Identification of novel homozygous SLURP1 mutation in a Javanese family with Mal de Meleda

Background Mal de Meleda (OMIM# 248300; keratosis palmoplantaris transgrediens) is an autosomal recessive form of palmoplantar keratoderma, clinically characterized by sharp demarcated erythema and hyperkeratosis of the palms and soles that progress with age and extend to the dorsal aspects of the hands and feet. The mal de Meleda is caused by mutations in the SLURP1 gene that encodes secreted lymphocyte antigen 6/urokinasetype plasminogen receptor-related protein 1 (SLURP1). To date no reported cases from Indonesia. The aims of the study were to describe the typical features of mal de Meleda cases in a Javanese family in Indonesia and identify the mutation in the ARS B gene which encodes SLURP1. Patients and Methods In this study, three Javanese patients, siblings from nonconsanguineous nonaffected parents, presented with classical symptoms of mal de Meleda. Genetic analysis screening SLURP1 gene was conducted for the specimens from the patients and other family members. Results A novel homozygous three-nucleotide deletion in exon 3, i.e. c.271-273TCTdel, was identified in the patients. Subcloning and sequencing revealed both parents (I.2 and I.3) and one of the father’s siblings (I.1) carry heterozygous c.271-273TCTdel, while the other father’s sibling (I.2), the mother’s sister (I.4), and a healthy control matched the ethnicity of the family, showing normal sequence of the entire SLURP1. Conclusion This is the first mal de Meleda case of Javanese ethnicity to be documented, and the unique mutation has not previously been reported. The finding supports the notion that despite the rarity, SLURP1 mutation causing mal de Meleda is ubiquitous

Search for OB stars running away from young star clusters. II. The NGC 6357 star-forming region

Dynamical few-body encounters in the dense cores of young massive star clusters are responsible for the loss of a significant fraction of their massive stellar content. Some of the escaping (runaway) stars move through the ambient medium supersonically and can be revealed via detection of their bow shocks (visible in the infrared, optical or radio). In this paper, which is the second of a series of papers devoted to the search for OB stars running away from young (several Myr) Galactic clusters and OB associations, we present the results of the search for bow shocks around the star-forming region NGC 6357. Using the archival data of the Midcourse Space Experiment (MSX) satellite and the Spitzer Space Telescope, and the preliminary data release of the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), we discovered seven bow shocks, whose geometry is consistent with the possibility that they are generated by stars expelled from the young star clusters, Pismis 24 and AH03 J1725-34.4, associated with NGC 6357. Two of the seven bow shocks are driven by the already known O stars. Follow-up spectroscopy of three other bow shock-producing stars showed that they are O-type stars as well, while the 2MASS photometry of the remaining two stars suggests that they could be B0 V stars, provided that both are located at the same distance as NGC 6357. Detection of numerous massive stars ejected from the very young clusters is consistent with the theoretical expectation that star clusters can effectively lose massive stars at the very beginning of their dynamical evolution and lends strong support to the idea that probably all field OB stars have been dynamically ejected from their birth clusters. A by-product of our search for bow shocks around NGC 6357 is the detection of three circular shells typical of luminous blue variable and late WN-type Wolf-Rayet stars.Comment: 13 pages, 16 figures, accepted for publication in A&

Humanin, a Cytoprotective Peptide, Is Expressed in Carotid Artherosclerotic Plaques in Humans

