Antimutagenic properties of several kinds of rice as tested upon yeast strain Saccharomyces cerevisiae D7

The aim of this work was to study antimutagenic and antioxidant properties of water extracts of various types of rice. Antioxidant activity, total phenolic andflavonoid contents were measured spectrophotometrically. Individual phenolics — catechins, catechin gallates, ferulic acid — were analysed by HPLC/PDA. Antimutagenic activity of rice extracts was tested using unicellular eukaryotic yeast strain Saccharomyces cerevisiae D7 the first time.Non-processed rice types contained substantially higher amount of soluble total and individual phenolics and had higher antioxidant activity than peeled rice. Parboiled rice, in which technological processing helps to maintain active substances inside the grains, exhibited also relatively high phenolic levels. The highest antimutagenic effect was proved in Indian Rice, Arborio, Jasmine Rice and Three Colours Rice independently of rice extract concentration. Because of relatively high values of phenolics and high antioxidant activity, the antimutagenic activity of these samples could be attributed to biologically active phenolics present mainly in the bran layer of whole rice grain

Comparative Methylation of ERVWE1/Syncytin-1 and Other Human Endogenous Retrovirus LTRs in Placenta Tissues

Human endogenous retroviruses (HERVs) are globally silent in somatic cells. However, some HERVs display high transcription in physiological conditions. In particular, ERVWE1, ERVFRDE1 and ERV3, three proviruses of distinct families, are highly transcribed in placenta and produce envelope proteins associated with placenta development. As silencing of repeated elements is thought to occur mainly by DNA methylation, we compared the methylation of ERVWE1 and related HERVs to appreciate whether HERV methylation relies upon the family, the integration site, the tissue, the long terminal repeat (LTR) function or the associated gene function. CpG methylation of HERV-W LTRs in placenta-associated tissues was heterogeneous but a joint epigenetic control was found for ERVWE1 5′LTR and its juxtaposed enhancer, a mammalian apparent LTR retrotransposon. Additionally, ERVWE1, ERVFRDE1 and ERV3 5′LTRs were all essentially hypomethylated in cytotrophoblasts during pregnancy, but showed distinct and stage-dependent methylation profiles. In non-cytotrophoblastic cells, they also exhibited different methylation profiles, compatible with their respective transcriptional activities. Comparative analyses of transcriptional activity and LTR methylation in cell lines further sustained a role for methylation in the control of functional LTRs. These results suggest that HERV methylation might not be family related but copy-specific, and related to the LTR function and the tissue. In particular, ERVWE1 and ERV3 could be developmentally epigenetically regulated HERVs

Down-Regulation of Replication Factor C-40 (RFC40) Causes Chromosomal Missegregation in Neonatal and Hypertrophic Adult Rat Cardiac Myocytes

BACKGROUND: Adult mammalian cardiac myocytes are generally assumed to be terminally differentiated; nonetheless, a small fraction of cardiac myocytes have been shown to replicate during ventricular remodeling. However, the expression of Replication Factor C (RFC; RFC140/40/38/37/36) and DNA polymerase δ (Pol δ) proteins, which are required for DNA synthesis and cell proliferation, in the adult normal and hypertrophied hearts has been rarely studied. METHODS: We performed qRT-PCR and Western blot analysis to determine the levels of RFC and Pol δ message and proteins in the adult normal cardiac myocytes and cardiac fibroblasts, as well as in adult normal and pulmonary arterial hypertension induced right ventricular hypertrophied hearts. Immunohistochemical analyses were performed to determine the localization of the re-expressed DNA replication and cell cycle proteins in adult normal (control) and hypertrophied right ventricle. We determined right ventricular cardiac myocyte polyploidy and chromosomal missegregation/aneuploidy using Fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) for rat chromosome 12. RESULTS: RFC40-mRNA and protein was undetectable, whereas Pol δ message was detectable in the cardiac myocytes isolated from control adult hearts. Although RFC40 and Pol δ message and protein significantly increased in hypertrophied hearts as compared to the control hearts; however, this increase was marginal as compared to the fetal hearts. Immunohistochemical analyses revealed that in addition to RFC40, proliferative and mitotic markers such as cyclin A, phospho-Aurora A/B/C kinase and phospho-histone 3 were also re-expressed/up-regulated simultaneously in the cardiac myocytes. Interestingly, FISH analyses demonstrated cardiac myocytes polyploidy and chromosomal missegregation/aneuploidy in these hearts. Knock-down of endogenous RFC40 caused chromosomal missegregation/aneuploidy and decrease in the rat neonatal cardiac myocyte numbers. CONCLUSION: Our novel findings suggest that transcription of RFC40 is suppressed in the normal adult cardiac myocytes and its insufficient re-expression may be responsible for causing chromosomal missegregation/aneuploidy and in cardiac myocytes during right ventricular hypertrophy

