neanderthals dated 44000 to 38515 years before present and 1 Denisovan dated 158 550 years before present. Our study reveals that TP53 germline pathogenic variants in modern humans were likely originated in recent human history and partially inherited from the extinct Neanderthals and Denisovans.

RevDate: 2023-06-03

Garcia-Heras J (2023)

The 2022 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

Journal of the Association of Genetic Technologists, 49(2):56-67.

The Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute awarded the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine to Svante Pääbo (Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany). This award acknowledged his discoveries about the genomes of extinct hominins (Neandertal man and the Denisovans), the molecular genetic insights of human origin and evolutionary history, and the understanding of phylogenetic relationships between archaic hominins and modern humans. The scientific advances included detection of Neandertal and Denisovan DNA carried by modern humans due to past admixture events, which in turn stimulated active research about the functional and phenotypic significance of such archaic ancestry on non-disease and disease phenotypic features in modern populations. In addition, comparative genomic studies started to delineate the genes and genetic regulation mechanisms that distinguish modern-day humans from the archaic hominins and our immediate ancestors, the anatomically modern humans. These breakthroughs allowed a more thorough understanding of ancestral and modern human population genetics, and propelled the take-off of human paleogenomics as a new scientific discipline in its own right.

RevDate: 2023-11-17
CmpDate: 2023-05-18

Rong S, Neil CR, Welch A, et al (2023)

Large-scale functional screen identifies genetic variants with splicing effects in modern and archaic humans.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 120(21):e2218308120.

Humans coexisted and interbred with other hominins which later became extinct. These archaic hominins are known to us only through fossil records and for two cases, genome sequences. Here, we engineer Neanderthal and Denisovan sequences into thousands of artificial genes to reconstruct the pre-mRNA processing patterns of these extinct populations. Of the 5,169 alleles tested in this massively parallel splicing reporter assay (MaPSy), we report 962 exonic splicing mutations that correspond to differences in exon recognition between extant and extinct hominins. Using MaPSy splicing variants, predicted splicing variants, and splicing quantitative trait loci, we show that splice-disrupting variants experienced greater purifying selection in anatomically modern humans than that in Neanderthals. Adaptively introgressed variants were enriched for moderate-effect splicing variants, consistent with positive selection for alternative spliced alleles following introgression. As particularly compelling examples, we characterized a unique tissue-specific alternative splicing variant at the adaptively introgressed innate immunity gene TLR1, as well as a unique Neanderthal introgressed alternative splicing variant in the gene HSPG2 that encodes perlecan. We further identified potentially pathogenic splicing variants found only in Neanderthals and Denisovans in genes related to sperm maturation and immunity. Finally, we found splicing variants that may contribute to variation among modern humans in total bilirubin, balding, hemoglobin levels, and lung capacity. Our findings provide unique insights into natural selection acting on splicing in human evolution and demonstrate how functional assays can be used to identify candidate causal variants underlying differences in gene regulation and phenotype.

RevDate: 2023-05-15

Adzhieva OA, Gringolts ML, Denisova YI, et al (2023)

Effect of Chain Structure on the Various Properties of the Copolymers of Fluorinated Norbornenes with Cyclooctene.

Polymers, 15(9):.

Fluorinated polymers are attractive due to their special thermal, surface, gas separation, and other properties. In this study, new diblock, multiblock, and random copolymers of cyclooctene with two fluorinated norbornenes, 5-perfluorobutyl-2-norbornene and N-pentafluorophenyl-exo-endo-norbornene-5,6-dicarboximide, are synthesized by ring-opening metathesis copolymerization and macromolecular cross-metathesis in the presence of the first- to third-generation Grubbs' Ru-catalysts. Their thermal, surface, bulk, and solution characteristics are investigated and compared using differential scanning calorimetry, water contact angle measurements, gas permeation, and light scattering, respectively. It is demonstrated that they are correlated with the chain structure of the copolymers. The properties of multiblock copolymers are generally closer to those of diblock copolymers than of random ones, which can be explained by the presence of long blocks capable of self-organization. In particular, diblock and multiblock fluorine-imide-containing copolymers show a tendency to form micelles in chloroform solutions well below the overlap concentration. The results obtained may be of interest to a wide range of researchers involved in the design of functional copolymers.

RevDate: 2023-11-16
CmpDate: 2023-06-12

Brand CM, Colbran LL, JA Capra (2023)

Resurrecting the alternative splicing landscape of archaic hominins using machine learning.

Nature ecology & evolution, 7(6):939-953.

Alternative splicing contributes to adaptation and divergence in many species. However, it has not been possible to directly compare splicing between modern and archaic hominins. Here, we unmask the recent evolution of this previously unobservable regulatory mechanism by applying SpliceAI, a machine-learning algorithm that identifies splice-altering variants (SAVs), to high-coverage genomes from three Neanderthals and a Denisovan. We discover 5,950 putative archaic SAVs, of which 2,186 are archaic-specific and 3,607 also occur in modern humans via introgression (244) or shared ancestry (3,520). Archaic-specific SAVs are enriched in genes that contribute to traits potentially relevant to hominin phenotypic divergence, such as the epidermis, respiration and spinal rigidity. Compared to shared SAVs, archaic-specific SAVs occur in sites under weaker selection and are more common in genes with tissue-specific expression. Further underscoring the importance of negative selection on SAVs, Neanderthal lineages with low effective population sizes are enriched for SAVs compared to Denisovan and shared SAVs. Finally, we find that nearly all introgressed SAVs in humans were shared across the three Neanderthals, suggesting that older SAVs were more tolerated in human genomes. Our results reveal the splicing landscape of archaic hominins and identify potential contributions of splicing to phenotypic differences among hominins.

RevDate: 2023-06-13
CmpDate: 2023-06-13

Essel E, Zavala EI, Schulz-Kornas E, et al (2023)

Ancient human DNA recovered from a Palaeolithic pendant.

Nature, 618(7964):328-332.

Artefacts made from stones, bones and teeth are fundamental to our understanding of human subsistence strategies, behaviour and culture in the Pleistocene. Although these resources are plentiful, it is impossible to associate artefacts to specific human individuals[1] who can be morphologically or genetically characterized, unless they are found within burials, which are rare in this time period. Thus, our ability to discern the societal roles of Pleistocene individuals based on their biological sex or genetic ancestry is limited[2-5]. Here we report the development of a non-destructive method for the gradual release of DNA trapped in ancient bone and tooth artefacts. Application of the method to an Upper Palaeolithic deer tooth pendant from Denisova Cave, Russia, resulted in the recovery of ancient human and deer mitochondrial genomes, which allowed us to estimate the age of the pendant at approximately 19,000-25,000 years. Nuclear DNA analysis identifies the presumed maker or wearer of the pendant as a female individual with strong genetic affinities to a group of Ancient North Eurasian individuals who lived around the same time but were previously found only further east in Siberia. Our work redefines how cultural and genetic records can be linked in prehistoric archaeology.

RevDate: 2023-08-26
CmpDate: 2023-05-22

Witt KE, Funk A, Añorve-Garibay V, et al (2023)

The Impact of Modern Admixture on Archaic Human Ancestry in Human Populations.

Genome biology and evolution, 15(5):.

Admixture, the genetic merging of parental populations resulting in mixed ancestry, has occurred frequently throughout the course of human history. Numerous admixture events have occurred between human populations across the world, which have shaped genetic ancestry in modern humans. For example, populations in the Americas are often mosaics of different ancestries due to recent admixture events as part of European colonization. Admixed individuals also often have introgressed DNA from Neanderthals and Denisovans that may have come from multiple ancestral populations, which may affect how archaic ancestry is distributed across an admixed genome. In this study, we analyzed admixed populations from the Americas to assess whether the proportion and location of admixed segments due to recent admixture impact an individual's archaic ancestry. We identified a positive correlation between non-African ancestry and archaic alleles, as well as a slight increase of Denisovan alleles in Indigenous American segments relative to European segments in admixed genomes. We also identify several genes as candidates for adaptive introgression, based on archaic alleles present at high frequency in admixed American populations but low frequency in East Asian populations. These results provide insights into how recent admixture events between modern humans redistributed archaic ancestry in admixed genomes.

RevDate: 2023-03-31
CmpDate: 2023-03-30

Makarova E, Dubinina A, Denisova E, et al (2023)

Genetic Obesity in Pregnant A[y] Mice Does Not Affect Susceptibility to Obesity and Food Choice in Offspring.

International journal of molecular sciences, 24(6):.