The mechanism of atherosclerotic plaque progression leading to instability, rupture, and ischemic manifestation involves oxidative stress and apoptosis. Humanin (HN) is a newly emerging endogenously expressed cytoprotective peptide. Our goal was to determine the presence and localization of HN in carotid atherosclerotic plaques.Plaque specimens from 34 patients undergoing carotid endarterectomy were classified according to symptomatic history. Immunostaining combined with digital microscopy revealed greater expression of HN in the unstable plaques of symptomatic compared to asymptomatic patients (29.42±2.05 vs. 14.14±2.13% of plaque area, p<0.0001). These data were further confirmed by immunoblot (density of HN/β-actin standard symptomatic vs. asymptomatic 1.32±0.14 vs. 0.79±0.11, p<0.01). TUNEL staining revealed a higher proportion of apoptotic nuclei in the plaques of symptomatic patients compared to asymptomatic (68.25±3.61 vs. 33.46±4.46% of nuclei, p<0.01). Double immunofluorescence labeling revealed co-localization of HN with macrophages (both M1 and M2 polarization), smooth muscle cells, fibroblasts, and dendritic cells as well as with inflammatory markers MMP2 and MMP9.The study demonstrates a higher expression of HN in unstable carotid plaques that is localized to multiple cell types within the plaque. These data support the involvement of HN in atherosclerosis, possibly as an endogenous response to the inflammatory and apoptotic processes within the atheromatous plaque

Multi-messenger observations of a binary neutron star merger

On 2017 August 17 a binary neutron star coalescence candidate (later designated GW170817) with merger time 12:41:04 UTC was observed through gravitational waves by the Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo detectors. The Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor independently detected a gamma-ray burst (GRB 170817A) with a time delay of ~1.7 s with respect to the merger time. From the gravitational-wave signal, the source was initially localized to a sky region of 31 deg2 at a luminosity distance of 40+8-8 Mpc and with component masses consistent with neutron stars. The component masses were later measured to be in the range 0.86 to 2.26 Mo. An extensive observing campaign was launched across the electromagnetic spectrum leading to the discovery of a bright optical transient (SSS17a, now with the IAU identification of AT 2017gfo) in NGC 4993 (at ~40 Mpc) less than 11 hours after the merger by the One- Meter, Two Hemisphere (1M2H) team using the 1 m Swope Telescope. The optical transient was independently detected by multiple teams within an hour. Subsequent observations targeted the object and its environment. Early ultraviolet observations revealed a blue transient that faded within 48 hours. Optical and infrared observations showed a redward evolution over ~10 days. Following early non-detections, X-ray and radio emission were discovered at the transient’s position ~9 and ~16 days, respectively, after the merger. Both the X-ray and radio emission likely arise from a physical process that is distinct from the one that generates the UV/optical/near-infrared emission. No ultra-high-energy gamma-rays and no neutrino candidates consistent with the source were found in follow-up searches. These observations support the hypothesis that GW170817 was produced by the merger of two neutron stars in NGC4993 followed by a short gamma-ray burst (GRB 170817A) and a kilonova/macronova powered by the radioactive decay of r-process nuclei synthesized in the ejecta

The transcriptomics of an experimentally evolved plant-virus interaction