Microarray-Based Sketches of the HERV Transcriptome Landscape

Human endogenous retroviruses (HERVs) are spread throughout the genome and their long terminal repeats (LTRs) constitute a wide collection of putative regulatory sequences. Phylogenetic similarities and the profusion of integration sites, two inherent characteristics of transposable elements, make it difficult to study individual locus expression in a large-scale approach, and historically apart from some placental and testis-regulated elements, it was generally accepted that HERVs are silent due to epigenetic control. Herein, we have introduced a generic method aiming to optimally characterize individual loci associated with 25-mer probes by minimizing cross-hybridization risks. We therefore set up a microarray dedicated to a collection of 5,573 HERVs that can reasonably be assigned to a unique genomic position. We obtained a first view of the HERV transcriptome by using a composite panel of 40 normal and 39 tumor samples. The experiment showed that almost one third of the HERV repertoire is indeed transcribed. The HERV transcriptome follows tropism rules, is sensitive to the state of differentiation and, unexpectedly, seems not to correlate with the age of the HERV families. The probeset definition within the U3 and U5 regions was used to assign a function to some LTRs (i.e. promoter or polyA) and revealed that (i) autonomous active LTRs are broadly subjected to operational determinism (ii) the cellular gene density is substantially higher in the surrounding environment of active LTRs compared to silent LTRs and (iii) the configuration of neighboring cellular genes differs between active and silent LTRs, showing an approximately 8 kb zone upstream of promoter LTRs characterized by a drastic reduction in sense cellular genes. These gathered observations are discussed in terms of virus/host adaptive strategies, and together with the methods and tools developed for this purpose, this work paves the way for further HERV transcriptome projects

An evolutionary molecular adaptation of an unusual stefin from the liver fluke Fasciola hepatica redefines the cystatin superfamily

Fasciolosis is a worldwide parasitic disease of ruminants and an emerging human disease caused by the liver fluke Fasciola hepatica. The cystatin superfamily of cysteine protease inhibitors is composed of distinct families of intracellular stefins and secreted true cystatins. FhCyLS 2 from F. hepatica is an unusual member of the superfamily, where our sequence and 3D structure analyses in this study revealed that it combines characteristics of both families. The protein architecture demonstrates its relationship to stefins, but FhCyLS 2 also contains the secretion signal peptide and disulfide bridges typical of true cystatins. The secretion status was confirmed by detecting the presence of FhCyLS 2 in excretory secretory products, supported by immunolocalization. Our high resolution crystal structure of FhCyLS 2 showed a distinct disulfide bridging pattern and functional reactive center. We determined that FhCyLS 2 is a broad specificity inhibitor of cysteine cathepsins from both the host and F. hepatica, suggesting a dual role in the regulation of exogenous and endogenous proteolysis. Based on phylogenetic analysis that identified several FhCyLS 2 homologues in liver intestinal foodborne flukes, we propose a new group within the cystatin superfamily called cystatin like stefin