Central Neurocytoma: A Review of Clinical Management and Histopathologic Features.

Central neurocytoma (CN) is a rare, benign brain tumor often located in the lateral ventricles. CN may cause obstructive hydrocephalus and manifest as signs of increased intracranial pressure. The goal of treatment for CN is a gross total resection (GTR), which often yields excellent prognosis with a very high rate of tumor control and survival. Adjuvant radiosurgery and radiotherapy may be considered to improve tumor control when GTR cannot be achieved. Chemotherapy is also not considered a primary treatment, but has been used as a salvage therapy. The radiological features of CN are indistinguishable from those of other brain tumors; therefore, many histological markers, such as synaptophysin, can be very useful for diagnosing CNs. Furthermore, the MIB-1 Labeling Index seems to be correlated with the prognosis of CN. We also discuss oncogenes associated with these elusive tumors. Further studies may improve our ability to accurately diagnose CNs and to design the optimal treatment regimens for patients with CNs

Schistosomiasis in Tone River Area(Kurzfassen)

Amino acid sequence alignment of the ABLIM family which is one of the gene families that was identified as a neighbouring gene family to the PDE6 catalytic subunit gene family. The sequences were aligned using ClustalO with standard settings within the Seaview 4.5.3 program

Boldness Predicts Social Status in Zebrafish (Danio rerio)

This study explored if boldness could be used to predict social status. First, boldness was assessed by monitoring individual zebrafish behaviour in (1) an unfamiliar barren environment with no shelter (open field), (2) the same environment when a roof was introduced as a shelter, and (3) when the roof was removed and an unfamiliar object (Lego® brick) was introduced. Next, after a resting period of minimum one week, social status of the fish was determined in a dyadic contest and dominant/subordinate individuals were determined as the winner/loser of two consecutive contests. Multivariate data analyses showed that males were bolder than females and that the behaviours expressed by the fish during the boldness tests could be used to predict which fish would later become dominant and subordinate in the ensuing dyadic contest. We conclude that bold behaviour is positively correlated to dominance in zebrafish and that boldness is not solely a consequence of social dominance

Evolution of Vertebrate Vision by Means of Whole Genome Duplications : Zebrafish as a Model for Gene Specialisation

The signalling cascade of rods and cones use different but related protein components. Rods and cones, emerged in the common ancestor of vertebrates around 500 million years ago around when two whole genome duplications took place, named 1R and 2R. These generated a large number of additional genes that could evolve new or more specialised functions. A third event, 3R, occurred in the ancestor of teleost fish.  This thesis describes extensive phylogenetic and comparative synteny analyses of the opsins, transducin and phosphodiesterase (PDE6) of this cascade by including data from a wide selection of vertebrates. The expression of the zebrafish genes was also investigated. The results show that genes for these proteins duplicated in 1R and 2R as well as some in 3R. Expression analyses of the zebrafish genes revealed additional specialisations for the 3R gene duplicates. The transducin beta subunit genes, gnb1a and gnb1b, show co-localisation in rods but are expressed at different levels. Gnb3a and gnb3b show different expression in the adult retina with low expression of gnb3a and expression of gnb3b in cones of the dorso-medial retina. The transducin gamma subunit genes gngt2a and gngt2b are expressed in the ventral and dorso-medial retina respectively. The both of PDE6 gamma subunit genes, pde6ga and pde6gb are both expressed in rods but pde6ga shows rhythmic changes of expression with low daytime levels. Pde6ha and pde6hb are expressed in cones however pde6ha show high daytime expression. All investigated transducin and PDE6 subunit genes, but gnb1b, were also expressed in the adult pineal complex or at some point during development. These results provide compelling evidence that the 1R and 2R genome duplications facilitated the evolution of rods and cones by generating gene duplicates that could evolve distinct expression and function. This supports existence of colour vision before the origin of vertebrates, elaboration of this in the early vertebrate ancestor, along with origin of the black-and-white dim-light vision of rods. Furthermore, the different expression patterns observed in the zebrafish retina for teleost 3R duplicates demonstrate multiple additional specialisations.

Evolution of Vertebrate Vision by Means of Whole Genome Duplications : Zebrafish as a Model for Gene Specialisation

The signalling cascade of rods and cones use different but related protein components. Rods and cones, emerged in the common ancestor of vertebrates around 500 million years ago around when two whole genome duplications took place, named 1R and 2R. These generated a large number of additional genes that could evolve new or more specialised functions. A third event, 3R, occurred in the ancestor of teleost fish.  This thesis describes extensive phylogenetic and comparative synteny analyses of the opsins, transducin and phosphodiesterase (PDE6) of this cascade by including data from a wide selection of vertebrates. The expression of the zebrafish genes was also investigated. The results show that genes for these proteins duplicated in 1R and 2R as well as some in 3R. Expression analyses of the zebrafish genes revealed additional specialisations for the 3R gene duplicates. The transducin beta subunit genes, gnb1a and gnb1b, show co-localisation in rods but are expressed at different levels. Gnb3a and gnb3b show different expression in the adult retina with low expression of gnb3a and expression of gnb3b in cones of the dorso-medial retina. The transducin gamma subunit genes gngt2a and gngt2b are expressed in the ventral and dorso-medial retina respectively. The both of PDE6 gamma subunit genes, pde6ga and pde6gb are both expressed in rods but pde6ga shows rhythmic changes of expression with low daytime levels. Pde6ha and pde6hb are expressed in cones however pde6ha show high daytime expression. All investigated transducin and PDE6 subunit genes, but gnb1b, were also expressed in the adult pineal complex or at some point during development. These results provide compelling evidence that the 1R and 2R genome duplications facilitated the evolution of rods and cones by generating gene duplicates that could evolve distinct expression and function. This supports existence of colour vision before the origin of vertebrates, elaboration of this in the early vertebrate ancestor, along with origin of the black-and-white dim-light vision of rods. Furthermore, the different expression patterns observed in the zebrafish retina for teleost 3R duplicates demonstrate multiple additional specialisations.

