The origin and genetic diversity of the causal agent of Asian soybean rust, Phakopsora pachyrhizi, in South America

A sequence‐based approach was used to investigate molecular genetic variations in Phakopsora pachyrhizi, an obligate biotrophic pathogen that causes Asian soybean rust. In Argentina, the samples came from uredinium‐bearing leaves taken from 11 soybean fields; in Brazil, the samples comprised urediniospores from leaves of 10 soybean genotypes that had been grown in three experimental stations during two growing seasons. PCR‐based cloning techniques were used to generate DNA sequences for two gene regions and alignments were supplemented with data from GenBank. A total of 575 sequences for the internal transcribed spacer region (18 ribotypes) and 160 partial sequences for a housekeeping gene encoding ADP‐ribosylation factor (10 haplotypes) were obtained. Ribotype accumulation curves predicted that about 20 bacterial clones would recover 5–6 ribotypes (c. 70–80% of the total molecular variation) per locality. The samples from the three experimental stations in Brazil displayed most (14 out of 16) ribotypes found worldwide; the lack of genetic structure and differentiation at a diverse geographic scale suggests that both local and distant sources provide airborne inoculum during disease establishment. Soybean genotypes with resistance genes for the Asian soybean rust did not decrease the molecular genetic variation of fungal populations.Instituto de GenéticaFil: Jorge, V.R. Universidade Federal de Viçosa. Departamento de Bioquímica e Biologia Molecular; BrasilFil: Silva, M.R. Universidade Federal de Viçosa. Departamento de Bioquímica e Biologia Molecular; BrasilFil: Guillin, Eduardo Alejandro. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Instituto de Genética; ArgentinaFil: Freire, M.C.M. Universidade Federal de Viçosa. Departamento de Bioquímica e Biologia Molecular; BrasilFil: Schuster, I. Cooperativa Central de Pesquisa Agrícola; BrasilFil: Almeida, A.M.R. Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária, Embrapa‐Soja; BrasilFil: Oliveira, Luiz O. Universidade Federal de Viçosa. Departamento de Bioquímica e Biologia Molecular; Brasi

Epidermal growth factor receptor regulates fibrinolytic pathway elements in cervical cancer: functional and prognostic implications

Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) signaling and components of the fibrinolytic system, including urokinase-type plasminogen activator (uPA) and thrombomodulin (TM), have been implicated in tumor progression. In the present study, we employed cBioPortal platform (http://www.cbioportal.org/), cancer cell lines, and an in vivo model of immunocompromised mice to evaluate a possible cooperation between EGFR signaling, uPA, and TM expression/function in the context of cervical cancer. cBioPortal analysis revealed that EGFR, uPA, and TM are positively correlated in tumor samples of cervical cancer patients, showing a negative prognostic impact. Aggressive human cervical cancer cells (CASKI) presented higher gene expression levels of EGFR, uPA, and TM compared to its less aggressive counterpart (C-33A cells). EGFR induces uPA expression in CASKI cells through both PI3K-Akt and MEK1/2-ERK1/2 downstream effectors, whereas TM expression induced by EGFR was dependent on PI3K/Akt signaling alone. uPA induced cell-morphology modifications and cell migration in an EGFR-dependent and -independent manner, respectively. Finally, treatment with cetuximab reduced in vivo CASKI xenografted-tumor growth in nude mice, and decreased intratumoral uPA expression, while TM expression was unaltered. In conclusion, we showed that EGFR signaling regulated expression of the fibrinolytic system component uPA in both in vitro and in vivo settings, while uPA also participated in cell-morphology modifications and migration in a human cervical cancer model