Human endogenous retrovirus H protects the genome of human embryonic stem cells from mutagenic retroelements activity

Human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs), which include human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) and human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs), infinitely self-renew, and can differentiate into any cell type on the human body [1–3]. hESCs are derived from early human embryos and became widely used to study the molecular pathways specific to human embryogenesis [1, 4–8]. Considering the ethical challenge in using embryo-derived cells and the possible immune rejection, hiPSCs are currently more common for regenerative therapies [3, 9–11]. hiPSCs are reprogrammed from a somatic cell line of a patient, genetically modified, and then differentiated to the desired lineage to transplant them back to the patient. hiPSCs are the future of personalized medicine, but not every hiPSC line can differentiate to every given cell type, as a result of cell heterogeneity. To reduce this heterogeneity, a naïve cell state might be a solution [3]. Whereas cultured hPSCs reside in a primed state, the cells of pre-implantation embryos resemble naïve pluripotency [12–16]. By adjusting culture conditions, it is possible to support hPSCs in a naïve state, similar in gene expression signature to early embryos [4, 5, 17–19]. The similarity is reflected as well in transcripts of some of the L1, Alu, and SVA retroelements (REs) [5]. These REs are phylogenetically young and still active human transposons, which might be detrimental for the integrity of the genome [20–27]. Our research group had previously derived the different types of naïve cells, resembling the later stages of pre-implantation development and highly expressing human endogenous retrovirus H (HERVH) [6]. HERVH is a phylogenetically older endogenous retrovirus, which was transposing following New- and Old-World monkey separation [28–30]. Now, HERVH can’t mobilize, but its transcripts were shown to support pluripotency in later stages of human embryogenesis, reprogramming, and in cultured primed hPSCs [6, 7, 31, 32]. Here I show that HERVH controls the transposition of young REs. In HERVH-depleted hESCs, L1 transposition increases, which is measured by two transposition assays. The active L1 elements drive the transposition of non-autonomous REs, resulting in the accumulation of de novo Alus and SVAs integrations, shown by whole-genome sequencing of cells undergoing stable HERVH knock-down. A subgroup of HERVH has the potential to control L1 transposition. These HERVHlin loci contain lin motif, two tandem LIN28A binding sites [33]. HERVHlin is supposedly evolutionary younger than the other HERVH. There are around 100 of HERVHlin sequences in the human, chimp, and gorilla genomes, while less exist in orangutans, and none in other primates. Based on the analysis of the previously published CLIP-seq data [33] and performed RIP-qPCRs, the lin motif allows LIN28A to bind HERVHlin more efficiently than other HERVH transcripts. LIN28A is known to inhibit the maturation of let-7 microRNA [34–37], which in turn controls the transposition of L1 [38]. HERVHlin sponging LIN28A to allow let-7-mediated inhibition of L1 might be the molecular mechanism of HERVH-controlled transposition of young REs. The supporting experiment shows that a let-7 independent L1-ORFeus reporter does not change the transposition activity in HERVH-depleted cells. HERVHlin embedded itself in a previously conservative pluripotency-specific LIN28A-let-7 pathway to protect the genome of hESCs from the mutagenic activity of REs. This is an example of a new evolutionary event where the selfish transposon HERVH evolved to compete with other transposable elements, which could be harmful to the host

Problems of the Languages Vitality of the Peoples of Russian Federation in Past and Present

The issues related to the problems of vitality of the languages of the peoples of the Russian Federation are discussed in the article. It is noted that the solution to these problems was at a low level during the USSR period, and at present there are no significant changes in its attitude. The analysis of the concept of vitality, its main indicators and factors affecting its level is given. A sociolinguistic review of the languages of the Russian Federation on the official status enshrined in constitutions, laws on languages and other normative documents is presented. Particular attention is paid to the national linguistic policy of the state and those extra-linguistic aspects that have had a great influence on the value orientations of native speakers. Statistical indicators of the decrease in the functional significance of national languages and the growing trend of a language shift in favor of the Russian language are given. It is proved that the official status of the state title languages of the republics has brought little change to the regional language situation. The relevance of the study is due to the fact that the past 2019 was declared by the UN General Assembly as the International Year of Indigenous Languages, as well as the fact that in the Russian Federation recent years have been conflicting regarding the voluntary and compulsory study in schools by all students of the state title languages of the republics, despite on the nationality and desire of the student himself. The novelty is seen in the fact that the author analyzes the vitality of languages of the largest peoples of the Russian Federation with a population of over 1 million and over 500 thousand in different time periods

Bilingualism and Multilingualism Development in Republic of Bashkortostan

The article is devoted to the emergence and development of bilingualism and multilingualism in the Republic of Bashkortostan. The questions of appearance and settlement of representatives of Slavic, Finno-Ugric, Turkic and other ethnic groups with their own languages and culture in the territory of modern Bashkortostan are considered. Special attention is paid to the three most numerous groups of the population of the Republic: Russians, Bashkirs and Tatars. The story of the appearance of Mari, Udmurts, Mordvins and representatives of other peoples in the Bashkir territories is told. The author also focuses on the current language situation and on the legislative protection of the rights of national minorities and their languages in Bashkortostan. The relevance of the article is determined by the attention of the Russian and world community to the situation of national languages and the problem of their preservation. The novelty of the study is seen in the fact that the emergence of bilingualism and multilingualism in Bashkortostan is associated with the moment of Bashkir lands settlement the by the non-Bashkir population. It is indicated that, settling compactly or dispersed, it was adjacent to representatives of foreign-speaking ethnic groups, which led to interethnic communication. These circumstances explain the emergence of different types of bilingualism - national-Russian, national-national and (less often) Russian-national, and some types of trilingualism in Bashkortostan

