Mutation in the beta-myosin heavy chain (β-MHC) gene of adult Bangladeshi patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is the most prevalent genetic cardiomyopathy characterized by sudden cardiac death. HCM is caused by the mutation in several genes that encode sarcomere proteins. Beta-Myosin Heavy Chain (β-MHC) gene is the one of the most mutated genes responsible for HCM. Studies on mutation spectrum of β-MHC gene are lacking in the Asian population including Bangladeshi patients. This study was intended to mutational analysis of β-MHC gene in Bangladeshi HCM patients. A cross-sectional study was conducted for mutation analysis of the β-MHC gene on 70 Bengali Bangladeshi HCM probands using nextgeneration sequencing at the Genetic Research Lab of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University. Structural and functional impact of the mutations were further analyzed by in-silico process. Thirty-nine nucleotide variants were found in both exonic (36%, n= 14) and intronic regions (64%, n=25) of β-MHC gene. We found 14 missense mutations, including the p.Glu965Lys, p.Arg941Pro, p.Lys940Met, p.Glu935Lys, and p.Met922Lys that are associated with inherited HCM. Most variants were heterozygous and one homozygous (p.Val919Leu) was found. The variant with most evidence of causing the disease was p.Glu935Lys. Among the missense variants, nine were not noted in ClinVar, dbSNP, GenomeAD databases. These unreported variants located between myosin head and tail domains might be novel mutations for Bangladeshi population. We found nine novel variants in the β-MHC gene. Findings of this research will help to developing a genetic database of HCM for early diagnosis and proper management of HCM patients in Bangladesh. Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University Journal 2022;15(4):2-

Brackish Water Shrimp Farming and the Growth of Aquatic Monocultures in Coastal Bangladesh

One of the most significant changes in marine and coastal environments since the mid–twentieth century has been the growth of coastal shrimp aquaculture in many tropical and sub–tropical regions of the world. This chapter, which draws on the author’s own archival and field research and the published works of other students of the global shrimp market, examines the growth of brackish water shrimp production from the 1970s to the present in Bangladesh’s coastal belt and its social and ecological impacts. It shows that for most of this period shrimp production was encouraged by the Bangladesh Government to expand in a fragmented and uncoordinated way with varying environmental, economic and social consequences. These included higher levels of soil salinity, increased risk of flooding, loss of agricultural land, a decline in biodiversity, contraction of various traditional occupational activities, growth in new non-agricultural work, a shift to diversified employment strategies among households, higher incomes for shrimp farmers and land renters and economic and social dislocation for others. Government, business and international aid agencies supported the expansion of mono–cultural forms of shrimp production integrated into global trading networks at the expense of local resource extraction activities such as artisanal fishing and forestry