Maternal diet and obesity (MO) may influence taste preferences and increase the susceptibility to obesity in offspring, but the impact of MO per se to these influences is poorly understood. We evaluated the influence of MO on food choice and susceptibility to obesity in offspring when mothers consumed a standard diet (SD). Mice with the Lethal yellow mutation (A[y]/a) develop obesity consuming an SD. Metabolic parameters were assessed in pregnant and lactating A[y]/a (obesity) and a/a (control) mothers. Metabolic response to the consumption of a sweet-fat diet (SFD: SD, lard, and sweet biscuits) and the choice of components of this diet were evaluated in their male and female offspring. Compared to control mothers, pregnant obese mothers had higher levels of insulin, leptin, and FGF21. MO increased food intake and liver expression of lipogenesis genes in male offspring consuming the SD. SFD consumption caused obesity development and insulin resistance, increased liver expression of glycolytic and lipogenesis genes, and affected hypothalamic expression of anorexigenic and orexigenic genes. In offspring of both sexes, MO had no effect on food choice and metabolic response to SFD intake. Therefore, when obese mothers consume a balanced diet, MO does not affect food choice and development of diet-induced obesity in offspring.

RevDate: 2023-04-24
CmpDate: 2023-03-30

Toncheva D, Marinova M, Chobanov T, et al (2023)

Pathogenic Variants Associated with Rare Monogenic Diseases Established in Ancient Neanderthal and Denisovan Genome-Wide Data.

Genes, 14(3):.

Ancient anatomically modern humans (AMHs) encountered other archaic human species, most notably Neanderthals and Denisovans, when they left Africa and spread across Europe and Asia ~60,000 years ago. They interbred with them, and modern human genomes retain DNA inherited from these interbreeding events. High quality (high coverage) ancient human genomes have recently been sequenced allowing for a direct estimation of individual heterozygosity, which has shown that genetic diversity in these archaic human groups was very low, indicating low population sizes. In this study, we analyze ten ancient human genome-wide data, including four sequenced with high-coverage. We screened these ancient genome-wide data for pathogenic mutations associated with monogenic diseases, and established unusual aggregation of pathogenic mutations in individual subjects, including quadruple homozygous cases of pathogenic variants in the PAH gene associated with the condition phenylketonuria in a ~120,000 years old Neanderthal. Such aggregation of pathogenic mutations is extremely rare in contemporary populations, and their existence in ancient humans could be explained by less significant clinical manifestations coupled with small community sizes, leading to higher inbreeding levels. Our results suggest that pathogenic variants associated with rare diseases might be the result of introgression from other archaic human species, and archaic admixture thus could have influenced disease risk in modern humans.

RevDate: 2023-04-01
CmpDate: 2023-04-01

Xiao F, Li J, Lagniton PNP, et al (2023)

Evolutionary Origin of MUTYH Germline Pathogenic Variations in Modern Humans.

Biomolecules, 13(3):.

MUTYH plays an essential role in preventing oxidation-caused DNA damage. Pathogenic germline variations in MUTYH damage its function, causing intestinal polyposis and colorectal cancer. Determination of the evolutionary origin of the variation is essential to understanding the etiological relationship between MUTYH variation and cancer development. In this study, we analyzed the origins of pathogenic germline variants in human MUTYH. Using a phylogenic approach, we searched MUTYH pathogenic variants in modern humans in the MUTYH of 99 vertebrates across eight clades. We did not find pathogenic variants shared between modern humans and the non-human vertebrates following the evolutionary tree, ruling out the possibility of cross-species conservation as the origin of human pathogenic variants in MUTYH. We then searched the variants in the MUTYH of 5031 ancient humans and extinct Neanderthals and Denisovans. We identified 24 pathogenic variants in 42 ancient humans dated between 30,570 and 480 years before present (BP), and three pathogenic variants in Neanderthals dated between 65,000 and 38,310 years BP. Data from our study revealed that human MUTYH pathogenic variants mostly arose in recent human history and partially originated from Neanderthals.

RevDate: 2023-04-10
CmpDate: 2023-03-30

Primak AL, Orlov NA, Peigneur S, et al (2023)

AgTx2-GFP, Fluorescent Blocker Targeting Pharmacologically Important Kv1.x (x = 1, 3, 6) Channels.

Toxins, 15(3):.

The growing interest in potassium channels as pharmacological targets has stimulated the development of their fluorescent ligands (including genetically encoded peptide toxins fused with fluorescent proteins) for analytical and imaging applications. We report on the properties of agitoxin 2 C-terminally fused with enhanced GFP (AgTx2-GFP) as one of the most active genetically encoded fluorescent ligands of potassium voltage-gated Kv1.x (x = 1, 3, 6) channels. AgTx2-GFP possesses subnanomolar affinities for hybrid KcsA-Kv1.x (x = 3, 6) channels and a low nanomolar affinity to KcsA-Kv1.1 with moderate dependence on pH in the 7.0-8.0 range. Electrophysiological studies on oocytes showed a pore-blocking activity of AgTx2-GFP at low nanomolar concentrations for Kv1.x (x = 1, 3, 6) channels and at micromolar concentrations for Kv1.2. AgTx2-GFP bound to Kv1.3 at the membranes of mammalian cells with a dissociation constant of 3.4 ± 0.8 nM, providing fluorescent imaging of the channel membranous distribution, and this binding depended weakly on the channel state (open or closed). AgTx2-GFP can be used in combination with hybrid KcsA-Kv1.x (x = 1, 3, 6) channels on the membranes of E. coli spheroplasts or with Kv1.3 channels on the membranes of mammalian cells for the search and study of nonlabeled peptide pore blockers, including measurement of their affinity.

RevDate: 2023-03-14

Alexeeva E, Krekhova E, Dvoryakovskaya T, et al (2023)

Efficacy and safety of canakinumab as a second line biologic after tocilizumab treatment failure in children with systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis: A single-centre cohort study using routinely collected health data.

Frontiers in pediatrics, 11:1114207.

BACKGROUND: A significant number of systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis (sJIA) patients discontinue biologic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (bDMARDs) due to lack of efficacy or safety concerns. Studies of biologic therapy switch regimens in sJIA are required.

METHODS: Patients with sJIA who switched from tocilizumab (due to lack of efficacy or safety) to canakinumab (4 mg/kg every 4 weeks) and were hospitalized at the rheumatology department from August 2012 to July 2020 were included. Primary efficacy outcomes were 30% or greater improvement based on the paediatric criteria of the American College of Rheumatology (ACR30), achievement of inactive disease (JADAS-71 = 0) and clinical remission (ACR sJIA clinical inactive disease criteria). Follow-up from time first canakinumab dose administered was 12 months or the closest time point (not less than 6 and not more than 18 months). Data were extracted from electronic outpatient medical records.

RESULTS: During the study period, 46 patients with sJIA switched from tocilizumab to canakinumab. Median age at baseline was 8.2 [interquartile range (IQR) 4.0-12.9] years, with the median sJIA duration being 1.8 (IQR 0.8-5.8) years; 37 (80%) patients received at least one conventional DMARD (cDMARD; oral corticosteroids, methotrexate and/or cyclosporine A). Study outcomes were followed up in 45 patients (one patient did not attend the follow-up for an unknown reason); median follow-up was 359 (IQR 282-404) days. During the follow-up, 1 patient discontinued canakinumab due to tuberculosis detection and the dose was reduced or the injection interval increased in 4 (9%) patients. In total, 27 (60%) patients continued to receive at least one cDMARD. Improvement according to the ACR30 criteria was achieved in 43 patients [96%; 95% confidence interval (CI) 85-99], inactive disease in 42 (93%; 95%CI 82-98), and remission in 37 (82%; 95% CI 69-91); after adjustment for actual time-at-risk, the rates were 83, 85 and 73 events per 100 person-years, respectively. During follow-up, 23 AEs (most frequently infections) were reported in 19/45 (42%) patients; 5/45 (11%) patients developed macrophage activation syndrome, with a favorable outcome in all cases.

CONCLUSIONS: One-year canakinumab therapy was found to be potentially effective as second-line biologic therapy after discontinuation of tocilizumab in patients with sJIA.

RevDate: 2023-04-11
CmpDate: 2023-02-27

Wang PY, Yang Y, Shi XQ, et al (2023)

Distilling functional variations for human UGT2B4 upstream region based on selection signals and implications for phenotypes of Neanderthal and Denisovan.

Scientific reports, 13(1):3134.

Our previous work identified one region upstream human UGT2B4 (UDP glucuronosyltransferase family 2 member B4) which is associated with breast cancer and under balancing selection. However, the distribution, functional variation and molecular mechanism underlying breast cancer and balancing selection remain unclear. In current study, the two haplotypes with deep divergence are described by analyzing 1000 genomes project data and observed to be with high frequencies in all human populations. Through population genetics analysis and genome annotation, the potential functional region is identified and verified by reporter gene assay. Further mutagenesis indicates that the functional mutations are rs66862535 and rs68096061. Both SNPs can alter the interaction efficiency of transcription factor POU2F1 (POU class 2 homeobox 1). Through chromosome conformation capture, it is identified that the enhancer containing these two SNPs can interact with UGT2B4 promoter. Expression quantitative trait loci analysis indicates that UGT2B4 expression is dependent on the genotype of this locus. The common haplotype in human is lost in four genomes of archaic hominins, which suggests that Neanderthal and Denisovan should present relatively lower UGT2B4 expression and further higher steroid hormone level. This study provides new insight into the contribution of ancient population structure to human phenotypes.