Formation of Ethnic Identity of Mari People in Absence of Single Mari Literary Language

This study is devoted to the history of the formation of the ethnic identity of the Mari people in the Republic of Mari El. Particular attention is paid to the changes in the identification of Mari, which occurred in direct proportion to extralinguistic factors. The question of the role of language, confessional affiliation, historical past, relations with nature and mythological symbols that characterize the modern ethnic Mari identity is considered. The importance of the demographic imbalance in the Republic, which played the most significant role in shaping the character of the Mari, is emphasized. The relevance of the study is due to the increased interest of science in recent decades in the topic of ethnic and Russian identity. The identity of the Mari people has not been previously studied by the author of this work, although many problems of Mari El have been analyzed and described in detail: the language situation in different time periods, language policy, the legislative framework regarding languages and the education system, the history of the Mari literary language, its writing and a number of other sociolinguistic aspects. Unlike articles by other authors on the topic of Mari identity, the novelty of this work lies in the fact that for the first time the identity is shown in the process of formation, from antiquity to the present day. A characteristic of the identity of the Mari people, formed under the influence of a variety of factors, is compiled

Russian Language in the Context of Language Policy in the Finno-Ugric Republics of the Russian Federation

The features of the functioning of the Russian language in four Finno-Ugric republics of the Russian Federation, peoples of which entered the Russian state in the XV-XVI centuries, are examined. The consequences of the violent Christianization of the Finno-Ugric peoples are commented. The demographic features of the republics, as well as the current ratio of the Russian and the titular population are characterized. Based on the data on the reduction of the titular population, the question is raised about the possibility of calling these republics Finno-Ugric. The current situation of the Russian and state Finno-Ugric languages in the most important areas of communication is examined in detail. Particular attention is paid to legal acts establishing the status of languages in these republics, namely, laws on languages. Conclusions are drawn about the influence of laws on the linguistic situation and the linguistic competence of the population of the republics. The characteristic types of bilingualism in these regions are determined. The dominant position of the Russian language is stated. It is argued that national languages cannot compete with Russian. A forecast is made on the further development of the situation, in particular, on the functioning of national titular languages and Russian as state language. The novelty of this study is in the combination of historical and modern data, allowing to give a complete picture of the influence of the Russian language on the situation in the republics, to study the reasons for its distribution and dominance in these republics

Pragmalinguistic Potential of Instructive Text

An instruction is considered as a form of discursive values fixation in the pragmalinguistic aspect, which allows one to analyze the specifics of text formation. The results of a discursive analysis of instructions for cosmetic products, medical preparations, and household appliances are presented. Particular attention is paid to the description of the pragmalinguistic potential of instructive texts, represented by intentional plans of informativeness, prescriptiveness, beneficence. The distinctions of the representation of the indicated values are revealed using grammatical means expressing contextually determined shades of meanings. There is a review of the works in which the discussion of the type of speech influence in the instructions is raised. The novelty of the study consists in the consideration of the instructive text as a result of the discourse deployment, based on the factors of the addressee, addressant, subject area, time and place of resolution of the communicative situation, thereby revealing the specificity of the speech impact. The relevance of the study is due to the authors' appeal to the pragmalinguistic description of the text, which correlates with the anthropocentric approach in modern studies. The authors analyze in details the ways to implement direct and indirect motivation with the help of appropriate verbal forms, the features of the distribution of verbal forms containing important information about the way actions are performed and some syntactic constructions

Educational Planning in Context of Yakut, Kalmyk, and Karelian Languages

This article examines one component of language planning — educational planning. The main elements and indicators of this type of planning were identified. The authors discuss issues related to educational planning in three republics of the Russian Federation. The study was conducted based on the materials of the Kalmyk, Karelian, and Yakut languages. The aim of the research was to analyze educational planning as a set of existing opportunities for language learning. One of the objectives was to determine the scope and directions of activity in educational language planning. The second objective was to provide an overview of educational planning based on the materials of the Karelian, Kalmyk, and Yakut languages in synchrony and diachrony. The third objective was to analyze educational language planning according to our identified criteria and clarify the prestige of languages in the perception of speakers as a motivational factor for their study. To achieve this, the results of field research conducted in the three republics in 2021-2022 were analyzed. As a result of the study, it was concluded that the ethnic self-awareness of respondents is at a high level, and the symbolic significance of national languages is significant. However, there is a tendency towards a decrease in the number of individuals interested in studying their native (national) language in school education

Effect of inter-wall surface roughness correlations on optical spectra of quantum well excitons

We show that the correlation between morphological fluctuations of two interfaces confining a quantum well strongly suppresses a contribution of interface disorder to inhomogeneous line width of excitons. We also demonstrate that only taking into account these correlations one can explain all the variety of experimental data on the dependence of the line width upon thickness of the quantum well.Comment: 13 pages, 8 figures, Revtex4, submitted to PR

THE INTERRELATION BETWEEN SUP45 AND VTS1 IN SACCHAROMYCES CEREVISIAE

Overexpression of VTS1 gene in Saccharomyces cerevisiae leads to suppression of nonsense-mutations ade1-14UGA and trp1-289UAG, which enhances growth of yeast cells on media without adenine and tryptophan. We showed that suppression was caused by downregulation of SUP45 gene, which encodes translation termination factor eRF1.Работа выполнена за счет средств тематического плана НИР СПбГУ и при поддержке ФЦП «Научные и научно-педагогические кадры инновационной России» на 2009–2013 годы (Госконтракт № П1354) гранта администрации Санкт-Петербурга для студентов и аспирантов