Metabolic constituents of grapevine and grape-derived products

The numerous uses of the grapevine fruit, especially for wine and beverages, have made it one of the most important plants worldwide. The phytochemistry of grapevine is rich in a wide range of compounds. Many of them are renowned for their numerous medicinal uses. The production of grapevine metabolites is highly conditioned by many factors like environment or pathogen attack. Some grapevine phytoalexins have gained a great deal of attention due to their antimicrobial activities, being also involved in the induction of resistance in grapevine against those pathogens. Meanwhile grapevine biotechnology is still evolving, thanks to the technological advance of modern science, and biotechnologists are making huge efforts to produce grapevine cultivars of desired characteristics. In this paper, important metabolites from grapevine and grape derived products like wine will be reviewed with their health promoting effects and their role against certain stress factors in grapevine physiology

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis is associated with common genetic variants and limited rare variants

Rationale: Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis is a rare, irreversible, and progressive disease of the lungs. Common genetic variants, in addition to non-genetic factors, have been consistently associated with IPF. Rare variants identified by candidate gene, family-based, and exome studies have also been reported to associate with IPF. However, the extent to which rare variants genome-wide may contribute to the risk of IPF remains unknown. Objectives: We used whole-genome sequencing to investigate the role of rare variants, genome-wide, on IPF risk. Methods: As part of the Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine Program, we sequenced 2,180 cases of IPF. Association testing focused on the aggregated effect of rare variants (minor allele frequency ≤0.01) within genes or regions. We also identified individual variants that are influential within genes and estimated the heritability of IPF based on rare and common variants. Measurements and Main Results: Rare variants in both TERT and RTEL1 were significantly associated with IPF. A single rare variant in each of the TERT and RTEL1 genes was found to consistently influence the aggregated test statistics. There was no significant evidence of association with other previously reported rare variants. The SNP-heritability of IPF was estimated to be 32% (s.e. 3%). Conclusions: Rare variants within the TERT and RTEL1 genes and well-established common variants have the largest contribution to IPF risk overall. Efforts in risk profiling or development of therapies for IPF that focus on TERT, RTEL1, common variants, and environmental risk factors are likely to have the largest impact on this complex disease

Resequencing study confirms host defense and cell senescence gene variants contribute to the risk of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis

RATIONALE: Several common and rare genetic variants have been associated with Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a progressive fibrotic condition that is localized to the lung. OBJECTIVE: To develop an integrated understanding of the rare and common variants located in multiple loci that have been reported to contribute to the risk of disease. METHODS: We performed deep targeted resequencing (3.69 Mb of DNA) in cases (N=3,624) and controls (N=4,442) across genes and regions previously associated with disease. We tested for association between disease and a) individual common variants via logistic regression and b) groups of rare variants via a sequence kernel association test. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Statistically significant common variant association signals occurred in all 10 of the regions chosen based on genome-wide association studies. The strongest risk variant is the MUC5B promoter variant, rs35705950, with an OR of 5.45 (95% CI: 4.91-6.06) for one copy of the risk allele and 18.68 (95% CI: 13.34-26.17) for two copies of the risk allele (p=9.60 x 10-295). In addition to identifying for the first time that rare variation in FAM13A is associated with disease, we confirmed the role of rare variation in risk of IPF in the TERT and RTEL1 gene regions, and found that the FAM13A and TERT regions have independent common and rare variant signals. CONCLUSIONS: A limited number of common and rare variants contribute to the risk of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis in each of the resequencing regions; these genetic variants focus on biological mechanisms of host defense and cell senescence