Project description:This clinical trial studies the effectiveness of a web-based cancer education tool called Helping Oncology Patients Explore Genomics (HOPE-Genomics) in improving patient knowledge of personal genomic testing results and cancer and genomics in general. HOPE-Genomics is a web-based education tool that teaches cancer/leukemia patients, and patients who may be at high-risk for developing cancer, about genomic testing and provide patients with information about their own genomic test results. The HOPE-Genomics tool may improve patient’s genomic knowledge and quality of patient-centered care. In addition, it may also improve education and care quality for future patients.
Project description:A salient feature of flowering plant diversification is the emergence of a novel suite of floral features coinciding with the origin of the most species-rich lineage, Pentapetalae. Advances in phylogenetics, developmental genetics and genomics, including new analyses presented here, are helping to reconstruct the specific evolutionary steps involved in the evolution of this clade. The enormous floral diversity among Pentapetalae appears to be built on a highly conserved ground plan of five-parted (pentamerous) flowers with whorled phyllotaxis. By contrast, lability in the number and arrangement of component parts of the flower characterize the early-diverging eudicot lineages subtending Pentapetalae. The diversification of Pentapetalae also coincides closely with ancient hexaploidy, referred to as the gamma whole-genome triplication, for which the phylogenetic timing, mechanistic details and molecular evolutionary consequences are as yet not fully resolved. Transcription factors regulating floral development often persist in duplicate or triplicate in gamma-derived genomes, and both individual genes and whole transcriptional programmes exhibit a shift from broadly overlapping to tightly defined expression domains in Pentapetalae flowers. Investigations of these changes associated with the origin of Pentapetalae can lead to a more comprehensive understanding of what is arguably one of the most important evolutionary diversification events within terrestrial plants.This article is part of the themed issue 'Evo-devo in the genomics era, and the origins of morphological diversity'.
Project description:Medieval era encounters of nomadic groups of the Eurasian Steppe and largely sedentary East Europeans had a variety of demographic and cultural consequences. Amongst these outcomes was the emergence of the Lipka Tatars - a Slavic-speaking Sunni-Muslim ethno-religious minority residing in modern Belarus, Lithuania and Poland, whose ancestors arrived in these territories via several migration waves, mainly from the Golden Horde. Our results show that Belarusian Lipka Tatars share a substantial part of their gene pool with Europeans as indicated by their Y-chromosomal, mitochondrial DNA and autosomal variation. Nevertheless, Belarusian Lipkas still retain a strong genetic signal of their nomadic ancestry, witnessed by the presence of common Y-chromosomal and mitochondrial DNA variants as well as autosomal segments identical by descent between Lipkas and East Eurasians from temperate and northern regions. Hence, we document Lipka Tatars as a unique example of former Medieval migrants into Central Europe, who became sedentary, changed language to Slavic, yet preserved their faith and retained, both uni- and bi-parentally, a clear genetic echo of a complex population interplay throughout the Eurasian Steppe Belt, extending from Central Europe to northern China.
Project description:A SNP microarray and FISH-based procedure to detect allelic imbalances in multiple myeloma: an integrated genomics approach reveals a wide dosage effect on gene and microRNA expression Multiple myeloma (MM) is characterized by marked genomic instability. Beyond structural rearrangements, a relevant role in its biology is represented by allelic imbalances leading to significant variations in ploidy status. To better elucidate the genomic complexity of MM, we analyzed a panel of 45 patients using combined FISH and microarray approaches. Using a self-developed procedure to infer exact local copy numbers for each sample, we identified a significant fraction of patients showing marked aneuploidy. A conventional clustering analysis showed that aneuploidy, chromosome 1 alterations, hyperdiploidy and recursive deletions at 1p and chromosomes 13, 14 and 22 were the main aberrations driving samples grouping. Then, we integrated mapping information with gene and microRNAs expression profiles: a multiclass analysis of the identified clusters showed a marked gene-dosage effect, particularly concerning 1q transcripts, also confirmed by correlating gene expression levels and local copy number alterations. A wide dosage effect affected also microRNAs, indicating that structural abnormalities in MM closely reflect in their expression imbalances. Finally, we identified several loci in which genes and microRNAs expression correlated with loss-of-heterozygosity occurrence. Our results provide insights into the composite network linking genome structure and gene/microRNA transcriptional features in MM. Keywords: Integrated genomics approach based on SNP microarray and FISH procedures to detect allelic imbalances in multiple myeloma.
Project description:This study examined the differences in human and parasite gene expression pattern between children with severe malaria and those with uncomplicated malaria through a dual RNA-seq approach. Peripheral blood samples were collected which contained substantial numbers of parasites that required no RNA enrichment prior to library preparation and sequencing.
Project description:Despite evidence that gd T cells play an important role during malaria, their precise role remains unclear. During murine malaria induced by Plasmodium chabaudi infection and in human P. falciparum infection, we found that gd T cells expanded rapidly after resolution of acute parasitemia, in contrast to ab T cells that expanded at the acute stage and then declined. Single-cell sequencing showed that TRAV15N-1 gd T cells were clonally expanded in mice and had convergent complementarity-determining region 3 sequences. These gd T cells expressed specific cytokines, M-CSF, CCL5, CCL3, which are known to act on the myeloid compartment, indicating that this gd T cell subset may have distinct functions. Both gd T cells and M-CSF were necessary for preventing parasitemic recurrence. These findings point to an M-CSF-producing gd T cell subset that fulfills a specialized protective role in the later stage of malaria infection when ab T cells have declined.