Discovery of the Mexican Blindcat, Prietella phreatophila, in the U.S., and an update on its rangewide conservation status

presented at the 2017 meeting of the Texas Academy of Science at Mary Hardin Baylor University, Belton, TexasMexican blindcat, Prietella phreatophila, was described in 1954 from a single locality in Northern Coahuila, México. Long listed as endangered by the Mexican federal government, it was listed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as a foreign endangered species in 1970, and the most recent (1996) update of its assessment for the IUCN Red List considers it endangered as well. Explorations in the late 1990s discovered many new localities extending nearly to the international border, and a captive population established provided insights into the species’ basic biology and behavior. In 2016 the species was discovered in a cave in the Amistad National Recreation Area (ANRA), just north of the Río Grande in Texas. The 1970 listing instantly gave the TX population full protection under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. The species’ subterranean and mostly inaccessible habitat endows it with extremely low detectability and its actual range is likely broader than physical sampling of specimens has revealed. We review all prior and new knowledge of the species and its habitat to provide an updated international reassessment of its overall conservation status and threats, which most notably include aquifer depletion and contamination in both the Mexican and U.S. portions of its known range. A live captive population of two specimens collected in 1997 in Coahuila and one Texas specimen is now at the San Antonio Zoo, we are working with NPS to further explore ANRA caves and hope eventually to return to Coahuila to more fully update the species’ conservation status.Integrative Biolog

Insulin detemir in a twice daily insulin regimen versus a three times daily insulin regimen in the treatment of type 1 diabetes in children: A pilot randomized controlled trial

Article deposited according to agreement with BMC, December 6, 2010.YesFunding provided by the Open Access Authors Fund

Increased DNA methylation variability in type 1 diabetes across three immune effector cell types

The incidence of type 1 diabetes (T1D) has substantially increased over the past decade, suggesting a role for non-genetic factors such as epigenetic mechanisms in disease development. Here we present an epigenome-wide association study across 406,365 CpGs in 52 monozygotic twin pairs discordant for T1D in three immune effector cell types. We observe a substantial enrichment of differentially variable CpG positions (DVPs) in T1D twins when compared with their healthy co-twins and when compared with healthy, unrelated individuals. These T1D-associated DVPs are found to be temporally stable and enriched at gene regulatory elements. Integration with cell type-specific gene regulatory circuits highlight pathways involved in immune cell metabolism and the cell cycle, including mTOR signalling. Evidence from cord blood of newborns who progress to overt T1D suggests that the DVPs likely emerge after birth. Our findings, based on 772 methylomes, implicate epigenetic changes that could contribute to disease pathogenesis in T1D.This work was funded by the EU-FP7 project BLUEPRINT (282510) and the Wellcome Trust (99148). We thank all twins for taking part in this study; Kerra Pearce and Mark Kristiansen (UCL Genomics) for processing the Illumina Infinium HumanMethylation450 BeadChips; Rasmus Bennet for technical assistance; and Laura Phipps for proofreading the manuscript. The BMBF Pediatric Diabetes Biobank recruits patients from the National Diabetes Patient Documentation System (DPV), and is financed by the German Ministry of Education and Research within the German Competence Net Diabetes Mellitus (01GI1106 and 01GI1109B). It was integrated into the German Center for Diabetes Research in January 2015. We thank the Swedish Research Council and SUS Funds for support. We gratefully acknowledge the participation of all NIHR Cambridge BioResource volunteers, and thank the Cambridge BioResource staff for their help with volunteer recruitment. We thank members of the Cambridge BioResource SAB and Management Committee for their support of our study and the NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre for funding. The Cardiovascular Epidemiology Unit is supported by the UK Medical Research Council (G0800270), BHF (SP/09/002), and NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre. Research in the Ouwehand laboratory is supported by the NIHR, BHF (PG-0310-1002 and RG/09/12/28096) and NHS Blood and Transplant. K.D. is funded as a HSST trainee by NHS Health Education England. M.F. is supported by the BHF Cambridge Centre of Excellence (RE/13/6/30180). A.D., E.L., L.C. and P.F. receive additional support from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory. A.K.S. is supported by an ADA Career Development Award (1-14-CD-17). B.O.B. and R.D.L. acknowledge support from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) and European Federation for the Study of Diabetes, respectively