RevDate: 2023-10-19

Velazquez-Arcelay K, Colbran LL, McArthur E, et al (2023)

Archaic Introgression Shaped Human Circadian Traits.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology.

INTRODUCTION: When the ancestors of modern Eurasians migrated out of Africa and interbred with Eurasian archaic hominins, namely Neanderthals and Denisovans, DNA of archaic ancestry integrated into the genomes of anatomically modern humans. This process potentially accelerated adaptation to Eurasian environmental factors, including reduced ultra-violet radiation and increased variation in seasonal dynamics. However, whether these groups differed substantially in circadian biology, and whether archaic introgression adaptively contributed to human chronotypes remains unknown.

RESULTS: Here we traced the evolution of chronotype based on genomes from archaic hominins and present-day humans. First, we inferred differences in circadian gene sequences, splicing, and regulation between archaic hominins and modern humans. We identified 28 circadian genes containing variants with potential to alter splicing in archaics (e.g., CLOCK, PER2, RORB, RORC), and 16 circadian genes likely divergently regulated between present-day humans and archaic hominins, including RORA. These differences suggest the potential for introgression to modify circadian gene expression. Testing this hypothesis, we found that introgressed variants are enriched among eQTLs for circadian genes. Supporting the functional relevance of these regulatory effects, we found that many introgressed alleles have associations with chronotype. Strikingly, the strongest introgressed effects on chronotype increase morningness, consistent with adaptations to high latitude in other species. Finally, we identified several circadian loci with evidence of adaptive introgression or latitudinal clines in allele frequency.

CONCLUSIONS: These findings identify differences in circadian gene regulation between modern humans and archaic hominins and support the contribution of introgression via coordinated effects on variation in human chronotype.

RevDate: 2023-03-17

Hagymási K (2023)

The Nobel prize in physiology and medicine - 2022.

Structural chemistry, 34(2):733-736.

The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet awarded the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine to a Swedish geneticist, Svante Pääbo, for his discoveries concerning the genomes of extinct hominins and human evolution, for the sequencing of the genome of the Neanderthal, the discovery of a previously unknown hominin, Denisova, and the establishment of a new scientific discipline, paleogenomics.

RevDate: 2023-02-11

Ermakov PN, Vorobyeva EV, Denisova EG, et al (2022)

Recognition of Emotional and Neutral Visual Scenes in Carriers of the MAOA, COMT, DRD4, and 5HT2A Gene Polymorphisms.

Psychology in Russia : state of the art, 15(4):159-169.

BACKGROUND: It is known that some genes regulate neurochemical metabolism, and their polymorphisms affect cognitive performance, including the ability to categorize emotionally significant information.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of our study was to analyze the recognition of emotional and neutral visual scenes in carriers of different polymorphic variants of the MAOA, COMT, DRD4, and 5HT2A genes.

DESIGN: The study sample consisted of 87 university students (Caucasians, women 63%, average age 20.4±2.6 years). The genotypes of the COMT, 5HT2A, and DRD4 genes were determined by polymerase chain reaction. Agarose gel electrophoresis was used to determine the number of tandem repeats of the MAOA gene. Three hundred sixty (360) photographic images of scenes of different emotional valence (positive, negative, and neutral - 120 images for each category) were used as stimuli. These images were classified by expert assessments. The images were presented in a random sequence. The exposure time was 700 ms. The research participants were asked to determine the emotional valence of each scene.

RESULTS: We found that only the COMT gene genotype affected the recognition of emotional and neutral visual scenes. Carriers of the COMT Val/Val genotype, which causes dopamine to stay in the synaptic space for a shorter time, are better in recognizing and demonstrate higher sensitivity to the emotional content of scenes. Carriers of the Val/Met genotype demonstrated the worst ability to differentiate the emotional valence of visual scenes.

CONCLUSION: This study has shown that the length of stay of monoamines in the synaptic space regulated by the COMT gene affects the recognition of emotional visual information.

RevDate: 2023-04-05
CmpDate: 2023-04-05

Cheng T, Wang F, Denisova K, et al (2023)

Normative exophthalmometry values in Hispanic individuals.

Archivos de la Sociedad Espanola de Oftalmologia, 98(4):199-205.

PURPOSE: Normative exophthalmometry values have been established in Caucasians, Asians, and Black individuals. While prior studies have examined periocular measurements in different racial and ethnic groups, this study is the first to establish a set of normative exophthalmometry values in a Hispanic population in New York City.

METHODS: This prospective, cross-sectional cohort study was IRB approved and HIPAA compliant. Adult patients self-identifying as Hispanic were included. The degree of ocular prominence (exophthalmometry value, EV) and the inter-orbital distance (Hertel's base, IOD) was obtained by Hertel exophthalmometry. Differences in EV between sexes were evaluated using two sample t-tests. Multivariable linear regression was utilized to determine the effect of age, sex, and body mass index (BMI) on EV.

RESULTS: Of the 277 Hispanic individuals included, 189 (68.2%) were female and the mean age was 63.0 years (SD = 15.0). The mean Hertel's base and mean EV for all participants was 92.0 mm (SD = 4.1) and 16.7 mm (SD = 2.4), respectively. Average exophthalmometry values for men were significantly higher than women's (17.6 mm and 16.2 mm, respectively, p ≤ 0.001). Higher EVs were positively associated with male gender (ß = -1.60, p < 0.0001) and BMI (ß = 0.084, p = 0.001), but not age.

CONCLUSIONS: The mean EV in Hispanic individuals is 16.7 mm, higher than that reported for most Caucasians and Asians, but less than that of Black individuals. Higher EV is significantly associated with male sex and increased BMI. This study is the first to create a set of normative exophthalmometry values in a Hispanic population, which may serve as a valuable tool for clinicians to reference when diagnosing and monitoring orbital disease.

RevDate: 2023-02-02
CmpDate: 2023-02-02

Borshchevskaya VN, Denisova AV, Todorov SS, et al (2023)

[Forensic medical assessment of venous thromboembolic complications of mechanical injury of the lower limb after surgery].

Sudebno-meditsinskaia ekspertiza, 66(1):35-38.

In forensic medical practice, venous thromboembolic complications (VTEC) are relatively rare, due to hereditary and acquired factors. The issue of expert evaluation of the VTEC after the performed surgical intervention as an alleged defect in medical care causes discussion. The purpose of this publication is to demonstrate an expert case in the assessment of VTEC mechanical injury of the lower limb after surgery. The above case with the development of PATE after surgery clearly demonstrates the possibility of the appearance of a «medical case». The key to the correct expert assessment of the alleged defect of medical care during the forensic medical examination is not only a thorough and scrupulous study of medical documentation, but also a qualitatively performed forensic medical examination of the corpse.

RevDate: 2023-09-20

Flegontov P, Işıldak U, Maier R, et al (2023)

Modeling of African population history using f -statistics can be highly biased and is not addressed by previously suggested SNP ascertainment schemes.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology.

f -statistics have emerged as a first line of analysis for making inferences about demographic history from genome-wide data. These statistics can provide strong evidence for either admixture or cladality, which can be robust to substantial rates of errors or missing data. f -statistics are guaranteed to be unbiased under "SNP ascertainment" (analyzing non-randomly chosen subsets of single nucleotide polymorphisms) only if it relies on a population that is an outgroup for all groups analyzed. However, ascertainment on a true outgroup that is not co-analyzed with other populations is often impractical and uncommon in the literature. In this study focused on practical rather than theoretical aspects of SNP ascertainment, we show that many non-outgroup ascertainment schemes lead to false rejection of true demographic histories, as well as to failure to reject incorrect models. But the bias introduced by common ascertainments such as the 1240K panel is mostly limited to situations when more than one sub-Saharan African and/or archaic human groups (Neanderthals and Denisovans) or non-human outgroups are co-modelled, for example, f 4 -statistics involving one non-African group, two African groups, and one archaic group. Analyzing panels of SNPs polymorphic in archaic humans, which has been suggested as a solution for the ascertainment problem, cannot fix all these problems since for some classes of f -statistics it is not a clean outgroup ascertainment, and in other cases it demonstrates relatively low power to reject incorrect demographic models since it provides a relatively small number of variants common in anatomically modern humans. And due to the paucity of high-coverage archaic genomes, archaic individuals used for ascertainment often act as sole representatives of the respective groups in an analysis, and we show that this approach is highly problematic. By carrying out large numbers of simulations of diverse demographic histories, we find that bias in inferences based on f -statistics introduced by non-outgroup ascertainment can be minimized if the derived allele frequency spectrum in the population used for ascertainment approaches the spectrum that existed at the root of all groups being co-analyzed. Ascertaining on sites with variants common in a diverse group of African individuals provides a good approximation to such a set of SNPs, addressing the great majority of biases and also retaining high statistical power for studying population history. Such a "pan-African" ascertainment, although not completely problem-free, allows unbiased exploration of demographic models for the widest set of archaic and modern human populations, as compared to the other ascertainment schemes we explored.