Evolution of Vertebrate Vision by Means of Whole Genome Duplications : Zebrafish as a Model for Gene Specialisation

The signalling cascade of rods and cones use different but related protein components. Rods and cones, emerged in the common ancestor of vertebrates around 500 million years ago around when two whole genome duplications took place, named 1R and 2R. These generated a large number of additional genes that could evolve new or more specialised functions. A third event, 3R, occurred in the ancestor of teleost fish.  This thesis describes extensive phylogenetic and comparative synteny analyses of the opsins, transducin and phosphodiesterase (PDE6) of this cascade by including data from a wide selection of vertebrates. The expression of the zebrafish genes was also investigated. The results show that genes for these proteins duplicated in 1R and 2R as well as some in 3R. Expression analyses of the zebrafish genes revealed additional specialisations for the 3R gene duplicates. The transducin beta subunit genes, gnb1a and gnb1b, show co-localisation in rods but are expressed at different levels. Gnb3a and gnb3b show different expression in the adult retina with low expression of gnb3a and expression of gnb3b in cones of the dorso-medial retina. The transducin gamma subunit genes gngt2a and gngt2b are expressed in the ventral and dorso-medial retina respectively. The both of PDE6 gamma subunit genes, pde6ga and pde6gb are both expressed in rods but pde6ga shows rhythmic changes of expression with low daytime levels. Pde6ha and pde6hb are expressed in cones however pde6ha show high daytime expression. All investigated transducin and PDE6 subunit genes, but gnb1b, were also expressed in the adult pineal complex or at some point during development. These results provide compelling evidence that the 1R and 2R genome duplications facilitated the evolution of rods and cones by generating gene duplicates that could evolve distinct expression and function. This supports existence of colour vision before the origin of vertebrates, elaboration of this in the early vertebrate ancestor, along with origin of the black-and-white dim-light vision of rods. Furthermore, the different expression patterns observed in the zebrafish retina for teleost 3R duplicates demonstrate multiple additional specialisations.

Concatenated multiple sequence alignments of flanking genes to the visual opsins and output files from IQ-TREE

Multiple sequence alignment and phylogenetic analysis of concatenated flanking gene alignments of visual opsins in lampreys.Alignment was created using ClustalO with standard settings. The phylogenetic tree was created using IQ-TREE (v. 1.6.12) using the following settings: -t BIONJ -nt 8 -quiet -keep-ident -bb 10000 -alrt 10000 -m TEST -bnni.</p

Visual opsin multiple sequence alignment file and output files from IQ-TREE

Multiple sequence alignment and phylogenetic analysis of visual opsins and their close relatives in vertebrates.Alignment was created using ClustalO with standard settings. The phylogenetic tree was created using IQ-TREE (v. 1.6.12) using the following settings: -t BIONJ -nt 8 -quiet -keep-ident -bb 10000 -alrt 10000 -m TEST -bnni.</p

GNAT multiple sequence alignment and output files from IQ-TREE

Multiple sequence alignment and phylogenetic analysis of GNAT sequences from vertebrates.Alignment was created using ClustalO with standard settings. The phylogenetic tree was created using IQ-TREE (v. 1.6.12) using the following settings: -t BIONJ -nt 8 -quiet -keep-ident -bb 10000 -alrt 10000 -m TEST -bnni.</p

Ancient multiplicity in cyclic nucleotide-gated (CNG) cation channel repertoire was reduced in the ancestor of Olfactores before re-expansion by whole genome duplications in vertebrates.

Cyclic nucleotide-gated (CNG) cation channels are important heterotetrameric proteins in the retina, with different subunit composition in cone and rod photoreceptor cells: three CNGA3 and one CNGB3 in cones and three CNGA1 and one CNGB1 in rods. CNGA and CNGB subunits form separate subfamilies. We have analyzed the evolution of the CNG gene family in metazoans, with special focus on vertebrates by using sequence-based phylogeny and conservation of chromosomal synteny to deduce paralogons resulting from the early vertebrate whole genome duplications (WGDs). Our analyses show, unexpectedly, that the CNGA subfamily had four sister subfamilies in the ancestor of bilaterians and cnidarians that we named CNGC, CNGD, CNGE and CNGF. Of these, CNGC, CNGE and CNGF were lost in the ancestor of Olfactores while CNGD was lost in the vertebrate ancestor. The remaining CNGA and CNGB genes were expanded by a local duplication of CNGA and the subsequent chromosome duplications in the basal vertebrate WGD events. Upon some losses, this resulted in the gnathostome ancestor having three members in the visual CNGA subfamily (CNGA1-3), a single CNGA4 gene, and two members in the CNGB subfamily (CNGB1 and CNGB3). The nature of chromosomal rearrangements in the vertebrate CNGA paralogon was resolved by including the genomes of a non-teleost actinopterygian and an elasmobranch. After the teleost-specific WGD, additional duplicates were generated and retained for CNGA1, CNGA2, CNGA3 and CNGB1. Furthermore, teleosts retain a local duplicate of CNGB3. The retention of duplicated CNG genes is explained by their subfunctionalisation and photoreceptor-specific expression. In conclusion, this study provides evidence for four previously unknown CNG subfamilies in metazoans and further evidence that the early vertebrate WGD events were instrumental in the evolution of the vertebrate visual and central nervous systems