Genotyping of PrP gene in native Turkish sheep breeds

Scrapie is an infectious fatal disease of sheep that affects the central nervous system. Polymorphisms in sheep PrP gene are known to be related to scrapie susceptibility. Selection programmes for scrapie based on PrP genotyping data are available for many of the European sheep breeds. So far comparable data for local Turkish sheep breeds are not available. The aim of this study was genotyping of PrP gene in Turkish native sheep to find out their risk groups. Therefore, in this study 109 native Turkish sheep belonging to Kivircik, Sakiz and Imroz breeds were genotyped by means of PCR and direct sequencing. The polymorphism detected in the prion gene was made up six alleles ARR, ARQ, AHQ, VRQ, TRQ, ARH and 12 genotypes, ARR/ARR, ARR/TRQ, ARR/ARQ, ARQ/AHQ, ARH/TRQ, TRQ/TRQ, ARQ/TRQ, ARQ/ARQ, ARQ/ARH, ARH/ARH, ARR/VRQ and ARQ/VRQ. In addition, eight polymorphisms were identified (M112T, A116E, R138M, N146S, Y172D, S173N, V179E and R231R) at different codons of PrP gene. The data have shown that PrP genes of the analysed sheep are highly variable and the most of the genotypes belong to risk groups 1 and 2. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Detection of prion gene promoter and intron1 indel polymorphisms in Anatolian water buffalo (Bubalus bubalis)

P>Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) is a fatal disease caused by miss folded prion protein. Studies in the cattle, comparing genetic data from BSE diseased and healthy animals have shown that indel polymorphisms in the promoter and intron 1 of PRNP gene were associated with disease susceptibility. Several studies were conducted to find out allele and genotypic frequencies of indel polymorphisms in promoter and intron 1 of the cattle PRNP gene. Unlike domestic cattle and bison, no indel polymorphisms of the PRNP promoter and intron 1 were examined in any population of the water buffalo (Bubalus bubalis). Aim of this study was to analyse frequencies of allele, genotype, and haplotype of the indel polymorphisms (23 bp indel in promoter and 12 bp indel in intron 1) in prion protein coding gene (PRNP) of water buffalo. Therefore a PCR based procedure, previously used in cattle to detect indel polymorphisms of PRNP promoter and intron 1 locus, was applied to 106 Anatolian water buffalo DNAs. Our results have revealed high frequency of in variants and in23/in12 haplotype for PRNP promoter and intron 1 indel polymorphisms in water buffalo. The results of the study have demonstrated that frequencies of allele, genotype, and haplotype of the indel polymorphisms in PRNP gene of the Anatolian water buffalo are significantly different those from cattle and bison PRNP indel polymorphisms

Believing androids - fMRI activation in the right temporo-parietal junction is modulated by ascribing intentions to non-human agents

Group Attributing mind to interaction partners has been shown to increase the social relevance we ascribe to others' actions and to modulate the amount of attention dedicated to them. However, it remains unclear how the relationship between higher-order mind attribution and lower-level attention processes is established in the brain. In this neuroimaging study, participants saw images of an anthropomorphic robot that moved its eyes left- or rightwards to signal the appearance of an upcoming stimulus in the same (valid cue) or opposite location (invalid cue). Independently, participants' beliefs about the intentionality underlying the observed eye movements were manipulated by describing the eye movements as under human control or preprogrammed. As expected, we observed a validity effect behaviorally and neurologically (increased response times and activation in the invalid vs. valid condition). More importantly, we observed that this effect was more pronounced for the condition in which the robot's behavior was believed to be controlled by a human, as opposed to be preprogrammed. This interaction effect between cue validity and belief was, however, only found at the neural level and was manifested as a significant increase of activation in bilateral anterior temporoparietal junction

Genetic variations of BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes in dogs with mammary tumours

Mammary tumours are the most common tumour type in female dogs. The formation of the mammary tumours is multifactorial but the high incidence of tumour disease in certain canine breeds suggests a strong genetic component. BRCA1 and BRCA2 are the most important genes significantly associated with mammary tumours. The aim of this study was to determine the association between the variations of these two genes and canine mammary tumours. 5'-untranslated region, intron 8 and exon 9 of BRCA1 and exons 12, 24, 27 of BRCA2 were sequenced in order to detect the genetic variations. In addition to six previously identified polymorphisms, six novel single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were detected. Five of the coding SNPs were synonymous and three of them were non-synonymous. The comparison of the sequences from 25 mammary tumour bearing and 10 tumour free dogs suggested that the two SNPs in intron 8 and exon 9 of BRCA1 and two SNPs in exon 24 and exon 27 of BRCA2, which are firstly identified in this study, might be associated with mammary tumour development in dogs. Especially one SNP in exon 9 of BRCA1 and one SNP in exon 24 of BRCA2 were found to be significantly associated with canine mammary tumours