[EN] Models of plant-virus interaction assume that the ability of a virus to infect a host genotype depends on the matching between virulence and resistance genes. Recently, we evolved tobacco etch potyvirus (TEV) lineages on different ecotypes of Arabidopsis thaliana, and found that some ecotypes selected for specialist viruses whereas others selected for generalists. Here we sought to evaluate the transcriptomic basis of such relationships. We have characterized the transcriptomic responses of five ecotypes infected with the ancestral and evolved viruses. Genes and functional categories differentially expressed by plants infected with local TEV isolates were identified, showing heterogeneous responses among ecotypes, although significant parallelism existed among lineages evolved in the same ecotype. Although genes involved in immune responses were altered upon infection, other functional groups were also pervasively over-represented, suggesting that plant resistance genes were not the only drivers of viral adaptation. Finally, the transcriptomic consequences of infection with the generalist and specialist lineages were compared. Whilst the generalist induced very similar perturbations in the transcriptomes of the different ecotypes, the perturbations induced by the specialist were divergent. Plant defense mechanisms were activated when the infecting virus was specialist but they were down-regulated when infecting with generalist.We thank Francisca de la Iglesia and Paula Agudo for excellent technical assistance and our labmates for useful discussions and suggestions. This work was supported by grants BFU2012-30805 from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO), PROMETEOII/2014/021 from Generalitat Valenciana and EvoEvo (ICT610427) from the European Commission 7th Framework Program to SFE, and grant PROMETEOII/2014/025 to JD. JMC was supported by a JAE-doc postdoctoral contract from CSIC. JH was recipient of a predoctoral contract from MINECO.Hillung, J.; García-García, F.; Dopazo, J.; Cuevas Torrijos, JM.; Elena Fito, SF. (2016). The transcriptomics of an experimentally evolved plant-virus interaction. Scientific Reports. 6:1-19. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep24901S1196Duffy, S., Shackelton, L. A. & Holmes, E. C. Rates of evolutionary change in viruses: patterns and determinants. Nat. Rev. Genet. 9, 267–276 (2008).Parrish, C. R. et al. Cross-species virus transmission and the emergence of new epidemic diseases. Microbiol. Mol. Biol. Rev. 72, 457–470 (2008).Holmes, E. C. The comparative genomics of viral emergence. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 107, 1742–1746 (2010).Sanjuán, R., Nebot, M. R., Chirico, N., Mansky, L. M. & Belshaw, R. Viral mutation rates. J. Virol. 84, 9733–9748 (2010).Elena, S. F. et al. The evolutionary genetics of emerging plant RNA viruses. Mol. Plant-Microbe Interact. 24, 287–293 (2011).Holmes, E. C. The evolutionary genetics of emerging viruses. Annu. Rev. Ecol. Evol. Syst. 40, 353–372 (2009).Domingo, E. Mechanisms of viral emergence. Vet. Res. 41, 38 (2010).King, K. C. & Lively, C. M. Does genetic diversity limit disease spread in natural host populations? Heredity 109, 199–203 (2012).Kearney, C. M., Thomson, M. J. & Roland, K. E. Genome evolution of Tobacco mosaic virus populations during long-term passaging in a diverse range of hosts. Arch. Virol. 144, 1513–1526 (1999).Tan, Z. et al. Mutations in Turnip mosaic virus genomes that have adapted to Raphanus sativus . J. Gen. Virol. 88, 501–510 (2005).Rico, P., Ivars, P., Elena, S. F. & Hernández, C. Insights into the selective pressures restricting Pelargonium flower break virus genome variability: evidence for host adaptation. J. Virol. 80, 8124–8132 (2006).Wallis, C. M. et al. Adaptation of Plum pox virus to a herbaceous host (Pisum sativum) following serial passages. J. Gen. Virol. 88, 2839–2845 (2007).Agudelo-Romero, P., de la Iglesia, F. & Elena, S. F. The pleiotropic cost of host-specialization in tobacco etch potyvirus. Infect. Genet. Evol. 8, 806–814 (2008).Bedhomme, S., Lafforgue, G. & Elena, S. F. Multihost experimental evolution of a plant RNA virus reveals local adaptation and host-specific mutations. Mol. Biol. Evol. 29, 1481–1492 (2012).García-Arenal, F. & Fraile A. Trade-offs in host range evolution of plant viruses. Plant Pathol. 