RevDate: 2023-05-18

Witt KE, Funk A, Fang LL, et al (2023)

The impact of modern admixture on archaic human ancestry in human populations.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology.

Admixture, the genetic merging of parental populations resulting in mixed ancestry, has occurred frequently throughout the course of human history. Numerous admixture events have occurred between human populations across the world, as well as introgression between humans and archaic humans, Neanderthals and Denisovans. One example are genomes from populations in the Americas, as these are often mosaics of different ancestries due to recent admixture events as part of European colonization. In this study, we analyzed admixed populations from the Americas to assess whether the proportion and location of admixed segments due to recent admixture impact an individual’s archaic ancestry. We identified a positive correlation between non-African ancestry and archaic alleles, as well as a slight enrichment of Denisovan alleles in Indigenous American segments relative to European segments in admixed genomes. We also identify several genes as candidates for adaptive introgression, based on archaic alleles present at high frequency in admixed American populations but low frequency in East Asian populations. These results provide insights into how recent admixture events between modern humans redistributed archaic ancestry in admixed genomes.

RevDate: 2023-02-02

de March CA, Matsunami H, Abe M, et al (2023)

Genetic and functional odorant receptor variation in the Homo lineage.

iScience, 26(1):105908.

Humans, Neanderthals, and Denisovans independently adapted to a wide range of geographic environments and their associated food odors. Using ancient DNA sequences, we explored the in vitro function of thirty odorant receptor genes in the genus Homo. Our extinct relatives had highly conserved olfactory receptor sequence, but humans did not. Variations in odorant receptor protein sequence and structure may have produced variation in odor detection and perception. Variants led to minimal changes in specificity but had more influence on functional sensitivity. The few Neanderthal variants disturbed function, whereas Denisovan variants increased sensitivity to sweet and sulfur odors. Geographic adaptations may have produced greater functional variation in our lineage, increasing our olfactory repertoire and expanding our adaptive capacity. Our survey of olfactory genes and odorant receptors suggests that our genus has a shared repertoire with possible local ecological adaptations.

RevDate: 2023-02-01
CmpDate: 2023-01-24

Zhou Z, M A Swagemakers S, S Lourens M, et al (2022)

Did variants in inborn errors of immunity genes contribute to the extinction of Neanderthals?.

Asian Pacific journal of allergy and immunology, 40(4):422-434.

BACKGROUND: Neanderthals were a species of archaic humans that became extinct around 40,000 years ago. Modern humans have inherited 1-6% of Neanderthal DNA as a result of interbreeding. These inherited Neanderthal genes have paradoxical influences, while some can provide protection to viral infections, some others are associated with autoimmune/auto-inflammatory diseases.

OBJECTIVE: We aim to investigate whether genetic variants with strong detrimental effects on the function of the immune system could have potentially contributed to the extinction of the Neanderthal population.

METHODS: We used the publically available genome information from an Altai Neanderthal and filtered for potentially damaging variants present in genes associated with inborn errors of immunity (IEI) and checked whether these variants were present in the genomes of the Denisovan, Vindija and Chagyrskaya Neanderthals.

RESULTS: We identified 24 homozygous variants and 15 heterozygous variants in IEI-related genes in the Altai Neanderthal. Two homozygous variants in the UNC13D gene and one variant in the MOGS gene were present in all archaic genomes. Defects in the UNC13D gene are known to cause a severe and often fatal disease called hemophagocytic lymphohistiocystosis (HLH). One of these variants p.(N943S) has been reported in patients with HLH. Variants in MOGS are associated with glycosylation defects in the immune system affecting the susceptibility for infections.

CONCLUSIONS: Although the exact functional impact of these three variants needs further elucidation, we speculate that they could have resulted in an increased susceptibility to severe diseases and may have contributed to the extinction of Neanderthals after exposure to specific infections.

RevDate: 2023-01-24

Mikhailova SV, Ivanoshchuk DE, Yushkevich EA, et al (2022)

Prevalence of Common Alleles of Some Stress Resilience Genes among Adolescents Born in Different Periods Relative to the Socioeconomic Crisis of the 1990s in Russia.

Current issues in molecular biology, 45(1):51-65.

Social stress is common among people and is considered one of the causes of the declining birth rate. Predisposition to stress and stress-induced disorders is largely determined genetically. We hypothesized that due to differences in stress resistance, carriers of different genetic variants of genes associated with stress resilience and stress-induced diseases may have dissimilar numbers of offspring under conditions of long-term social stress. To test this hypothesis, a comparative analysis of frequencies of seven common polymorphic regions [exon 3 variable number of tandem repeats (VNTR) of the DRD4 gene, rs4680 of COMT, STin2 VNTR and the 5-HTTLPR (rs774676466) insertion/deletion polymorphism of SLC6A4, rs4570625 of TPH2, rs6265 of BDNF, and rs258747 of NR3C1] was performed on standardized groups of randomly selected adolescents born before, during, and after severe socioeconomic deprivation (the crisis of the 1990s in Russia). There were significant differences in frequencies of "long" alleles of the DRD4 gene (p = 0.020, χ[2] = 5.492) and rs4680 (p = 0.022, χ[2] = 5.289) in the "crisis" group as compared to the combined "noncrisis" population. It is possible that the dopaminergic system had an impact on the successful adaptation of a person to social stress.

RevDate: 2023-02-28
CmpDate: 2023-01-13

Filippenkov IB, Remizova JA, Denisova AE, et al (2023)

Differential gene expression in the contralateral hemisphere of the rat brain after focal ischemia.

Scientific reports, 13(1):573.

Ischemic stroke is one of the most severe polygenic brain diseases. Here, we performed further functional genetic analysis of the processes occurring in the contralateral hemisphere (CH) after ischemia-reperfusion injury in rat brain. Comparison of RNA sequencing data for subcortical samples from the ipsilateral hemisphere (IH) and CH after 90 min of transient middle cerebral artery occlusion (tMCAO) and corresponding sham-operated (SO) controls showed four groups of genes that were associated with ischemic processes in rat brain at 24 h after tMCAO. Among them, 2672 genes were differentially expressed genes (DEGs) for IH but non-DEGs for CH, 34 genes were DEGs for CH but non-DEGs for IH, and 114 genes had codirected changes in expression in both hemispheres. The remaining 16 genes exhibited opposite changes at the mRNA level in the two brain hemispheres after tMCAO. These findings suggest that the ischemic process caused by a focal ischemia induces complex bilateral reactions at the transcriptome level in the rat brain. We believe that specific genome responses in the CH and IH may provide a useful model for the study of the potential for brain repair after stroke.

RevDate: 2023-03-22
CmpDate: 2023-02-23

Aqil A, Speidel L, Pavlidis P, et al (2023)

Balancing selection on genomic deletion polymorphisms in humans.

eLife, 12:.

A key question in biology is why genomic variation persists in a population for extended periods. Recent studies have identified examples of genomic deletions that have remained polymorphic in the human lineage for hundreds of millennia, ostensibly owing to balancing selection. Nevertheless, genome-wide investigation of ancient and possibly adaptive deletions remains an imperative exercise. Here, we demonstrate an excess of polymorphisms in present-day humans that predate the modern human-Neanderthal split (ancient polymorphisms), which cannot be explained solely by selectively neutral scenarios. We analyze the adaptive mechanisms that underlie this excess in deletion polymorphisms. Using a previously published measure of balancing selection, we show that this excess of ancient deletions is largely owing to balancing selection. Based on the absence of signatures of overdominance, we conclude that it is a rare mode of balancing selection among ancient deletions. Instead, more complex scenarios involving spatially and temporally variable selective pressures are likely more common mechanisms. Our results suggest that balancing selection resulted in ancient deletions harboring disproportionately more exonic variants with GWAS (genome-wide association studies) associations. We further found that ancient deletions are significantly enriched for traits related to metabolism and immunity. As a by-product of our analysis, we show that deletions are, on average, more deleterious than single nucleotide variants. We can now argue that not only is a vast majority of common variants shared among human populations, but a considerable portion of biologically relevant variants has been segregating among our ancestors for hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of years.

RevDate: 2023-11-20
CmpDate: 2023-02-01

Zhang X, Kim B, Singh A, et al (2023)

MaLAdapt Reveals Novel Targets of Adaptive Introgression From Neanderthals and Denisovans in Worldwide Human Populations.

Molecular biology and evolution, 40(1):.

