Genetic diversity of the declining arable plant Centaurea cyanus : population fragmentation within an agricultural landscape is not associated with enhanced spatial genetic structure

International audienceAgricultural intensification has recently resulted in the decrease in frequency and abundance of arable weed species. This includes the previously widespread Centaurea cyanus, whose populations are now fragmented and infrequent in western Europe. The consequences of habitat modification and fragmentation in terms of genetic diversity of the remaining populations have not yet been addressed. We used ten microsatellite markers to assess the genetic diversity and genetic structure of populations contained in an agricultural landscape in north‐eastern France. The ten microsatellites were all highly polymorphic. Centaurea cyanus appears to be a genetically variable species, with high levels of genetic diversity within each cultivated field. Genetic structure was investigated using a Bayesian method. The partitioning of the genetic variation into three clusters was not associated with sampling locations, and most individuals were admixed. These results suggest that the cornflower populations investigated may have multiple origins in the past and that genetic variation has been reshuffled by human transportation of seeds. Thus, anthropogenic dispersal associated with farming activities is probably a major factor driving the structure of genetic diversity in arable land plants. Despite low levels of genetic differentiation between populations, fine‐scale spatial genetic structure was observed within populations, suggesting limited local dispersal. We conclude that in areas where C. cyanus has become rare, the recent fragmentation of populations may in the future cause a loss of genetic diversity and even extinction

Implementation of a molecular tumor board at a regional level to improve access to targeted therapy

International audienceBackground With the development of precision oncology, Molecular Tumor Boards (MTB) are developing in many institutions. However, the implementation of MTB in routine clinical practice has still not been thoroughly studied. Material and methods Since the first drugs approved for targeted therapies, patient tumor samples were centralized to genomic testing platforms. In our institution, all tumor samples have been analyzed since 2014 by Next Generation Sequencing (NGS). In 2015, we established a regional MTB to discuss patient cases with 1 or more alterations identified by NGS, in genes different from those related to drug approval. We conducted a retrospective comparative analysis to study whether our MTB increased the prescriptions of Molecular Targeted Therapies (MTT) and the inclusions of patients in clinical trials with MTT, in comparison with patients with available NGS data but no MTB discussion. Results In 2014, 86 patients had UGA, but the results were not available to clinicians and not discussed in MTB. During the years 2015 and 2016, 113 patients with an UGA (unreferenced genomic alteration) were discussed in MTB. No patients with an UGA were included in 2014 in a clinical trial, versus 2 (2%) in 2015-2016. 13 patients with an UGA (12%) were treated in 2015-2016 with a MTT whereas in 2014, no patient (p = 0.001). Conclusions In this retrospective analysis, we showed that the association of large-scale genomic testing and MTB was feasible, and could increase the prescription of MTT. However, in routine clinical practice, the majority of patients with UGA still do not have access to MTT