62, S2–S9. (2013).Calvo, M., Malinowski, T. & García, J. A. Single amino acid changes in the 6K1-CI region can promote the alternative adaptation of Prunus- and Nicotiana- propagated Plum pox virus C isolates to either host. Mol. Plant-Microbe Interact. 27, 136–149 (2014).Cuevas, J. M., Willemsen, A., Hillung, J., Zwart, M. P. & Elena, S. F. Temporal dynamics of intra-host molecular evolution for a plant RNA virus. Mol. Biol. Evol. 32, 1132–1147 (2015).Minicka, J., Rymelska, N., Elena, S. F., Czerwoniec, A. & Hasiów-Jaroszewska, B. Molecular evolution of Pepino mosaic virus during long-term passaging in different hosts and its impact on virus virulence. Ann. Appl. Biol. 166, 389–401 (2015).Agudelo-Romero, P., Carbonell, P., Pérez-Amador, M. A. & Elena, S. F. Virus adaptation by manipulation of host's gene expression. PLos ONE 3, e2397 (2008).Weigel, D. Natural variation in arabidopsis: from molecular genetics to ecological genomics. Plant Physiol. 158, 2–22 (2012).Mahajan, S. K., Chisholm, S. T., Whitham, S. A. & Carrington, J. C. Identification and characterization of a locus (RTM1) that restricts long-distance movement of Tobacco etch virus in Arabidopsis thaliana . Plant J. 14, 177–186 (1998).Whitham, S. A., Yamamoto, M. L. & Carrington, J. C. Selectable viruses and altered susceptibility mutants in Arabidopsis thaliana . Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 96, 772–777 (1999).Whitham, S. A., Anderberg, R. J., Chisholm, S. T. & Carrington, J. C. Arabidopsis RTM2 gene is necessary for specific restriction of Tobacco etch virus and encodes an unusual small heat shock-like protein. Plant Cell 12, 569–582 (2000).Chisholm, S. T., Mahajan, S. K., Whitham, S. A., Yamamoto, M. L. & Carrington, J. C. Cloning of the Arabidopsis RTM1 gene, which controls restriction of long-distance movement of Tobacco etch virus . Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 97, 489–494 (2000).Chisholm, S. T., Parra, M. A., Anderberg, R. J. & Carrington, J. C. Arabidopsis RTM1 and RTM2 genes function in phloem to restrict long-distance movement of Tobacco etch virus . Plant Physiol. 127, 1667–1675 (2001).Cosson, P. et al. RTM3, which controls long-distance movement of potyviruses, is a member of a new plant gene family encoding a MEPRIN and TRAF homology domain-containing protein. Plant Physiol. 154, 222–232 (2010).Cosson, P., Sofer, L., Schurdi-Levraud, V. & Revers, F. A member of a new plant gene family encoding a MEPRIN and TRAF homology (MATH) domain-containing protein is involved in restriction of long distance movement of plant viruses. Plant Signal. Behav. 5, 1321–1323 (2010).Agudelo-Romero P. et al. Changes in gene expression profile of Arabidopsis thaliana after infection with Tobacco etch virus . Virol. J. 5, 92 (2008).Lalić, J., Agudelo-Romero, P., Carrasco, P. & Elena, S. F. Adaptation of tobacco etch potyvirus to a susceptible ecotype of Arabidopsis thaliana capacitates it for systemic infection of resistant ecotypes. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B 65, 1997–2008 (2010).Hillung, J., Cuevas, J. M. & Elena, S. F. Transcript profiling of different Arabidopsis thaliana ecotypes in response to tobacco etch potyvirus infection. Front. Microbiol. 3, 229 (2012).Hillung, J., Cuevas, J. M. & Elena, S. F. Evaluating the within-host fitness effects of mutations fixed during virus adaptation to different ecotypes of a new host. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B 370, 20140292 (2015).Hillung, J., Cuevas, J. M., Valverde, S. & Elena, S. F. Experimental evolution of an emerging plant virus in host genotypes that differ in their susceptibility to infection. Evolution 68, 2467–2480 (2014).Sartor, M. A., Leikauf, G. D. & Medvedovic, M. LRpath: a logistic regression approach for identifying enriched biological groups in gene expression data. Bioinformatics 25, 211–217 (2009).Montaner, D. & Dopazo, J. Multidimensional gene set analysis of genomic data. PLos ONE 5, e10348 (2010).Supek, F., Bosnjak, M., Skunca, N. & Smuc, T. REVIGO summarizes and visualizes long lists of gene ontology terms. PLos ONE 6, e21800 (2011).Grennan, A. K. Regulation of starch metabolism in Arabidopsis leaves. Plant Physiol. 