ЛАПАРОСКОПИЧЕСКАЯ ДОНОРСКАЯ НЕФРЭКТОМИЯ С ТРАНСВАГИНАЛЬНОЙ ЭКСТРАКЦИЕЙ ОРГАНА

This article describes the first experience of laparoscopic donor nephrectomy with transvaginal kidney graft extraction. The surgical technique and long-term results are shown. The advantage of surgery is the absence of pain in the early postoperative period and good cosmetic results compared to standard laparoscopic nephrectomy. However, candidates for this operation should be carefully selected to maintain donor safety and graft viability. В статье описан первый опыт выполнения лапароскопической донорской нефрэктомии с последующей трансвагинальной экстракцией трансплантата. Приведена техника операции и отдаленные результаты. Преимуществом операции является отсутствие болей в раннем послеоперационном периоде и хорошие косметические результаты по сравнению со стандартной лапароскопической нефрэктомией. Тем не менее необходима тщательная селекция женщин-доноров для выполнения подобных операций.

The genome of the sea urchin Strongylocentrotus purpuratus

We report the sequence and analysis of the 814-megabase genome of the sea urchin Strongylocentrotus purpuratus, a model for developmental and systems biology. The sequencing strategy combined whole-genome shotgun and bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) sequences. This use of BAC clones, aided by a pooling strategy, overcame difficulties associated with high heterozygosity of the genome. The genome encodes about 23,300 genes, including many previously thought to be vertebrate innovations or known only outside the deuterostomes. This echinoderm genome provides an evolutionary outgroup for the chordates and yields insights into the evolution of deuterostomes

Genome Sequence of the Pea Aphid Acyrthosiphon pisum

Aphids are important agricultural pests and also biological models for studies of insect-plant interactions, symbiosis, virus vectoring, and the developmental causes of extreme phenotypic plasticity. Here we present the 464 Mb draft genome assembly of the pea aphid Acyrthosiphon pisum. This first published whole genome sequence of a basal hemimetabolous insect provides an outgroup to the multiple published genomes of holometabolous insects. Pea aphids are host-plant specialists, they can reproduce both sexually and asexually, and they have coevolved with an obligate bacterial symbiont. Here we highlight findings from whole genome analysis that may be related to these unusual biological features. These findings include discovery of extensive gene duplication in more than 2000 gene families as well as loss of evolutionarily conserved genes. Gene family expansions relative to other published genomes include genes involved in chromatin modification, miRNA synthesis, and sugar transport. Gene losses include genes central to the IMD immune pathway, selenoprotein utilization, purine salvage, and the entire urea cycle. The pea aphid genome reveals that only a limited number of genes have been acquired from bacteria; thus the reduced gene count of Buchnera does not reflect gene transfer to the host genome. The inventory of metabolic genes in the pea aphid genome suggests that there is extensive metabolite exchange between the aphid and Buchnera, including sharing of amino acid biosynthesis between the aphid and Buchnera. The pea aphid genome provides a foundation for post-genomic studies of fundamental biological questions and applied agricultural problems

LAPAROSCOPIC LIVING DONOR NEPHRECTOMY WITH TRANSVAGINAL GRAFT EXTRACTION

This article describes the first experience of laparoscopic donor nephrectomy with transvaginal kidney graft extraction. The surgical technique and long-term results are shown. The advantage of surgery is the absence of pain in the early postoperative period and good cosmetic results compared to standard laparoscopic nephrectomy. However, candidates for this operation should be carefully selected to maintain donor safety and graft viability

A genome-wide analysis of biomineralization-related proteins in the sea urchin Strongylocentrotus purpuratus

Biomineralization, the biologically controlled formation of mineral deposits, is of widespread importance in biology, medicine, and engineering. Mineralized structures are found in most metazoan phyla and often have supportive, protective, or feeding functions. Among deuterostomes, only echinoderms and vertebrates produce extensive biomineralized structures. Although skeletons appeared independently in these two groups, ancestors of the vertebrates and echinoderms may have utilized similar components of a shared genetic “toolkit” to carry out biomineralization. The present study had two goals. First, we sought to expand our understanding of the proteins involved in biomineralization in the sea urchin, a powerful model system for analyzing the basic cellular and molecular mechanisms that underlie this process. Second, we sought to shed light on the possible evolutionary relationships between biomineralization in echinoderms and vertebrates. We used several computational methods to survey the genome of the purple sea urchin Strongylocentrotus purpuratus for gene products involved in biomineralization. Our analysis has greatly expanded the collection of biomineralization-related proteins. We have found that these proteins are often members of small families encoded by genes that are clustered in the genome. Most of the proteins are sea urchin-specific; that is, they have no apparent homologues in other invertebrate deuterostomes or vertebrates. Similarly, many of the vertebrate proteins that mediate mineral deposition do not have counterparts in the S. purpuratus genome. Our findings therefore reveal substantial differences in the primary sequences of proteins that mediate biomineral formation in echinoderms and vertebrates, possibly reflecting loose constraints on the primary structures of the proteins involved. On the other hand, certain cellular and molecular processes associated with earlier events in skeletogenesis appear similar in echinoderms and vertebrates, leaving open the possibility of deeper evolutionary relationships