A genetic polymorphism in the CYP1B1 gene in patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the esophagus: an Iranian Mashhad cohort study recruited over 10 years

Background: Esophageal-cancer is the seventh most common-cause of cancer-related-deaths in men. Cytochrome-P450-family-1-subfamily-B-polypeptide-1 (CYP1B1) plays a role in the metabolism of xenobiotics, and is associated with several cancers. Here we investigated the association between a genetic-variant, CYP1B1-rs1056836, with the clinical-characteristics of patients with esophagus-squamous-cell-carcinoma (ESCC). Method: 117-patients with ESCC and 208 healthy-subjects were recruited. DNA was extracted and genotyped. Kaplan-Meier curves were utilized to assess overall and progression-free survival. The relationship between clinicopathological-data, disease-prognosis, and survival, were evaluated with the genotypes. Results: the genotypic frequency for GG, GC, and CC were 58.6%, 29.8%, 11.5% respectively in the healthy subjects and 51.8%, 36.14% and 12% in the ESCC group. An association between the GG genotype and stage of ESCC was found. Conclusion: Our findings suggest a relationship between the CYP1B1-rs1056836 genetic polymorphism and clinical features of ESCC, supporting further studies in larger-populations in different-ethnic groups, taking into account potentially important environmental-factors

Multi-level engineering facilitates the production of phenylpropanoid compounds in tomato

Phenylpropanoids comprise an important class of plant secondary metabolites. A number of transcription factors have been used to upregulate-specific branches of phenylpropanoid metabolism, but by far the most effective has been the fruit-specific expression of AtMYB12 in tomato, which resulted in as much as 10% of fruit dry weight accumulating as flavonols and hydroxycinnamates. We show that AtMYB12 not only increases the demand of flavonoid biosynthesis but also increases the supply of carbon from primary metabolism, energy and reducing power, which may fuel the shikimate and phenylalanine biosynthetic pathways to supply more aromatic amino acids for secondary metabolism. AtMYB12 directly binds promoters of genes encoding enzymes of primary metabolism. The enhanced supply of precursors, energy and reducing power achieved by AtMYB12 expression can be harnessed to engineer high levels of novel phenylpropanoids in tomato fruit, offering an effective production system for bioactives and other high value ingredients