Evaluación de algunos métodos para la extracción de zinc disponible en suelos alcalinos del valle del cauca

Se determinó el contenido de zinc disponible por varios métodos de extracción y se trató de establecer en una primera aproximación el nivel crítico de este elemento, en 20 suelos alcalinos (Vertisol, Mollisol, Inceptisol y Entisol) de la zona plana del Valle del Cauca. El orden de eficiencia de las ocho soluciones extractoras fue: HCL 0.1 N and gt; EDTA 0.05 M and gt; (NH4hC03 +EDTA and gt; Olsen Modificado and gt; DTPA - CaCI2- TEA = NH4HC03 DTPA = Carolina del Norte and gt; HCl 0.05 N. Los niveles críticos de zinc en el suelo estuvieron por debajo de los siguientes valores: Olsen Modificado (1.8 ppm), (NH4hC03 + EDTA (1.8 ppm), DTPA (1.2 ppm), NH4HC03 + DTPA (1.0 ppm), EDTA 0.05 M (2.2 ppm), Carolina del Norte (1.0 ppm), HCI 0.1 N (3.0 ppm) y HCI 0.05 N (0.15 ppm). En invernadero no se encontró respuesta significativa de los tratamientos (O, 4, 8, 12, 16 Y 20 kg de Zn/ha) sobre el rendimiento de materia seca del híbrido 8239 de sorgo (Sorghum bicolor L. Moench) pero sí en la concentración y contenido foliar de zinc. La concentración de zinc en la planta, determinada por digestión húmeda con mezcla nítrico-perclórica y metanol ácido, estuvo dentro del rango normal establecido para este elemento. Se encontraron correlaciones positivas y altamente significativas entre el contenido de zinc de la planta y el contenido de zinc extraído del suelo por los métodos de Olsen Modificado, DTPA y HCI 0.1 N, los otros métodos presentaron correlaciones positivas, pero no significativas.In order to determine available zinc content using several extraction methods and trying to stablish in a first aproximation the critical level for this element, 20 alkaline soils (Vertisol, Mollisol, Inceptisol, and Entisol) were collected in the Plain Zone of Cauca Valley. Eight solutions were used; their extraction order was: HCI 0.1 N and gt; EDTA 0.05 M and gt; (NH4)2CO3 + EDTA and gt; Modified Olsen and gt; DTPA- CaCl2 - TEA = NH4HC03 + DTPA = North Caroline and gt; HCl0.05 N. It was found that the critical levels are bellow the following values: Olsen Modified (1.8 ppm), (NH4hCO) + EDTA (1.8 ppm), DTPA (1.2 ppm), NH4HC03 + DPTA (1.0 ppm) EDTA 0.05 M (2.2 ppmj. Double Acid (1.0 ppm) HCl0.1 N (3.0 ppm) and HCl0.05 N (0.15 ppm). In the greenhouse study it was found that the zinc application (0, 4, 8, 12, 16 and 20 kg/ha) did not enhance dry matter accumulation in sorghum, hybrid 8239 (Sorghum bicolor L. Moench), but it did increase the foliar concentration, determined by wet digestion using both nitric perchloric acid and acid methanol, and content of this element. The zinc concentration found in the plant was within the normal range given for this element. Significant positive correlations were found between plant zinc content and soil zinc extracted by Modified Olsen, DTP A, and HCI 0.1 N; another methods showed possitive but no significant correlations

Multi-omics of the esophageal microenvironment identifies signatures associated with progression of Barrett’s esophagus

Background: The enrichment of Gram-negative bacteria of oral origin in the esophageal microbiome has been associated with the development of metaplasia. However, to date, no study has comprehensively assessed the relationships between the esophageal microbiome and the host. Methods: Here, we examine the esophageal microenvironment in gastro-esophageal reflux disease and metaplasia using multi-omics strategies targeting the microbiome and host transcriptome, followed by targeted culture, comparative genomics, and host-microbial interaction studies of bacterial signatures of interest. Results: Profiling of the host transcriptome from esophageal mucosal biopsies revealed profound changes during metaplasia. Importantly, five biomarkers showed consistent longitudinal changes with disease progression from reflux disease to metaplasia. We showed for the first time that the esophageal microbiome is distinct from the salivary microbiome and the enrichment of Campylobacter species as a consistent signature in disease across two independent cohorts. Shape fitting and matrix correlation identified associations between the microbiome and host transcriptome profiles, with a novel co-exclusion relationship found between Campylobacter and napsin B aspartic peptidase. Targeted culture of Campylobacter species from the same cohort revealed a subset of isolates to have a higher capacity to survive within primary human macrophages. Comparative genomic analyses showed these isolates could be differentiated by specific genomic features, one of which was validated to be associated with intracellular fitness. Screening for these Campylobacter strain-specific signatures in shotgun metagenomics data from another cohort showed an increase in prevalence with disease progression. Comparative transcriptomic analyses of primary esophageal epithelial cells exposed to the Campylobacter isolates revealed expression changes within those infected with strains with high intracellular fitness that could explain the increased likelihood of disease progression. Conclusions: We provide a comprehensive assessment of the esophageal microenvironment, identifying bacterial strain-specific signatures with high relevance to progression of metaplasia

