Thyroid metastasis of pulmonary adenocarcinoma with EGFR G719A mutation: Genetic confirmation with liquid-based cytology specimens

Presented is a case of advanced pulmonary adenocarcinoma and a thyroid tumour with calcification. EGFR gene mutation testing of the thyroid aspirate specimen revealed a G719A point mutation in exon 18 that was identical to that in the patient's known lung cancer. This case demonstrates the usefulness of liquid-based cytology samples, which enable genetic testing leading to a conclusive diagnosis while preserving the cytological specimens

南海泡沫と渦中の人たち(山崎春成教授退任記念号)

Dr. Tatsunosuke Ueda regarded the famous South Sea Bubble of 1720 as being as much a literary affair of the first magnitude as a social, economic and political affair. (T. Ueda. The South Sea Bubble in English Literature, Misuzu Shobo, Japan, 1995, p.42) From the same point of view, this article describes: 1) the historical background of the South Sea Bubble, 2) John Law and the Mississippi Bubble of 1720 (France), 3) the course and details of the South Sea Affair, 4) the catastrophe, crime and punishment of the authors of great mischief, 5) the South Sea Bubble and Sir Robert Walpole, 6) the news reports by Daniel Defoe (extracts quoted in the article of Dr. Ueda). From this analysis, we can understand that Japanese Heisei (financial and real estates) Bubble of the present time, is not an exceptional affair, but a very familiar and universal one

Superpositioning of Deletions Promotes Growth of Escherichia coli with a Reduced Genome

Escherichia coli has dispensable genome regions and eliminating them may improve cell use by reducing unnecessary metabolic pathways and complex regulatory networks. Although several strains with reduced genomes have already been constructed, there have been no reports of strains constructed with deletions assayed for influence on growth. To retain robust growth and fundamental metabolic pathways, the growth of each deletion strain and combination effects of deletions were checked using M9 minimal medium. Then a new strain, MGF-01, with a 1 Mb reduced genome was constructed by integrating deletions that did not affect growth. MGF-01 grew as well as the wild type in the exponential phase and continued growing after the wild type had entered the stationary phase. The final cell density of MGF-01 was 1.5 times higher than that of the wild-type strain. Using MGF-01 as a production host, a 2.4-fold increase in l-threonine production was achieved

Rapid and efficient construction of markerless deletions in the Escherichia coli genome

We have developed an improved and rapid genomic engineering procedure for the construction of custom-designed microorganisms. This method, which can be performed in 2 days, permits restructuring of the Escherichia coli genome via markerless deletion of selected genomic regions. The deletion process was mediated by a special plasmid, pREDI, which carries two independent inducible promoters: (i) an arabinose-inducible promoter that drives expression of λ-Red recombination proteins, which carry out the replacement of a target genomic region with a marker-containing linear DNA cassette, and (ii) a rhamnose-inducible promoter that drives expression of I-SceI endonuclease, which stimulates deletion of the introduced marker by double-strand breakage-mediated intramolecular recombination. This genomic deletion was performed successively with only one plasmid, pREDI, simply by changing the carbon source in the bacterial growth medium from arabinose to rhamnose. The efficiencies of targeted region replacement and deletion of the inserted linear DNA cassette were nearly 70 and 100%, respectively. This rapid and efficient procedure can be adapted for use in generating a variety of genome modifications

mGenomeSubtractor: a web-based tool for parallel in silico subtractive hybridization analysis of multiple bacterial genomes

mGenomeSubtractor performs an mpiBLAST-based comparison of reference bacterial genomes against multiple user-selected genomes for investigation of strain variable accessory regions. With parallel computing architecture, mGenomeSubtractor is able to run rapid BLAST searches of the segmented reference genome against multiple subject genomes at the DNA or amino acid level within a minute. In addition to comparison of protein coding sequences, the highly flexible sliding window-based genome fragmentation approach offered can be used to identify short unique sequences within or between genes. mGenomeSubtractor provides powerful schematic outputs for exploration of identified core and accessory regions, including searches against databases of mobile genetic elements, virulence factors or bacterial essential genes, examination of G+C content and binucleotide distribution bias, and integrated primer design tools. mGenomeSubtractor also allows for the ready definition of species-specific gene pools based on available genomes. Pan-genomic arrays can be easily developed using the efficient oligonucleotide design tool. This simple high-throughput in silico ‘subtractive hybridization’ analytical tool will support the rapidly escalating number of comparative bacterial genomics studies aimed at defining genomic biomarkers of evolutionary lineage, phenotype, pathotype, environmental adaptation and/or disease-association of diverse bacterial species. mGenomeSubtractor is freely available to all users without any login requirement at: http://bioinfo-mml.sjtu.edu.cn/mGS/