Adaptive introgression (AI) facilitates local adaptation in a wide range of species. Many state-of-the-art methods detect AI with ad-hoc approaches that identify summary statistic outliers or intersect scans for positive selection with scans for introgressed genomic regions. Although widely used, approaches intersecting outliers are vulnerable to a high false-negative rate as the power of different methods varies, especially for complex introgression events. Moreover, population genetic processes unrelated to AI, such as background selection or heterosis, may create similar genomic signals to AI, compromising the reliability of methods that rely on neutral null distributions. In recent years, machine learning (ML) methods have been increasingly applied to population genetic questions. Here, we present a ML-based method called MaLAdapt for identifying AI loci from genome-wide sequencing data. Using an Extra-Trees Classifier algorithm, our method combines information from a large number of biologically meaningful summary statistics to capture a powerful composite signature of AI across the genome. In contrast to existing methods, MaLAdapt is especially well-powered to detect AI with mild beneficial effects, including selection on standing archaic variation, and is robust to non-AI selective sweeps, heterosis from deleterious mutations, and demographic misspecification. Furthermore, MaLAdapt outperforms existing methods for detecting AI based on the analysis of simulated data and the validation of empirical signals through visual inspection of haplotype patterns. We apply MaLAdapt to the 1000 Genomes Project human genomic data and discover novel AI candidate regions in non-African populations, including genes that are enriched in functionally important biological pathways regulating metabolism and immune responses.

RevDate: 2023-01-09
CmpDate: 2022-12-26

Stavchansky VV, Filippenkov IB, Remizova JA, et al (2022)

Insight into Glyproline Peptides' Activity through the Modulation of the Inflammatory and Neurosignaling Genetic Response Following Cerebral Ischemia-Reperfusion.

Genes, 13(12):.

Glyprolines are Gly-Pro (GP)- or Pro-Gly (PG)-containing biogenic peptides. These peptides can act as neutrophil chemoattractants, or atheroprotective, anticoagulant, and neuroprotective agents. The Pro-Gly-Pro (PGP) tripeptide is an active factor of resistance to the biodegradation of peptide drugs. The synthetic Semax peptide, which includes Met-Glu-His-Phe (MEHF) fragments of adrenocorticotropic hormone and the C-terminal tripeptide PGP, serves as a neuroprotective drug for the treatment of ischemic stroke. Previously, we revealed that Semax mostly prevented the disruption of the gene expression pattern 24 h after a transient middle cerebral artery occlusion (tMCAO) in a rat brain model. The genes of this pattern were grouped into an inflammatory cluster (IC) and a neurotransmitter cluster (NC). Here, using real-time RT-PCR, the effect of other PGP-containing peptides, PGP and Pro-Gly-Pro-Leu (PGPL), on the expression of a number of genes in the IC and NC was studied 24 h after tMCAO. Both the PGP and PGPL peptides showed Semax-unlike effects, predominantly without changing gene expression 24 h after tMCAO. Moreover, there were IC genes (iL1b, iL6, and Socs3) for PGP, as well as IC (iL6, Ccl3, Socs3, and Fos) and NC genes (Cplx2, Neurod6, and Ptk2b) for PGPL, that significantly changed in expression levels after peptide administration compared to Semax treatment under tMCAO conditions. Furthermore, gene enrichment analysis was carried out, and a regulatory gene network was constructed. Thus, the spectra of the common and unique effects of the PGP, PGPL, and Semax peptides under ischemia-reperfusion were distinguished.

RevDate: 2023-02-09
CmpDate: 2023-01-17

Rochkind S, Ferraresi S, Denisova N, et al (2023)

Thoracic Outlet Syndrome Part II: Consensus on the Management of Neurogenic Thoracic Outlet Syndrome by the European Association of Neurosurgical Societies' Section of Peripheral Nerve Surgery.

Neurosurgery, 92(2):251-257.

BACKGROUND: In the first part of this report, the European Association of Neurosurgical Societies' section of peripheral nerve surgery presented a systematic literature review and consensus statements on anatomy, classification, and diagnosis of thoracic outlet syndrome (TOS) along with a subclassification system of neurogenic TOS (nTOS). Because of the lack of level 1 evidence, especially regarding the management of nTOS, we now add a consensus statement on nTOS treatment among experienced neurosurgeons.

OBJECTIVE: To document consensus and controversy on nTOS management, with emphasis on timing and types of surgical and nonsurgical nTOS treatment, and to support patient counseling and clinical decision-making within the neurosurgical community.

METHODS: The literature available on PubMed/MEDLINE was systematically searched on February 13, 2021, and yielded 2853 results. Screening and classification of abstracts was performed. In an online meeting that was held on December 16, 2021, 14 recommendations on nTOS management were developed and refined in a group process according to the Delphi consensus method.

RESULTS: Five RCTs reported on management strategies in nTOS. Three prospective observational studies present outcomes after therapeutic interventions. Fourteen statements on nonsurgical nTOS treatment, timing, and type of surgical therapy were developed. Within our expert group, the agreement rate was high with a mean of 97.8% (± 0.04) for each statement, ranging between 86.7% and 100%.

CONCLUSION: Our work may help to improve clinical decision-making among the neurosurgical community and may guide nonspecialized or inexperienced neurosurgeons with initial patient management before patient referral to a specialized center.

RevDate: 2023-03-04
CmpDate: 2022-12-19

Gorgé O, Bennett EA, Massilani D, et al (2023)

Analysis of Ancient Microbial DNA.

Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.), 2605:103-131.

The development of next-generation sequencing has led to a breakthrough in the analysis of ancient genomes, and the subsequent genomic analyses of ancient human skeletal remains have revolutionized our understanding of human evolution. This research led to the discovery of a new hominin lineage, and demonstrated multiple admixture events with more distantly related archaic human populations such as Neandertals and Denisovans over the last 100,000 years. Moreover, it has also yielded novel insights into the evolution of ancient pathogens. The analysis of ancient microbial genomes enables the study of their recent evolution, presently covering the last several millennia. These spectacular results have been obtained despite the degradation of DNA that takes place after the death of the host and increases with time. This cumulative degradation results in very short ancient DNA molecules, low in quantity, and highly prone to contamination by modern DNA molecules, especially from human and animal DNA present in reagents used in downstream biomolecular analyses. Finally, the minute amounts of ancient molecules are further diluted in environmental DNA from the soil microorganisms that colonize bones and teeth. Thus, ancient skeletal remains can share DNA profiles with environmental samples, and the identification of ancient microbial genomes among the more recent, presently poorly characterized, environmental microbiome is particularly challenging. Here, we describe the methods developed and/or in use in our laboratory to produce reliable and reproducible paleogenomic results from ancient skeletal remains that can be used to identify the presence of ancient microbiota.

RevDate: 2022-12-21
CmpDate: 2022-12-14

Skryabin GO, Vinokurova SV, Elkina NV, et al (2022)

Comparison of Methods for MicroRNA Isolation from Extracellular Vesicles Obtained from Ascitic Fluids.

Biochemistry. Biokhimiia, 87(11):1354-1366.

Secreted extracellular vesicles (EVs) contain active biomolecules, including miRNAs, composition of which reflects epigenetic changes occurring in cells during pathological processes, in particular, malignant transformation. The accumulated pool of data on the role of EVs in carcinogenesis has stimulated investigations of the EV-derived cancer markers. The most important factor limiting development of this scientific direction is lack of "gold standards" both for methods of EV isolation from biological fluids and for analyzing their molecular content, including composition of miRNAs. Here we first examined efficacy of various methods for small RNA isolation from EVs contained in ascitic fluid for subsequent miRNA analysis. Comparison of different commercial kits showed advantages of the methods based on phenol-chloroform extraction: Total Exosome RNA & Protein Isolation Kit and miRNeasy Serum/Plasma Kit. Analysis of the small RNA transcriptome showed presence of various classes of molecules in the EVs, among which proportion of miRNAs averaged 6% and reaching 10% with the Total Exosome RNA & Protein Isolation Kit. The PureLink miRNA Isolation Kit demonstrated the lowest efficiency. The miRNeasy Advanced Serum/Plasma Kit showed the highest concentration of the small RNA fraction, miRNA proportion of which, however, did not exceed that obtained with the miRNeasy Serum/Plasma Kit and Total Exosome RNA & Protein Isolation Kit. Moreover, RT-PCR analysis of the individual molecules showed lower levels of each of investigated miRNAs (miR-1246, miR-200b-5p, miR-200c-3p, and miR-23a-3p) when using the miRNeasy Advanced Serum/Plasma Kit. In conclusion, Total Exosome RNA & Protein Isolation Kit and miRNeasy Serum/Plasma Kit can be considered as optimal kits in terms of performance based on combination of the studied characteristics, including small RNA concentration, percentage of microRNA according to bioanalyzer and sequencing results, and levels of individual miRNAs detected by RT-PCR.

RevDate: 2022-12-27
CmpDate: 2022-12-21

Vespasiani DM, Jacobs GS, Cook LE, et al (2022)

Denisovan introgression has shaped the immune system of present-day Papuans.

