Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Impact of educational campaign on the timely initiation of mechanical venous thromboembolism prophylaxis

Introduction: The effectiveness of mechanical prophylaxis for the prevention of venous thromboembolism (VTE) incidence are methodically described in recent randomized controlled trials. Nurses are pivotal in the immediate application and maintenance of sequential compression device (SCD) therapy especially in those with pharmacological therapy contraindications. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), no longer reimburses for this cumulative cost of VTE since it is a preventable event. The Purpose of this IRB-approved study was to determine the impact of educational intervention on mechanical VTE prophylaxis. Methods and Study Design: In this pre/post quasi-experimental study, a retrospective chart re-view of patients admitted for an acute medical condition from August 1st to December 31st 2017 (pre-educational campaign) and from July 1st to November 30th 2018 (post-educational campaign) was generated from MIDAS with a total of 924 patient charts meeting the eligibility criteria. The patients’ data were collected through Cerner which included: age, reason for admission, type of VTE prophylaxis ordered, time to initiation of VTE prophylaxis, contraindications, and the total number of reminder calls to nurses who failed to apply the mechanical VTE prophylaxis admitted to one of the following hospital floors: ICU, 4 South, 3 South, 3 North, and Observation. An educational intervention on the mechanical VTE prophylaxis using the PowerPoint or hand-outs, was implemented for 2 weeks (June 17-30, 2018) for day and night shift nurses working two or more shifts per week caring for patients in the same hospital floors. A survey that included the nurses’ demographics and their barriers to the timely initiation of mechanical VTE prophylaxis was concurrently conducted prior to the educational intervention. A high participation rate of 91% of the total nurses\u27 population completed the research survey. The objectives included: to compare the number of reminder calls on the timely initiation of mechanical VTE prophylaxis among patients admitted pre-and post-educational campaign; and to explore the direct patient care nurses’ barriers to implementing VTE prophylaxis within 24-hours of a patient’s admission. Results: The study showed that the greatest barriers to adherence are: mechanical devices were not available to use (n=101); no physician order (n=89); patients\u27 refusal to wear SCDs (n=82), and lack of standardized protocol (n=39). The majority of the sample had SCD ordered (n = 800, 87.6%). A total of 32 patients (3.5%) did not have a VTE ordered by the attending physician but still had an SCD placed before discharge by a nurse who initiated the process post- intervention. A Mann-Whitney U independent test was conducted for the number of calls and time to VTE in minutes by unit. The number of calls and time to VTE in minutes was significantly associated with the intervention group (alpha = 0.05). Conclusion: A statistically significant improvement on the VTE reminder call logs after the educational intervention was noted. We demonstrated that a combination of educational campaign which includes institutional data on the nurses’ barriers to adherence and standardized methods of mechanical VTE prophylaxis ensure a substantial change in our practice and preventing VTE incidence

Article The Complete Genome and Proteome of Mycoplasma mobile

Although often considered “minimal ” organisms, mycoplasmas show a wide range of diversity with respect to host environment, phenotypic traits, and pathogenicity. Here we report the complete genomic sequence and proteogenomic map for the piscine mycoplasma Mycoplasma mobile, noted for its robust gliding motility. For the first time, proteomic data are used in the primary annotation of a new genome, providing validation of expression for many of the predicted proteins. Several novel features were discovered including a long repeating unit of DNA of ∼2435 bp present in five complete copies that are shown to code for nearly identical yet uniquely expressed proteins. M. mobile has among the lowest DNA GC contents (24.9%) and most reduced set of tRNAs of any organism yet reported (28). Numerous instances of tandem duplication as well as lateral gene transfer are evident in the genome. The multiple available complete genome sequences for other motile and immotile mycoplasmas enabled us to use comparative genomic and phylogenetic methods to suggest several candidate genes that might be involved in motility. The results of these analyses leave open the possibility that gliding motility might have arisen independently more than once in the mycoplasma lineage. [Supplemental material is available online at www.genome.org. The sequence data from this study have been submitted to GenBank under accession no. AE017308. The following individuals kindly provided reagents, samples, or unpublished information as indicated in the paper: M. Miyata, T. Knight, and N. Stange-Thomann.

The Complete Genome and Proteome of Mycoplasma mobile

Although often considered “minimal” organisms, mycoplasmas show a wide range of diversity with respect to host environment, phenotypic traits, and pathogenicity. Here we report the complete genomic sequence and proteogenomic map for the piscine mycoplasma Mycoplasma mobile, noted for its robust gliding motility. For the first time, proteomic data are used in the primary annotation of a new genome, providing validation of expression for many of the predicted proteins. Several novel features were discovered including a long repeating unit of DNA of ∼2435 bp present in five complete copies that are shown to code for nearly identical yet uniquely expressed proteins. M. mobile has among the lowest DNA GC contents (24.9%) and most reduced set of tRNAs of any organism yet reported (28). Numerous instances of tandem duplication as well as lateral gene transfer are evident in the genome. The multiple available complete genome sequences for other motile and immotile mycoplasmas enabled us to use comparative genomic and phylogenetic methods to suggest several candidate genes that might be involved in motility. The results of these analyses leave open the possibility that gliding motility might have arisen independently more than once in the mycoplasma lineage