Allelic frequencies for SNP variants in the gene Nramp1 in bovine infected with Brucella abortus or classified by resistance to the pathogen

La resistencia natural a la brucelosis en bovinos ha sido asociada a factores genéticos, principalmente a algunos polimorfismos de nucleótido simple ubicados dentro del gen Nramp1. La presente investigación evalúa el efecto de variantes tipo polimorfismos de nucleótido simple presentes en regiones codificantes y en la región 3 UTR del gen Nramp1, en la clasificación de los animales como resistentes o susceptibles, además se determinan los genotipos predominantes en animales naturalmente infectados y comprobados como positivos por la presencia de anticuerpos anti Brucella abortus. Se establecieron las frecuencias genotípicas y alélicas para cinco polimorfismos de nucleótido simple identificados dentro del gen Nramp1 en animales de las razas blanco orejinegro (Bos taurus taurus) y cebú (Bos taurus indicus) y en muestras serológicamente positivas provenientes de animales cruzados (Bos taurus x Bos indicus). La determinación de genotipos se realizó mediante la metodología polimorfismo conformacional de cadena sencilla. Se realizó un ensayo de desafío infeccioso in vitro, para estimar la capacidad de los macrófagos bovinos para controlar la sobrevivencia bacterial, lo que permitió definir los individuos como resistentes o susceptibles. Los resultados sugieren una asociación significativa del SNP4 (p = 0,0506) con la variación para el fenotipo de susceptibilidad, pues se encontró el genotipo homocigoto (BB) en alta frecuencia en animales catalogados como resistentes y el genotipo heterocigoto (AB) en alta frecuencia en animales catalogados como susceptibles y en animales con títulos de anticuerpos anti Brucella abortus.;The natural resistance to brucellosis in cattle has been associated to genetic factors mainly to some single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP), located within Nramp1 gen. The current research has studied the effect of nucleotide variants to be found in coding regions and other one located in 3 non translated region of Nramp1 gene, on the animal classification as resistant or susceptible, moreover was identified the main genotypes to be found on the infected animals, confirmed as positives by antibody antibrucella titles. Was established the genotypic and allelic frequencies for five single nucleotide polymorphism in animals from blanco orejinegro (Bos taurus taurus) and zebu breeds (Bos taurus indicus) and serum samples belonging to positive crossbred animals (Bos taurus x Bos indicus). The genotype was defined by the methodology known as single strand conformational polymorphism . To estimate the macrophage capacity to control the bacterial survival, an in vitro assay was performed, which allowed define the phenotype as resistant or susceptible. The results suggest a significant association for SNP4 (p = 0.0506) with the phenotypic variation for resistant or susceptibility, because was found the genotype (BB) at higher frequency in susceptible animals and naturally infected animals, than those resistant animals.Ganado de leche-Ganadería lech

GATA2 Promotes Hematopoietic Development and Represses Cardiac Differentiation of Human Mesoderm.

In vertebrates, GATA2 is a master regulator of hematopoiesis and is expressed throughout embryo development and in adult life. Although the essential role of GATA2 in mouse hematopoiesis is well established, its involvement during early human hematopoietic development is not clear. By combining time-controlled overexpression of GATA2 with genetic knockout experiments, we found that GATA2, at the mesoderm specification stage, promotes the generation of hemogenic endothelial progenitors and their further differentiation to hematopoietic progenitor cells, and negatively regulates cardiac differentiation. Surprisingly, genome-wide transcriptional and chromatin immunoprecipitation analysis showed that GATA2 bound to regulatory regions, and repressed the expression of cardiac development-related genes. Moreover, genes important for hematopoietic differentiation were upregulated by GATA2 in a mostly indirect manner. Collectively, our data reveal a hitherto unrecognized role of GATA2 as a repressor of cardiac fates, and highlight the importance of coordinating the specification and repression of alternative cell fates.Ramón y Cajal Program, Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry, and Competitiveness, Spanish Cancer Association, FERO, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, European Social Fund, MINECO, PERIS Program of the Generalitat de Catalunya, Obra Social la Caixa-Fundacion Josep Carreras, Spanish Institute of Health Carlos III, Wellcome Trust, MRC, CRUK, NIH-NIDD

Genome-wide association and functional studies identify a role for matrix Gla protein in osteoarthritis of the hand