PLoS genetics, 18(12):e1010470.

Modern humans have admixed with multiple archaic hominins. Papuans, in particular, owe up to 5% of their genome to Denisovans, a sister group to Neanderthals whose remains have only been identified in Siberia and Tibet. Unfortunately, the biological and evolutionary significance of these introgression events remain poorly understood. Here we investigate the function of both Denisovan and Neanderthal alleles characterised within a set of 56 genomes from Papuan individuals. By comparing the distribution of archaic and non-archaic variants we assess the consequences of archaic admixture across a multitude of different cell types and functional elements. We observe an enrichment of archaic alleles within cis-regulatory elements and transcribed regions of the genome, with Denisovan variants strongly affecting elements active within immune-related cells. We identify 16,048 and 10,032 high-confidence Denisovan and Neanderthal variants that fall within annotated cis-regulatory elements and with the potential to alter the affinity of multiple transcription factors to their cognate DNA motifs, highlighting a likely mechanism by which introgressed DNA can impact phenotypes. Lastly, we experimentally validate these predictions by testing the regulatory potential of five Denisovan variants segregating within Papuan individuals, and find that two are associated with a significant reduction of transcriptional activity in plasmid reporter assays. Together, these data provide support for a widespread contribution of archaic DNA in shaping the present levels of modern human genetic diversity, with different archaic ancestries potentially affecting multiple phenotypic traits within non-Africans.

RevDate: 2023-03-13
CmpDate: 2022-12-27

Morfouace M, Horak P, Kreutzfeldt S, et al (2023)

Comprehensive molecular profiling of sarcomas in adolescent and young adult patients: Results of the EORTC SPECTA-AYA international proof-of-concept study.

European journal of cancer (Oxford, England : 1990), 178:216-226.

BACKGROUND: Adolescent and young adult (AYA) patients with cancer are poorly recruited to molecularly targeted trials and have not witnessed the advances in cancer treatment and survival seen in other age groups. We report here a pan-European proof-of-concept study to identify actionable alterations in some of the worst prognosis AYA cancers: bone and soft tissue sarcomas.

DESIGN: Patients aged 12-29 years with newly diagnosed or recurrent, intermediate or high-grade bone and soft tissue sarcomas were recruited from six European countries. Pathological diagnoses were centrally reviewed. Formalin-fixed tissues were analysed by whole exome sequencing, methylation profiling and RNA sequencing and were discussed in a multidisciplinary, international molecular tumour board.

RESULTS: Of 71 patients recruited, 48 (median 20 years, range 12-28) met eligibility criteria. Central pathological review confirmed, modified and re-classified the diagnosis in 41, 3, and 4 cases, respectively. Median turnaround time to discussion at molecular tumour board was 8.4 weeks. whole exome sequencing (n = 48), methylation profiling (n = 44, 85%) and RNA sequencing (n = 24, 50%) led to therapeutic recommendations for 81% patients, including 4 with germ line alterations. The most common were for agents targeted towards tyrosine kinases (n = 20 recommendations), DNA repair (n = 18) and the PI3K/mTOR/AKT pathway (n = 15). Recommendations were generally based on weak evidence such as activity in a different tumour type (n = 68, 61%), reflecting the dearth of relevant molecular clinical trial data in the same tumour type.

CONCLUSIONS: We demonstrate here that comprehensive molecular profiling of AYA patients' samples is feasible and deliverable in a European programme.

RevDate: 2022-12-15
CmpDate: 2022-12-15

Tyrinova TV, Batorov EV, Aristova TA, et al (2022)

Expression of Inhibitory Molecules (Arginase-1, IDO, and PD-L1) by Myeloid-Derived Suppressor Cells in Multiple Myeloma Patients in Remission.

Bulletin of experimental biology and medicine, 174(1):71-75.

We studied suppressor potential of myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSC) in multiple myeloma patients, including before and after mobilization of hematopoietic stem cells (HSC), by evaluating the expression of arginase-1 (Arg1), indolamine-2,3-dioxygenase (IDO), and PD-L1 in MDSC subsets. The study included 20 multiple myeloma patients in remission, 5 patients with progression, as well as 10 sex-and age-matched healthy donors. The expression of Arg1, IDO, and PD-L1 in circulating granulocytic MDSC (G-MDSC, Lin[-]HLA-DR[-]CD33[+]CD66b[+]), monocytic MDSC (M-MDSC, CD14[+]HLA-DR[low/-]), and early-stage MDSC (E-MDSC, Lin[-]HLA-DR[-]CD33[+]CD66b[-]) was evaluated by flow cytometry. Multiple myeloma patients in remission were characterized by reduced expression of Arg1 in M-MDSC in comparison with donors. The expression of Arg1 in M-MDSC depended on the number of induction therapy lines performed and was significantly lower in patients who received ⩾2 lines and responded with remission. Patients with multiple myeloma progression (resistant to therapy) showed significantly increased expression of Arg1 and PD-L1 in M-MDSC, as well as increased expression of Arg1 in E-MDSC. After G-CSF-induced mobilization of HSC, the content of circulating Arg1-expressing M-MDSC increased significantly. Considering the presence of MDSC in apheresis products, MDSC suppressive activity is discussed as a factor affecting the outcomes of autologous HSC transplantation in multiple myeloma patients.

RevDate: 2023-03-08
CmpDate: 2022-11-29

Šutka A, Mežule L, Denisova V, et al (2022)

Straightforward Approach for Preparing Durable Antibacterial ZnO Nanoparticle Coatings on Flexible Substrates.

Molecules (Basel, Switzerland), 27(22):.

Flexible antibacterial materials have gained utmost importance in protection from the distribution of bacteria and viruses due to the exceptional variety of applications. Herein, we demonstrate a readily scalable and rapid single-step approach for producing durable ZnO nanoparticle antibacterial coating on flexible polymer substrates at room temperature. Substrates used are polystyrene, poly(ethylene-co-vinyl acetate) copolymer, poly(methyl methacrylate), polypropylene, high density polyethylene and a commercial acrylate type adhesive tape. The deposition was achieved by a spin-coating process using a slurry of ZnO nanoparticles in toluene. A stable modification layer was obtained when toluene was a solvent for the polymer substrates, namely polystyrene and poly(ethylene-co-vinyl acetate). These coatings show high antibacterial efficiency causing >5 log decrease in the viable counts of Gram-negative bacteria Escherichia. coli and Gram-positive bacteria Staphylococcus aureus in 120 min. Even after tapping these coated surfaces 500 times, the antibacterial properties remained unchanged, showing that the coating obtained by the presented method is very robust. In contrast to the above findings, the coatings are unstable when toluene is not a solvent for the substrate.

RevDate: 2023-01-15
CmpDate: 2022-11-29

Perik-Zavodskii R, Perik-Zavodskaia O, Shevchenko J, et al (2022)

Immune Transcriptome Study of Human Nucleated Erythroid Cells from Different Tissues by Single-Cell RNA-Sequencing.

Cells, 11(22):.

Nucleated erythroid cells (NECs) are the precursors of erythrocytes. They can be found in various hematopoietic tissues or in the blood. Recently, they have been shown to be active players in immunosuppression through the synthesis of arginase-2 and reactive oxygen species. In this work, we studied NECs in adult bone marrow, umbilical cord blood, and foetal liver parenchyma using single-cell RNA sequencing and found that: (1) all studied NECs expressed the same set of genes, which was enriched in "GO biological process" immunity-related terms; (2) early and late NECs had differential expression of the genes associated with immunosuppression, cell cycle progression, apoptosis, and glycolysis; (3) NECs from different tissues of origin had differential expression of the genes associated with immunosuppression.

RevDate: 2023-09-18
CmpDate: 2022-11-29

Harvati K, H Reyes-Centeno (2022)

Evolution of Homo in the Middle and Late Pleistocene.

Journal of human evolution, 173:103279.

The Middle and Late Pleistocene is arguably the most interesting period in human evolution. This broad period witnessed the evolution of our own lineage, as well as that of our sister taxon, the Neanderthals, and related Denisovans. It is exceptionally rich in both fossil and archaeological remains, and uniquely benefits from insights gained through molecular approaches, such as paleogenetics and paleoproteomics, that are currently not widely applicable in earlier contexts. This wealth of information paints a highly complex picture, often described as 'the Muddle in the Middle,' defying the common adage that 'more evidence is needed' to resolve it. Here we review competing phylogenetic scenarios and the historical and theoretical developments that shaped our approaches to the fossil record, as well as some of the many remaining open questions associated with this period. We propose that advancing our understanding of this critical time requires more than the addition of data and will necessitate a major shift in our conceptual and theoretical framework.

RevDate: 2023-04-15
CmpDate: 2023-01-13

Denisova K, Z Lin (2023)

The importance of low IQ to early diagnosis of autism.

Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research, 16(1):122-142.

