Mutations in INPP5K Cause a Form of Congenital Muscular Dystrophy Overlapping Marinesco-Sjögren Syndrome and Dystroglycanopathy.

Congenital muscular dystrophies display a wide phenotypic and genetic heterogeneity. The combination of clinical, biochemical, and molecular genetic findings must be considered to obtain the precise diagnosis and provide appropriate genetic counselling. Here we report five individuals from four families presenting with variable clinical features including muscular dystrophy with a reduction in dystroglycan glycosylation, short stature, intellectual disability, and cataracts, overlapping both the dystroglycanopathies and Marinesco-Sjögren syndrome. Whole-exome sequencing revealed homozygous missense and compound heterozygous mutations in INPP5K in the affected members of each family. INPP5K encodes the inositol polyphosphate-5-phosphatase K, also known as SKIP (skeletal muscle and kidney enriched inositol phosphatase), which is highly expressed in the brain and muscle. INPP5K localizes to both the endoplasmic reticulum and to actin ruffles in the cytoplasm. It has been shown to regulate myoblast differentiation and has also been implicated in protein processing through its interaction with the ER chaperone HSPA5/BiP. We show that morpholino-mediated inpp5k loss of function in the zebrafish results in shortened body axis, microphthalmia with disorganized lens, microcephaly, reduced touch-evoked motility, and highly disorganized myofibers. Altogether these data demonstrate that mutations in INPP5K cause a congenital muscular dystrophy syndrome with short stature, cataracts, and intellectual disability

Empirical Legal Studies Before 1940: A Bibliographic Essay

The modern empirical legal studies movement has well-known antecedents in the law and society and law and economics traditions of the latter half of the 20th century. Less well known is the body of empirical research on legal phenomena from the period prior to World War II. This paper is an extensive bibliographic essay that surveys the English language empirical legal research from approximately 1940 and earlier. The essay is arranged around the themes in the research: criminal justice, civil justice (general studies of civil litigation, auto accident litigation and compensation, divorce, small claims, jurisdiction and procedure, civil juries), debt and bankruptcy, banking, appellate courts, legal needs, legal profession (including legal education), and judicial staffing and selection. Accompanying the essay is an extensive bibliography of research articles, books, and reports

Estrogen Receptors α and β as Determinants of Gene Expression: Influence of Ligand, Dose, and Chromatin Binding

Estrogen receptors α and β (ERα and ERβ) mediate the actions of estrogens in a variety of normal and cancer target cells. Estrogens differ in their preference for these ERs, and many phytoestrogens bind preferentially to ERβ. To investigate how phytoestrogens such as genistein impact ER-regulated gene expression, we used adenoviral gene delivery of ERβ coupled with ERα depletion with small interfering RNA to generate human breast cancer (MCF-7) cells expressing four complements of ERα and ERβ. We examined the dose-dependent effects of genistein on genome-wide gene expression by DNA microarrays and monitored the recruitment of ERs and coregulators to responsive regions of estrogen-regulated genes. At a low (6 nm) concentration, genistein regulated gene expression much more effectively in cells coexpressing ERα and ERβ than in cells expressing ERα alone, whereas at high concentration (300 nm), genistein induced transcriptome changes very similar to that of 17β-estradiol. We demonstrate that ERβ is preferentially activated by genistein and is recruited to estrogen-responsive genomic sites and that differential occupancy of ERα and ERβ by genistein and 17β-estradiol in turn influences the recruitment patterns of coregulators such as steroid receptor coactivator 3 (SRC3) and receptor-interacting protein 140 (RIP140). Our observations indicate that genistein is a potency-selective ligand for gene expression regulation by ERα and ERβ and that the ability of ERα and ERβ to serve as determinants of gene expression is greatly influenced by the nature of the ligand, by ligand dose, and by the differential abilities of ligand-ER complexes to recruit different coregulators at ER binding sites of hormone-regulated genes

Genome-Wide Dynamics of Chromatin Binding of Estrogen Receptors α and β: Mutual Restriction and Competitive Site Selection

Estrogen receptors ERα and ERβ, members of the nuclear receptor superfamily, exert profound effects on the gene expression and biological response programs of their target cells. Herein, we explore the dynamic interplay between these two receptors in their selection of chromatin binding sites when present separately or together in MCF-7 breast cancer cells. Treatment of cells (containing ERα only, ERβ only, or ERα and ERβ) with estradiol or ER subtype-selective ligands was followed by chromatin immunoprecipitation analysis with a custom-designed tiling array for ER binding sites across the genome to examine the effects of ligand-occupied and unoccupied ERα and ERβ on chromatin binding. There was substantial overlap in binding sites for these estradiol-liganded nuclear receptors when present alone, but many fewer sites were shared when both ERs were present. Each ER restricted the binding site occupancy of the other, with ERα generally being dominant. Binding sites of both receptors were highly enriched in estrogen response element motifs, but when both ERs were present, ERα displaced ERβ, shifting it into new sites less enriched in estrogen response elements. Binding regions of the two ERs also showed differences in their enrichments for other transcription factor binding motifs. Studies with ER subtype-specific ligands revealed that it was the liganded subtype that principally determined the spectrum of chromatin binding. These findings highlight the dynamic interplay between the two ERs in their selection of chromatin binding sites, with competition, restriction, and site shifting having important implications for the regulation of gene expression by these two nuclear receptors