Objective Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common form of arthritis and the leading cause of disability in the elderly. Of all the joints, genetic predisposition is strongest for OA of the hand; however, only few genetic risk loci for hand OA have been identified. Our aim was to identify novel genes associated with hand OA and examine the underlying mechanism. Methods We performed a genome-wide association study of a quantitative measure of hand OA in 12 784 individuals (discovery: 8743, replication: 4011). Genome-wide significant signals were followed up by analysing gene and allele-specific expression in a RNA sequencing dataset (n=96) of human articular cartilage. Results We found two significantly associated loci in the discovery set: at chr12 (p=3.5 × 10⁻¹⁰) near the matrix Gla protein (MGP) gene and at chr12 (p=6.1×10⁻⁹) near the CCDC91 gene. The DNA variant near the MGP gene was validated in three additional studies, which resulted in a highly significant association between the MGP variant and hand OA (rs4764133, Betameta=0.83, Pmeta=1.8*10⁻¹⁵). This variant is high linkage disequilibrium with a coding variant in MGP, a vitamin K-dependent inhibitor of cartilage calcification. Using RNA sequencing data from human primary cartilage tissue (n=96), we observed that the MGP RNA expression of the hand OA risk allele was significantly lowercompared with the MGP RNA expression of the reference allele (40.7%, p<5*10⁻¹⁶). Conclusions Our results indicate that the association between the MGP variant and increased risk for hand OA is caused by a lower expression of MGP, which may increase the burden of hand OA by decreased inhibition of cartilage calcification

Novel Genetic Variants for Cartilage Thickness and Hip Osteoarthritis

Osteoarthritis is one of the most frequent and disabling diseases of the elderly. Only few genetic variants have been identified for osteoarthritis, which is partly due to large phenotype heterogeneity. To reduce heterogeneity, we here examined cartilage thickness, one of the structural components of joint health. We conducted a genome-wide association study of minimal joint space width (mJSW), a proxy for cartilage thickness, in a discovery set of 13,013 participants from five different cohorts and replication in 8,227 individuals from seven independent cohorts. We identified five genome-wide significant (GWS, P≤5·0×10−8) SNPs annotated to four distinct loci. In addition, we found two additional loci that were significantly replicated, but results of combined meta-analysis fell just below the genome wide significance threshold. The four novel associated genetic loci were located in/near TGFA (rs2862851), PIK3R1 (rs10471753), SLBP/FGFR3 (rs2236995), and TREH/DDX6 (rs496547), while the other two (DOT1L and SUPT3H/RUNX2) were previously identified. A systematic prioritization for underlying causal genes was performed using diverse lines of evidence. Exome sequencing data (n = 2,050 individuals) indicated that there were no rare exonic variants that could explain the identified associations. In addition, TGFA, FGFR3 and PIK3R1 were differentially expressed in OA cartilage lesions versus non-lesioned cartilage in the same individuals. In conclusion, we identified four novel loci (TGFA, PIK3R1, FGFR3 and TREH) and confirmed two loci known to be associated with cartilage thickness.The identified associations were not caused by rare exonic variants. This is the first report linking TGFA to human OA, which may serve as a new target for future therapies

Novel Genetic Variants for Cartilage Thickness and Hip Osteoarthritis

Osteoarthritis is one of the most frequent and disabling diseases of the elderly. Only few genetic variants have been identified for osteoarthritis, which is partly due to large phenotype heterogeneity. To reduce heterogeneity, we here examined cartilage thickness, one of the structural components of joint health. We conducted a genome-wide association study of minimal joint space width (mJSW), a proxy for cartilage thickness, in a discovery set of 13,013 participants from five different cohorts and replication in 8,227 individuals from seven independent cohorts. We identified five genome-wide significant (GWS, P≤5·0×10−8) SNPs annotated to four distinct loci. In addition, we found two additional loci that were significantly replicated, but results of combined meta-analysis fell just below the genome wide significance threshold. The four novel associated genetic loci were located in/near TGFA (rs2862851), PIK3R1 (rs10471753), SLBP/FGFR3 (rs2236995), and TREH/DDX6 (rs49654

Genetic Sharing with Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors and Diabetes Reveals Novel Bone Mineral Density Loci.

Bone Mineral Density (BMD) is a highly heritable trait, but genome-wide association studies have identified few genetic risk factors. Epidemiological studies suggest associations between BMD and several traits and diseases, but the nature of the suggestive comorbidity is still unknown. We used a novel genetic pleiotropy-informed conditional False Discovery Rate (FDR) method to identify single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with BMD by leveraging cardiovascular disease (CVD) associated disorders and metabolic traits. By conditioning on SNPs associated with the CVD-related phenotypes, type 1 diabetes, type 2 diabetes, systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, high density lipoprotein, low density lipoprotein, triglycerides and waist hip ratio, we identified 65 novel independent BMD loci (26 with femoral neck BMD and 47 with lumbar spine BMD) at conditional FDR < 0.01. Many of the loci were confirmed in genetic expression studies. Genes validated at the mRNA levels were characteristic for the osteoblast/osteocyte lineage, Wnt signaling pathway and bone metabolism. The results provide new insight into genetic mechanisms of variability in BMD, and a better understanding of the genetic underpinnings of clinical comorbidity