Project description:As part of the Dystrophia Myotonica Biomarker Discovery Initiative (DMBDI) a dataset was obtained from 35 participants, including 31 Myotonic Dystrophy type 1 (DM1) cases and four unaffected controls. All DM1 cases in this research were heterozygous for the abnormally expanded CTG repeat. The mode of the length of the DM1 CTG expansion (Modal Allele Length, MAL) was determined by small-pool PCR of blood DNA for 35/36 patients. For this work we did not attempt to measure the repeat length from muscle, due to a very high degree of repeat instability in muscle cells, and associated difficulties in its experimental measurement. One patient refused blood donation. For each of the 35 blood-donating patients mRNA expression profiling of blood was performed using Affymetrix GeneChip™ Human Exon 1.0 ST microarray. For 28 of 36 patients a successful quadriceps muscle biopsy was obtained. The muscle tissue was mRNA profiled using the same type of microarray. In total, a complete set of samples (blood and muscle) was obtained for 27 of 36 patients; samples were given a disease staging score based on muscle impairment rating. mRNA profiling was carried out by the GeneLogic service lab (on a fee-for-service basis) using standard Affymetrix hybridisation protocol.
Project description:Many animals undergo morphological, physiological, and behavioral changes over the course of their life history. It has been proposed that some of these developmental changes evolve in concert with shifts in ecology, but there are relatively few clear examples, and identifying the underlying molecular mechanisms is challenging. Australian Brown Snakes (Pseudonaja spp.), one of Australia's most venomous snakes, may provide such an example, as previous work has shown that these species undergo a dietary shift from reptiles to mammals, accompanied by differences in venom activity. Here, we show that the venom composition of adult Brown Snakes is distinguished by the collective expression of four procoagulant toxin families, which are not expressed in juvenile life stages. We also find that the developmental timing of the onset of procoagulant toxin expression correlates with a functional shift in venom activity to one that disrupts mammalian prey’s blood-clotting system. We further demonstrate that these shifts in toxin expression and procoagulant activity, do not occur in the smallest Brown Snake species that has evolved to be a permanent lizard-eating specialist. Collectively, we show that the coordinated shift in toxin expression mediates a major venom change in Australian Brown Snakes, from a neurotoxin-dominated venom in juveniles, used for capturing small lizards, to a procoagulant venom in adults, used for subduing mammals. Our findings therefore provide a compelling example of how animals adapt to ecological challenges that they face at different life stages.
Project description:The development of precision medicine strategies requires prior knowledge of the genetic background of the target population. However, despite the availability of data from admixed Americans within large reference population databases, we cannot use these data as a surrogate for that of the Brazilian population. This lack of transferability is mainly due to differences between ancestry proportions of Brazilian and other admixed American populations. To address the issue, a coalition of research centres created the Brazilian Initiative on Precision Medicine (BIPMed), an initiative of five Research Innovation and Dissemination Centers (RIDCs) supported by FAPESP.
Project description:Most species of bee are capable of delivering a defensive sting which is often painful. A solitary lifestyle is the ancestral state of bees and most extant species are solitary, but information on bee venoms comes predominantly from studies on eusocial species. In this study we investigated the venom composition of the Australian great carpenter bee, Xylocopa aruana Ritsema, 1876. We show that the venom is relatively simple, composed mainly of one small amphipathic peptide (XYTX1-Xa1a), with lesser amounts of an apamin homologue (XYTX2-Xa2a) and a venom phospholipase-A2 (PLA2). XYTX1-Xa1a is homologous to, and shares a similar mode-of-action to melittin and the bombilitins, the major components of the venoms of the eusocial Apis mellifera (Western honeybee) and Bombus spp. (bumblebee), respectively. XYTX1-Xa1a and melittin directly activate mammalian sensory neurons and cause spontaneous pain behaviours in vivo, effects which are potentiated in the presence of venom PLA2. The apamin-like peptide XYTX2-Xa2a was a relatively weak blocker of small conductance calcium-activated potassium (KCa) channels and, like A. mellifera apamin and mast cell-degranulating peptide, did not contribute to pain behaviours in mice. While the composition and mode-of-action of the venom of X. aruana are similar to that of A. mellifera, the greater potency, on mammalian sensory neurons, of the major pain-causing component in A. mellifera venom may represent an adaptation to the distinct defensive pressures on eusocial Apidae.
Project description:Both single cell and bulk RNA sequencing was performed on expanding or differentiating snake venom gland organoids (from Aspidelaps Lubricus Cowlesi and Naja Nivea), or tissue (Aspidelaps Lubricus Cowlesi). Bulk RNA sequencing from the snake venom gland, liver and pancreas was performed to construct a de novo transcriptome using Trinity.
Project description:Diachasmimorpha longicaudata parasitoid wasps carry a symbiotic poxvirus, known as DlEPV, within the female wasp venom gland. We sequenced RNA from venom gland tissue to identify DlEPV orthologs for 3 conserved poxvirus core genes. The DlEPV ORFs identified from this transcriptome were used to design primers for downstream RT-qPCR analysis and RNAi knockdown experiments.