AMPD1 gene mutations are associated with obesity and diabetes in Polish patients with cardiovascular diseases

Previous studies showed an association of the common functional polymorphism (C34T, Gln12Stop) in the adenosine monophosphate deaminase-1 (AMPD1) gene with survival in heart failure (HF) and/or coronary artery disease (CAD). The aim of the study was to search for other mutations in selected regions of the AMPD1 gene in Polish CAD and HF patients, and to analyze their associations with obesity and diabetes. Exons 2, 3, 5, and 7 of AMPD1 were scanned for mutations in 97 patients with CAD without HF (CAD+ HF−), 104 patients with HF (HF+), and 200 newborns from North-Western Poland using denaturing high-performance liquid chromatography (DHPLC), polymerase chain reaction–restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP), and direct sequencing. Frequencies of AMPD1 C34T mutation, as well as novel A99G, G512A, IVS4-6delT, and C784T sequence alterations, were similar in the three groups, but 860T mutated allele was less frequent in the combined CAD+ HF− and HF+ groups than in the controls (1.7% vs. 4.3%, p = 0.040). Heterozygous 34CT genotype was associated with lower (odds ratio [OR] = 0.32, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.13–0.81) and 860AT with higher (OR = 13.7, 95%CI = 1.6–118) prevalence of diabetes or hyperglycemia in relation to wild-type homozygotes. Abdominal obesity was more frequent in 860AT patients than in wild-type homozygotes and 34CT heterozygotes (86% vs. 40% vs. 29%, p < 0.05). Nine genes containing polymorphisms linked with AMPD1 C34T mutation were found in the HapMap database. AMPD1 C34T nonsense mutation is associated with reduced prevalence of diabetes and obesity in patients with CAD or HF, but A860T substitution seems to exert opposite metabolic effects and should always be accounted for in the studies of the AMPD1 genotype

Congenital Hypogonadotropic Hypogonadism Due to GNRH Receptor Mutations in Three Brothers Reveal Sites Affecting Conformation and Coupling

Congenital hypogonadotropic hypogonadism (CHH) is characterized by low gonadotropins and failure to progress normally through puberty. Mutations in the gene encoding the GnRH receptor (GNRHR1) result in CHH when present as compound heterozygous or homozygous inactivating mutations. This study identifies and characterizes the properties of two novel GNRHR1 mutations in a family in which three brothers display normosmic CHH while their sister was unaffected. Molecular analysis in the proband and the affected brothers revealed two novel non-synonymous missense GNRHR1 mutations, present in a compound heterozygous state, whereas their unaffected parents possessed only one inactivating mutation, demonstrating the autosomal recessive transmission in this kindred and excluding X-linked inheritance equivocally suggested by the initial pedigree analysis. The first mutation at c.845 C>G introduces an Arg substitution for the conserved Pro 282 in transmembrane domain (TMD) 6. The Pro282Arg mutant is unable to bind radiolabeled GnRH analogue. As this conserved residue is important in receptor conformation, it is likely that the mutation perturbs the binding pocket and affects trafficking to the cell surface. The second mutation at c.968 A>G introduces a Cys substitution for Tyr 323 in the functionally crucial N/DPxxY motif in TMD 7. The Tyr323Cys mutant has an increased GnRH binding affinity but reduced receptor expression at the plasma membrane and impaired G protein-coupling. Inositol phosphate accumulation assays demonstrated absent and impaired Gαq/11 signal transduction by Pro282Arg and Tyr323Cys mutants, respectively. Pretreatment with the membrane permeant GnRHR antagonist NBI-42902, which rescues cell surface expression of many GNRHR1 mutants, significantly increased the levels of radioligand binding and intracellular signaling of the Tyr323Cys mutant but not Pro282Arg. Immunocytochemistry confirmed that both mutants are present on the cell membrane albeit at low levels. Together these molecular deficiencies of the two novel GNRHR1 mutations lead to the CHH phenotype when present as a compound heterozygote