9 research outputs found
Hirang A documentary on a Philippine gymnast
Gymnastics is one of the less popular sports in the Philippines. Despite the government\u27s implementation of the Focus Sport Policy, a strategic plan that aims to financially support 10 of the most popular and medal producing sports, less popular sports such as gymnastics are not covered. In addition, even though the sport has already produced world-gymnasts, Filipinos are still not aware of gymnastics, and they overlook at the talent present in it. The documentary presents John Ivan Cruz, a 12 year old male artistic gymnast who tops the men\u27s artistic gymnastics\u27 developmental group and aims to be a part of the Olympics despite the lack of financial support from the Philippine government
Characterization of Nine Cancer-Associated Variants in Human DNA Polymerase Îș
Specialized
DNA damage-bypass Y-family DNA polymerases contribute
to cancer prevention by providing cellular tolerance to DNA damage
that can lead to mutations and contribute to cancer progression by
increasing genomic instability. Y-family polymerases can also bypass
DNA adducts caused by chemotherapy agents. One of the four human Y-family
DNA polymerases, DNA polymerase (pol) Îș, has been shown to be
specific for bypass of minor groove adducts and inhibited by major
groove adducts. In addition, mutations in the gene encoding pol Îș
are associated with different types of cancers as well as with chemotherapy
responses. We characterized nine variants of pol Îș whose identity
was inferred from cancer-associated single nucleotide polymorphisms
for polymerization activity on undamaged and damaged DNA, their abilities
to extend from mismatched or damaged base pairs at primer termini,
and overall stability and dynamics. We find that these pol Îș
variants generally fall into three categories: similar activity to
wild-type (WT) pol Îș (L21F, I39T, P169T, F192C, and E292K),
more active than WT pol Îș (S423R), and less active than pol
Îș (R219I, R298H, and Y432S). Of these, only pol Îș variants
R298H and Y432S had markedly reduced thermal stability. Molecular
dynamics (MD) simulations with undamaged DNA revealed that the active
variant F192C and more active variant S423R with either correct or
incorrect incoming nucleotide mimic WT pol Îș with the correct
incoming nucleotide, whereas the less active variants R219I, R298H,
and Y432S with the correct incoming nucleotide mimic WT pol Îș
with the incorrect incoming nucleotide. Thus, the observations from
MD simulations suggest a possible explanation for the observed experimental
results that pol Îș adopts specific active and inactive conformations
that depend on both the protein variant and the identity of the DNA
adduct