Some individuals can flexibly adapt to life's changing demands while others, in particular those with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), find it challenging. The origin of early individual differences in cognitive abilities, the putative tools with which to navigate novel information in life, including in infants later diagnosed with ASD remains unexplored. Moreover, the role of intelligence quotient (IQ) vis-à-vis core features of autism remains debated. We systematically investigate the contribution of early IQ in future autism outcomes in an extremely large, population-based study of 8000 newborns, infants, and toddlers from the US between 2 and 68 months with over 15,000 cross-sectional and longitudinal assessments, and for whom autism outcomes are ascertained or ruled out by about 2-4 years. This population is representative of subjects involved in the National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded research, mainly on atypical development, in the US. Analyses using predetermined age bins showed that IQ scores are consistently lower in ASD relative to typically developing (TD) children at all ages (p < 0.001), and IQ significantly correlates with social, non-social, and total Calibrated Severity Scores (CSS) on the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS) (p<0.01). Lower IQ is associated with greater autistic impairments. Note, verbal IQ (VIQ) is no better than the full-scale IQ to predict ASD cases. These findings raise new, compelling questions about potential atypical brain circuitry affecting performance in both verbal and nonverbal abilities and preceding an ASD diagnosis. This study is the first to establish prospectively that low early IQ is a major feature of ASD in early childhood. LAY SUMMARY: The role of IQ scores in autism remains debated. We systematically investigate the contribution of early IQ in an extremely large study of 8,000 children between 2 and 68 months with autism outcomes by about 2-4 years. We show that IQ scores are consistently lower in ASD relative to TD children. This study is the first to establish prospectively that low early IQ is a predictor for ASD diagnosis in early childhood.

RevDate: 2022-11-09

Steinberg Y, Wieder MS, Denisova K, et al (2022)

Evaluation of commotio retinae in orbital fractures.

Arquivos brasileiros de oftalmologia pii:S0004-27492022005011204 [Epub ahead of print].

PURPOSE: This study aimed to evaluate the mechanisms of injury and types of orbital fractures and their relation to concurrent commotio retinae.

METHODS: This retrospective study evaluated the records of patients with orbital fractures whose diagnoses had been confirmed by computer tomography between July 2017 and September 2019. Patient demographics, the circumstances of injury, ophthalmic examination results, and radiological findings were tabulated. Statistical analysis of the data used two-tailed student's t-tests, chi-squared tests, and odds ratio calculations. Statistical significance was set at p<0.05.

RESULTS: Of the 204 patients with orbital fractures included in this study, 154 (75.5%) were male. The mean age was 42.1 years. Orbital fractures involving one orbital wall (58.8%) were more common than those affecting multiple walls (41.2%). The majority of fractures affected the inferior wall (60.3%), with the medial walls being the next most frequently affected (19.6%). The most common cause of injury was assault (59.3%), and the second most common was falls (24%). Commotio retinae was observed in 20.1% of orbital fracture cases and was most associated with injuries caused by assault (OR=5.22, p<0.001) and least associated with those caused by falls (OR=0.06, p<0.001). Eye movement restrictions were more common in central than peripheral commotio (OR=3.79, p=0.015) and with medial wall fractures than fractures to other orbital walls (OR=7.16, p<0.001). The odds of commotio were not found to be higher in patients with multi-walled orbital fractures than in those with single-walled fractures (p=0.967).

CONCLUSIONS: In the study population, assault was the most common cause of orbital fractures and resulted in commotio retinae than other causes. Ophthalmologists should be aware of the likelihood of commotio retinae in patients with orbital fractures resulting from assault, regardless of the extent of the patient's injuries.

RevDate: 2023-03-25
CmpDate: 2022-11-09

Koller D, Wendt FR, Pathak GA, et al (2022)

Denisovan and Neanderthal archaic introgression differentially impacted the genetics of complex traits in modern populations.

BMC biology, 20(1):249.

BACKGROUND: Introgression from extinct Neanderthal and Denisovan human species has been shown to contribute to the genetic pool of modern human populations and their phenotypic spectrum. Evidence of how Neanderthal introgression shaped the genetics of human traits and diseases has been extensively studied in populations of European descent, with signatures of admixture reported for instance in genes associated with pigmentation, immunity, and metabolic traits. However, limited information is currently available about the impact of archaic introgression on other ancestry groups. Additionally, to date, no study has been conducted with respect to the impact of Denisovan introgression on the health and disease of modern populations. Here, we compare the way evolutionary pressures shaped the genetics of complex traits in East Asian and European populations, and provide evidence of the impact of Denisovan introgression on the health of East Asian and Central/South Asian populations.

RESULTS: Leveraging genome-wide association statistics from the Biobank Japan and UK Biobank, we assessed whether Denisovan and Neanderthal introgression together with other evolutionary genomic signatures were enriched for the heritability of physiological and pathological conditions in populations of East Asian and European descent. In EAS, Denisovan-introgressed loci were enriched for coronary artery disease heritability (1.69-fold enrichment, p=0.003). No enrichment for archaic introgression was observed in EUR. We also performed a phenome-wide association study of Denisovan and Neanderthal alleles in six ancestry groups available in the UK Biobank. In EAS, the Denisovan-introgressed SNP rs62391664 in the major histocompatibility complex region was associated with albumin/globulin ratio (beta=-0.17, p=3.57×10[-7]). Neanderthal-introgressed alleles were associated with psychiatric and cognitive traits in EAS (e.g., "No Bipolar or Depression"-rs79043717 beta=-1.5, p=1.1×10[-7]), and with blood biomarkers (e.g., alkaline phosphatase-rs11244089 beta=0.1, p=3.69×10[-116]) and red hair color (rs60733936 beta=-0.86, p=4.49×10[-165]) in EUR. In the other ancestry groups, Neanderthal alleles were associated with several traits, also including the use of certain medications (e.g., Central/South East Asia: indapamide - rs732632 beta=-2.38, p=5.22×10[-7]).

CONCLUSIONS: Our study provides novel evidence regarding the impact of archaic introgression on the genetics of complex traits in worldwide populations, highlighting the specific contribution of Denisovan introgression in EAS populations.

RevDate: 2023-02-01
CmpDate: 2022-11-29

Onishchenko G, Nikolayeva N, Rakitskii V, et al (2023)

Comprehensive study of health effects of plasma technology occupational environment: Exposure to high frequency and intensity noise and toxic gases.

Environmental research, 216(Pt 3):114691.

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate on animal models the health effects of the combined or separate exposure to main chemical and physical hazards of plasma-based material processing technology environment.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: Male Wistar rats were exposed to actual levels of hazardous factors in plasma technology occupational environment: i.e., ozone and nitrogen oxides (O3 and NOx) in respective concentrations of 0.5 mg/m[3] and 1.0 mg/m[3] and high-frequency (1000-1600 Hz) of 112 dB intensity noise for 3 h/day, 5 days/week for 12 weeks, with a recovery period of 1 month.

RESULTS: Exposure to noise or its combination with chemical factors (ozone, nitrogen oxides) causes non-specific CNS changes testifying for significant excitation dominance, especially in the case of joint exposure. Histological examination of rats' brain in experimental revealed a pronounced increase in blood filling of small vessels on the tenth day of the experiment, with subsequent intensification of vascular alterations and eventually to cerebral edema. The exposure to noise significantly reduced total thymus, bone marrow and spleen cell numbers and these was also more pronounced under the joint impact of noise and toxic gases. Thymus, but not bone marrow or spleen, mitotic activity was as well reduced under the same modes of exposure. Cytological investigation of film preparations of subcutaneous connective tissue revealed that joint exposure led to microcirculatory disorders, increased number of dark mast cells and reduced degranulation processes indicative of increased autoregulatory processes effective at microvasculature level.

CONCLUSIONS: High-frequency and intensity noise is main stressor factor that has negative impact on CNS and immune system, morphology and functioning of hematopoietic organs (spleen, bone marrow, thymus) and connective tissue. Its negative impact is significantly potentiated by concurrent exposure to ozone and nitrogen oxide, while exposure only to these toxic gases has no significant effect on the above targets.

RevDate: 2023-04-18
CmpDate: 2022-11-04

Campelo Dos Santos AL, Owings A, Sullasi HSL, et al (2022)

Genomic evidence for ancient human migration routes along South America's Atlantic coast.

Proceedings. Biological sciences, 289(1986):20221078.

An increasing body of archaeological and genomic evidence has hinted at a complex settlement process of the Americas by humans. This is especially true for South America, where unexpected ancestral signals have raised perplexing scenarios for the early migrations into different regions of the continent. Here, we present ancient human genomes from the archaeologically rich Northeast Brazil and compare them to ancient and present-day genomic data. We find a distinct relationship between ancient genomes from Northeast Brazil, Lagoa Santa, Uruguay and Panama, representing evidence for ancient migration routes along South America's Atlantic coast. To further add to the existing complexity, we also detect greater Denisovan than Neanderthal ancestry in ancient Uruguay and Panama individuals. Moreover, we find a strong Australasian signal in an ancient genome from Panama. This work sheds light on the deep demographic history of eastern South America and presents a starting point for future fine-scale investigations on the regional level.

