Project description:The species-specific identification of fibre origin is essential in archaeology but reveals challenging for closely related species. This is particularly true between the four South American Camelids (SAC) species: alpaca, guanaco, llama and vicuña. The analysis of proteins extracted from hairs and/or yarns by proteomics has emerged as a powerful method to differentiate between species. However, for SAC, the database information available is very poor, which limits this approach. In this study, we analysed 42 modern and 4 archaeological reference samples from the four SAC species.
Project description:The project aimed to characterize the collagen type I (COL1) sequences from Pleistocene Macrauchenia sp. and Toxodon sp. bone samples, and by comparison with existing COL1 sequences available from genomic sources establish the phylogenetic position of both extinct species. In order to resolve their phylogenetic position, COL1 was extracted from two Toxodon (samples MLP201204, MACN201212, York12, York13) and two Macrauchenia (samples MLP201212, MACN201202, York14, York15). In addition, modern and Pleistocene COL1 was extracted from additional species currently not present in available databases (Mylodon darwinii, Cyclopes didactylus, Hippopotamus amphibius, Tapirus terrestris) or from species for which COL1 sequences are available (Equus sp., Oryceropus afer). All extractions were performed at BioArCh, University of York (UK). Analyses took place on Bruker maXis HD (Macrauchenia sp., Toxodon sp., Equus sp.) and Thermo Scientific Hybrid Quadruopole-Orbitrap (Macrauchenia sp., Toxodon sp., Mylodon darwinii, Cyclopes didactylus, Hippopotamus amphibius, Tapirus terrestris, Oryceropus afer) platforms.
Project description:The incidence and mortality rates of prostate cancer are significantly higher in African-American men when compared to European-American men. We tested the hypothesis that differences in tumor biology contribute to this survival health disparity. Using microarray technology, we obtained gene expression profiles of primary prostate tumors resected from 33 African-American and 36 European-American patients. These tumors were matched on clinical parameters. We also evaluated 18 non-tumor prostate tissues from 7 African-American and 11 European-American patients. The resulting datasets were analyzed for expression differences on the gene and pathway level comparing African-American with European-American patients. Our analysis revealed a significant number of genes, e.g., 162 transcripts at a false-discovery rate less than 5%, to be differently expressed between African-American and European-American patients. Using a disease association analysis, we identified a common relationship of these transcripts with autoimmunity and inflammation. These findings were corroborated on the pathway level with numerous differently expressed genes clustering in immune response, stress response, cytokine signaling, and chemotaxis pathways. Furthermore, a two-gene tumor signature was identified that accurately differentiated between African-American and European-American patients. This finding was confirmed in a blinded analysis of a second sample set. In conclusion, the gene expression profiles of prostate tumors indicate prominent differences in tumor immunobiology between African-American and European-American men. The profiles portray the existence of a distinct tumor microenvironment in these two patient groups. Keywords: Microdissected tissue analysis
Project description:The peopling of the Americas has been the subject of extensive genetic, archaeological and linguistic research; however, central questions remain unresolved. One contentious issue is whether the settlement occurred by means of a single migration or multiple streams of migration from Siberia. The pattern of dispersals within the Americas is also poorly understood. To address these questions at a higher resolution than was previously possible, we assembled data from 52 Native American and 17 Siberian groups genotyped at 364,470 single nucleotide polymorphisms. Here we show that Native Americans descend from at least three streams of Asian gene flow. Most descend entirely from a single ancestral population that we call 'First American'. However, speakers of Eskimo-Aleut languages from the Arctic inherit almost half their ancestry from a second stream of Asian gene flow, and the Na-Dene-speaking Chipewyan from Canada inherit roughly one-tenth of their ancestry from a third stream. We show that the initial peopling followed a southward expansion facilitated by the coast, with sequential population splits and little gene flow after divergence, especially in South America. A major exception is in Chibchan speakers on both sides of the Panama isthmus, who have ancestry from both North and South America.