142, 1343–1345 (2006).Johnson, P. R. & Ecker, J. R. The ethylene gas signal transduction pathway: a molecular perspective. Annu. Rev. Genet. 32, 227–254 (1998).Wang, K. L., Li, H. & Ecker, J. R. Ethylene biosynthesis and signaling networks. Plant Cell 14, S131–S151 (2002).Binns, D. et al. QuickGO: a web-based tool for gene ontology searching. Bioinformatics 25, 3045–3046 (2009).Stintzi, A., Weber, H., Reymond, P., Browse, J. & Farmer, E. E. Plant defense in the absence of jasmonic acid: the role of cyclopentenones. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 98, 12837–12842 (2001).Luna, E. et al. Callose deposition: a multifaceted plant defense response. Mol. Plant-Microbe Interact. 24, 183–193 (2011).Ghoshroy, S., Freedman, K., Lartey, R. & Citovsky, V. Inhibition of plant viral systemic infection by non-toxic concentrations of cadmium. Plant J. 13, 591–602 (1998).Hayashi, N. et al. Nef of HIV-1 interacts directly with calcium-bound calmodulin. Protein Sci. 11, 529–537 (2002).Zacharias, D. A., Violin, J. D., Newton, A. C. & Tsien, R. Y. Partitioning of lipic-modified monomeric GFPs into membrane microdomains of live cells. Science 296, 913–916 (2002).Rojas, M. R. et al. Functional analysis of proteins involved in movement of the monopartite begomovirus, Tomato yellow leaf curl virus. Virology 291, 110–125 (2001).Padmanabhan, M. S., Goregaoker, S. P., Golem, S., Shiferaw, H. & Culver, J. N. Interaction of the Tobacco mosaic virus replicase protein with the Aux/IAA protein PAP1/IAA26 is associated with disease development. J. Virol. 79, 2549–2558 (2005).Lurin, C. et al. Genome-wide analysis of Arabidopsis pentatricopeptide repeat proteins reveals their essential role in organelle biogenesis. Plant Cell 16, 2089–2103 (2004).Takenaka, M., Verbitskiy, D., Zehrmann, A. & Brennicke, A. Reverse genetic screening identifies five E-class PPR proteins involved in RNA editing in mitochondria of Arabidopsis thaliana . J. Biol. Chem. 285, 27122–27129 (2010).Gillissen, B. et al. A new family of high-affinity transporters for adenine, cytosine, and purine derivatives in Arabidopsis . Plant Cell 12, 291–300 (2000).Li, S., Fu, Q., Chen, L., Huang, W. & Yu, D. Arabidopsis thaliana WRKY25, WRKY26, and WRKY33 coordinate induction of plant thermotolerance. Planta 233, 1237–1252 (2011).Divol, F. et al. Involvement of the xyloglucan endotransglycosylase/hydrolases encoded by celery XTH1 and Arabidopsis XTH33 in the phloem response to aphids. Plant Cell. Environ. 30, 187–201 (2007).Vissenberg, K., Fry, S. C., Pauly, M., Höfte, H. & Verbelen, J. P. XTH acts at the microfibril-matrix interface during cell elongation. J. Exp. Bot. 56, 673–683 (2005).Ham, B. K., Li, G., Kang, B. H., Zeng, F. & Lucas, W. J. Overexpression of Arabidopsis plasmodesmata germin-like proteins disrupts root growth and development. Plant Cell 24, 3630–3648 (2012).Bae, M. S., Cho, E. J., Choi, E. Y. & Park, O. K. Analysis of the Arabidopsis nuclear proteome and its response to cold stress. Plant J. 36, 652–663 (2003).Zargar, S. M. et al. Correlation analysis of proteins responsive to Zn, Mn, or Fe deficiency in Arabidopsis roots based on iTRAQ analysis. Plant Cell Rep. 34, 157–166 (2015).Kleffmann, T. et al. The Arabidopsis thaliana chloroplast proteome reveals pathway abundance and novel protein functions. Curr. Biol. 14, 354–362 (2004).Zybailov, B. et al. Sorting signals, N-terminal modifications and abundance of the chloroplast proteome. PLos ONE 3, e1994 (2008).Wu, P. et al. Phosphate starvation triggers distinct alterations of gene expression in Arabidopsis roots and leaves. Plant Physiol. 132, 1260–1271 (2003).Oh, S. A., Lee, S. Y., Chung, I. K., Lee, C. H. & Nam H. G. A senescence-associated gene of Arabidopsis thaliana is distinctively regulated during natural and artificially induced leaf senescence. Plant Mol. Biol. 30, 739–754 (1996).Schenk, P. M., Kazan, K., Rusu, A. G., Manners, J. M. & Maclean, D. J. The SEN1 gene of Arabidopsis is regulated by signals that link plant defence responses and senescence. Plant Physiol. Biochem. 