RevDate: 2022-10-28
CmpDate: 2022-10-28

Denisova AR, Solntseva TD, Zarmanbetova AS, et al (2022)

[The incidence of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular complications in patients with uncontrolled hypertension].

Terapevticheskii arkhiv, 94(1):94-99.

AIM: To assess the incidence of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular events in patients with controlled and uncontrolled hypertension, controlled resistant and uncontrolled resistant hypertension, refractory hypertension, and probably resistant and probably refractory hypertension.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: A telephone call was made to 256 patients with hypertension included in the database to assess the incidence of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. All responding patients were divided into 7 groups according to the classification of hypertension based on the achievement/non-achievement of target blood pressure values and the number of drugs taken (controlled and uncontrolled hypertension, controlled resistant and uncontrolled resistant hypertension, refractory hypertension, and probably resistant and probably refractory hypertension). The target blood pressure was considered to be less than 140/90 mm Hg. Patients not adhering to medication were not included in the analysis.

RESULTS: The group of controlled hypertension included 146 (57%) patients out of 256, controlled resistant hypertension 36 (14%) patients, uncontrolled hypertension 6 (2.3%) patients, resistant uncontrolled hypertension 22 (8.6%) patients, refractory hypertension 31 (12.1%) patients. The group of probably resistant hypertension 6 (2.3%) patients, probably refractory hypertension 9 (3.5%) patients. Of the 28 events that occurred, 6 were attributed to coronary artery disease (including 3 acute myocardial infarction and 2 coronary artery stenting), 3 strokes, 6 episodes of transient ischemic attack and 10 new cases of atrial fibrillation, and 2 patients had sudden cardiac death. Significantly more often, patients with refractory hypertension developed any event compared with patients with controlled (38.7% versus 3.4%; p=0.005) and resistant hypertension (38.7% versus 13.6%; p=0.04). Also, patients from the group of probably refractory hypertension were more likely to develop events than patients with controlled hypertension (33.3% versus 3.4%; p=0.045). Patients with probably refractory hypertension significantly more often had a stroke than patients with controlled hypertension (22.2% versus 0%; p0.05), and patients with refractory hypertension significantly more often had a transient ischemic attack compared with patients from the group of controlled hypertension (12.9% versus 0.7%; p=0.03).

CONCLUSION: Patients with refractory and probably refractory hypertension are significantly more likely to develop cardiovascular and cerebrovascular complications than patients with controlled hypertension.

RevDate: 2022-10-28
CmpDate: 2022-10-28

Solntseva TD, Denisova AR, Sivakova OA, et al (2021)

[The clinical case of successful combined treatment of refractory arterial hypertension. Case report].

Terapevticheskii arkhiv, 93(9):1086-1090.

In recent years, there has been an increase of patients with arterial hypertension, one of the variants of which is refractory arterial hypertension. This unfavorable clinical variant of the course of hypertension worries clinicians, due to the higher risk of developing cardiovascular complications, realizing the need for a better control of blood pressure. The presented clinical case demonstrates the successful combined treatment of refractory hypertension using antihypertensive therapy and renal denervation.

RevDate: 2022-10-27
CmpDate: 2022-10-19

Bergman J, MH Schierup (2022)

Evolutionary dynamics of pseudoautosomal region 1 in humans and great apes.

Genome biology, 23(1):215.

BACKGROUND: The pseudoautosomal region 1 (PAR1) is a 2.7 Mb telomeric region of human sex chromosomes. PAR1 has a crucial role in ensuring proper segregation of sex chromosomes during male meiosis, exposing it to extreme recombination and mutation processes. We investigate PAR1 evolution using population genomic datasets of extant humans, eight populations of great apes, and two archaic human genome sequences.

RESULTS: We find that PAR1 is fast evolving and closer to evolutionary nucleotide equilibrium than autosomal telomeres. We detect a difference between substitution patterns and extant diversity in PAR1, mainly driven by the conflict between strong mutation and recombination-associated fixation bias at CpG sites. We detect excess C-to-G mutations in PAR1 of all great apes, specific to the mutagenic effect of male recombination. Despite recent evidence for Y chromosome introgression from humans into Neanderthals, we find that the Neanderthal PAR1 retained similarity to the Denisovan sequence. We find differences between substitution spectra of these archaics suggesting rapid evolution of PAR1 in recent hominin history. Frequency analysis of alleles segregating in females and males provided no evidence for recent sexual antagonism in this region. We study repeat content and double-strand break hotspot regions in PAR1 and find that they may play roles in ensuring the obligate X-Y recombination event during male meiosis.

CONCLUSIONS: Our study provides an unprecedented quantification of population genetic forces governing PAR1 biology across extant and extinct hominids. PAR1 evolutionary dynamics are predominantly governed by recombination processes with a strong impact on mutation patterns across all species.

RevDate: 2022-12-20
CmpDate: 2022-11-22

Huang X, Kruisz P, M Kuhlwilm (2022)

sstar: A Python Package for Detecting Archaic Introgression from Population Genetic Data with S.

Molecular biology and evolution, 39(11):.

S* is a widely used statistic for detecting archaic admixture from population genetic data. Previous studies used freezing-archer to apply S*, which is only directly applicable to the specific case of Neanderthal and Denisovan introgression in Papuans. Here, we implemented sstar for a more general purpose. Compared with several tools, including SPrime, SkovHMM, and ArchaicSeeker2.0, for detecting introgressed fragments with simulations, our results suggest that sstar is robust to differences in demographic models, including ghost introgression and two-source introgression. We believe sstar will be a useful tool for detecting introgressed fragments in various scenarios and in non-human species.

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RJR Experience and Expertise

Researcher

Robbins holds BS, MS, and PhD degrees in the life sciences. He served as a tenured faculty member in the Zoology and Biological Science departments at Michigan State University. He is currently exploring the intersection between genomics, microbial ecology, and biodiversity — an area that promises to transform our understanding of the biosphere.

Educator

Robbins has extensive experience in college-level education: At MSU he taught introductory biology, genetics, and population genetics. At JHU, he was an instructor for a special course on biological database design. At FHCRC, he team-taught a graduate-level course on the history of genetics. At Bellevue College he taught medical informatics.

Administrator

Robbins has been involved in science administration at both the federal and the institutional levels. At NSF he was a program officer for database activities in the life sciences, at DOE he was a program officer for information infrastructure in the human genome project. At the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, he served as a vice president for fifteen years.

Technologist

Robbins has been involved with information technology since writing his first Fortran program as a college student. At NSF he was the first program officer for database activities in the life sciences. At JHU he held an appointment in the CS department and served as director of the informatics core for the Genome Data Base. At the FHCRC he was VP for Information Technology.

Publisher

While still at Michigan State, Robbins started his first publishing venture, founding a small company that addressed the short-run publishing needs of instructors in very large undergraduate classes. For more than 20 years, Robbins has been operating The Electronic Scholarly Publishing Project, a web site dedicated to the digital publishing of critical works in science, especially classical genetics.

Speaker

Robbins is well-known for his speaking abilities and is often called upon to provide keynote or plenary addresses at international meetings. For example, in July, 2012, he gave a well-received keynote address at the Global Biodiversity Informatics Congress, sponsored by GBIF and held in Copenhagen. The slides from that talk can be seen HERE.

Facilitator

Robbins is a skilled meeting facilitator. He prefers a participatory approach, with part of the meeting involving dynamic breakout groups, created by the participants in real time: (1) individuals propose breakout groups; (2) everyone signs up for one (or more) groups; (3) the groups with the most interested parties then meet, with reports from each group presented and discussed in a subsequent plenary session.

Designer

Robbins has been engaged with photography and design since the 1960s, when he worked for a professional photography laboratory. He now prefers digital photography and tools for their precision and reproducibility. He designed his first web site more than 20 years ago and he personally designed and implemented this web site. He engages in graphic design as a hobby.

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One of the most intriguing, and philosophically suggestive, recent scientific findings has been the discovery that the human lineage included several branches at the species level in which each species had developed culture (tool making, mastery of fire, burial of the dead). Before the Chicxulub impact that ended the realm of the dinosaurs, sentience and culture had not occurred in any lineage, despite several hundred million years of evolution. However, in the mammalian radiation that occurred afterwards, several primate lineages occurred. In just the last few million years, one of those lineages diverged into several sentient, culture-developing species. This book explores how only one of those species (ours) survived, while the others went extinct. Recommended. R. Robbins

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Reprints and preprints of publications, slide presentations, instructional materials, and data compilations written or prepared by Robert Robbins. Most papers deal with computational biology, genome informatics, using information technology to support biomedical research, and related matters.

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