Project description:We have compared the microsomal protein fractions from benign and malignant adrenocortical tumors. Protein extracts were trypsinized, peptides separated by HiRIEF (high resolution isoelectric focusing) and analysed by LC-MS.
Project description:The Toll-like receptor (TLR) and peptidoglycan recognition protein 1 (PGLYRP1) genes play key roles in the innate immune systems of mammals. While the TLRs recognize a variety of invading pathogens and induce innate immune responses, PGLYRP1 is directly microbicidal. We used custom allele-specific assays to genotype and validate 220 diallelic variants, including 54 nonsynonymous SNPs in 11 bovine innate immune genes (TLR1-TLR10, PGLYRP1) for 37 cattle breeds. Bayesian haplotype reconstructions and median joining networks revealed haplotype sharing between Bos taurus taurus and Bos taurus indicus breeds at every locus, and we were unable to differentiate between the specialized B. t. taurus beef and dairy breeds, despite an average polymorphism density of one locus per 219 bp. Ninety-nine tagSNPs and one tag insertion-deletion polymorphism were sufficient to predict 100% of the variation at all 11 innate immune loci in both subspecies and their hybrids, whereas 58 tagSNPs captured 100% of the variation at 172 loci in B. t. taurus. PolyPhen and SIFT analyses of nonsynonymous SNPs encoding amino acid replacements indicated that the majority of these substitutions were benign, but up to 31% were expected to potentially impact protein function. Several diversity-based tests provided support for strong purifying selection acting on TLR10 in B. t. taurus cattle. These results will broadly impact efforts related to bovine translational genomics.
Project description:BackgroundWe present here the assembly of the bovine genome. The assembly method combines the BAC plus WGS local assembly used for the rat and sea urchin with the whole genome shotgun (WGS) only assembly used for many other animal genomes including the rhesus macaque.ResultsThe assembly process consisted of multiple phases: First, BACs were assembled with BAC generated sequence, then subsequently in combination with the individual overlapping WGS reads. Different assembly parameters were tested to separately optimize the performance for each BAC assembly of the BAC and WGS reads. In parallel, a second assembly was produced using only the WGS sequences and a global whole genome assembly method. The two assemblies were combined to create a more complete genome representation that retained the high quality BAC-based local assembly information, but with gaps between BACs filled in with the WGS-only assembly. Finally, the entire assembly was placed on chromosomes using the available map information.Over 90% of the assembly is now placed on chromosomes. The estimated genome size is 2.87 Gb which represents a high degree of completeness, with 95% of the available EST sequences found in assembled contigs. The quality of the assembly was evaluated by comparison to 73 finished BACs, where the draft assembly covers between 92.5 and 100% (average 98.5%) of the finished BACs. The assembly contigs and scaffolds align linearly to the finished BACs, suggesting that misassemblies are rare. Genotyping and genetic mapping of 17,482 SNPs revealed that more than 99.2% were correctly positioned within the Btau_4.0 assembly, confirming the accuracy of the assembly.ConclusionThe biological analysis of this bovine genome assembly is being published, and the sequence data is available to support future bovine research.
Project description:Pheochromocytomas and paragangliomas (PPGL) are rare neuroendocrine, usually benign tumors. Currently, for these neoplasms the only reliable criterion of malignancy is the presence of metastases. The aim of the present study was to identify molecular markers that can distinguish malignant from benign PPGL. An mRNA expression array was performed on 40 benign and 11 malignant PPGL. Genes showing a significantly different expression between benign and malignant PPGL with a ratio ? 4 were selected. Differentially expressed genes were confirmed by qRT-PCR and subsequently tested in an independent validation series (4 benign and 4 malignant) by qRT-PCR. Finally, immunohistochemistry was performed for the validated genes on Tissue Micro Arrays, which included 100 PPGL (87 benign and 13 malignant). Ten genes, which were significantly differentially expressed between benign and malignant tumors (False Discovery Rates <0.05), were selected from the mRNA expression array data. Differential expression of Interleukin 13 Receptor Alpha 2 and Contactin 4 was confirmed (p<0.05) and validated by qRT-PCR. However, at the protein level, only Contactin 4 appeared to be significantly overexpressed in malignant tumors (58% in malignant versus 17% in benign; p<0.05). No difference in the immunohistochemical staining for Interleukin 13 Receptor Alpha 2 was observed between benign and malignant PPGL. Contactin 4 expression appears to be associated with malignancy in pheochromocytomas and paragangliomas, and may be predictive of malignant behavior.
Project description:Differential diagnosis of adrenocortical adenoma and carcinoma is of pivotal clinical relevance, as the prognosis and clinical management of benign and malignant adrenocortical tumours is entirely different. Circulating microRNAs are promising biomarker candidates of malignancy in several tumours. In the present study we investigate circulating microRNAs in adrenocortical tumours and to evaluate their potential applicability as biomarkers of malignancy.