43, 997–1005 (2005).Fernández-Calvino, L. et al. Activation of senescence-associated dark-inducible (DIN) genes during infection contributes to enhanced susceptibility to plant viruses. Mol. Plant Pathol. 17, 3–15 (2016).Vierstra, R. D. Proteolysis in plants: mechanisms and functions. Plant Mol. Biol. 32, 275–302 (1996).Bögre, L., Okrész, L., Henriques, R. & Anthony, R. G. Growth signalling pathways in Arabidopsis and the AGC protein kinases. Trends Plant Sci. 8, 424–431 (2003).An, L. et al. A zinc finger protein gene ZFP5 integrates phytohormone signalling to control root hair development in Arabidopsis . Plant J. 72, 474–490 (2012).Zhou, Z., An, L., Sun, L. & Gan, Y. ZFP5 encodes a functionally equivalent GIS protein to control trichome initiation. Plant Signal. Behav. 7, 28–30 (2012).Zhou, Z. et al. Zinc finger protein 5 is required for the control of trichome initiation by acting upstream of zinc finger protein 8 in Arabidopsis . Plant Physiol. 157, 673–682 (2011).Lee, D. J. et al. Genome-wide expression profiling of ARABIDOPSIS RESPONSE REGULATOR 7 (ARR7) overexpression in cytokinin response. Mol. Genet. Genomics 277, 115–137 (2007).Theologis, A. et al. Sequence and analysis of chromosome 1 of the plant Arabidopsis thaliana . Nature 408, 816–820 (2000).Heyndrickx, K. S. & Vandepoele, K. Systematic identification of functional plant modules through the integration of complementary data sources. Plant Physiol. 159, 884–901 (2012).Martinoia, E. et al. Multifunctionality of plant ABC transporter - more than just detoxifiers. Planta 214, 345–355 (2002).Kaneda, M. et al. ABC transporters coordinately expressed during lignification of Arabidopsis stems include a set of ABCBs associated with auxin transport. J. Exp. Bot. 62, 2063–2077 (2011).Alejandro, S. et al. AtABCG29 is a monolignol transporter involved in lignin biosynthesis. Curr. Biol. 22, 1207–1212 (2012).Riechmann, J. L. et al. Arabidopsis transcription factors: genome-wide comparative analysis among eukaryotes. Science 290, 2105–2110 (2000).Ohashi-Ito, K. & Bergmann, D. C. Regulation of the Arabidopsis root vascular initial population by LONESOME HIGHWAY . Development 134, 2959–2968 (2007).Averyanov, A. Oxidative burst and plant disease resistance. Front. Biosci. 1, 142–152 (2009).Flury, P., Klauser, D., Schulze, B., Boller, T. & Bartels, S. The anticipation of danger: microbe-associated molecular pattern perception enhances AtPep-triggered oxidative burst. Plant Physiol. 161, 2023–2035 (2013).Tanaka, K., Nguyen, C. T., Liang, Y., Cao, Y. & Stacey, G. Role of LysM receptors in chitin-triggered plant innate immunity. Plant Signal. Behav. 8, e22598 (2013).Nakamura, K. & Matsuoka, K. Protein targeting to the vacuole in plant cells. Plant Physiol. 101, 1–5 (1993).Elena, S. F., Agudelo-Romero, P. & Lalić, J. The evolution of viruses in multi-host fitness landscapes. Open Virol. J. 3, 1–6 (2009).Bolstad, B. M., Irizarry, R. A., Astrand, M. & Speed, T. P. A comparison of normalization methods for high density oligonucleotide array data based on variance and bias. Bioinformatics 19, 185–193 (2003).Smyth, G. K. Linear models and empirical bayes methods for assessing differential expression in microarray experiments. Stat. Appl. Genet. Mol. Biol. 3, 3 (2004).Benjamini, Y. & Hochberg, Y. Controlling the false discovery rate: A practical and powerful approach to multiple testing. J. R. Stat. Soc. B 57, 289–300 (1995).Benjamini,Y. & Yekutieli, D. The control of the false discovery rate in multiple testing under dependency. Ann. Statist. 29, 1165–1188 (2001).Sneath, P. & Sokal, R. Numerical Taxonomy. ( W.H. Freeman, 1973).D'Haeseler, P. How does gene expression clustering work? Nat. Biotech. 23, 1499–1501 (2005).Suzuki, R. & Shimodaira, H. Pvclust: an R package for assessing the uncertainty in hierarchical clustering. Bioinformatics 22, 1540–1542 (2006)