4 research outputs found
Recommended from our members
The global landscape of intron retentions in lung adenocarcinoma
Background: The transcriptome complexity in an organism can be achieved by alternative splicing of precursor messenger RNAs. It has been revealed that alternations in mRNA splicing play an important role in a number of diseases including human cancers. Methods: In this study, we exploited whole transcriptome sequencing data from five lung adenocarcinoma tissues and their matched normal tissues to interrogate intron retention, a less studied alternative splicing form which has profound structural and functional consequence by modifying open reading frame or inserting premature stop codons. Results: Abundant intron retention events were found in both tumor and normal tissues, and 2,340 and 1,422 genes only contain tumor-specific retentions and normal-specific retentions, respectively. Combined with gene expression analysis, we showed that genes with tumor-specific retentions tend to be over-expressed in tumors, and the abundance of intron retention within genes is negatively related with gene expression, indicating the action of nonsense mediated decay. Further functional analysis demonstrated that genes with tumor-specific retentions include known lung cancer driver genes and are found enriched in pathways important in carcinogenesis. Conclusions: We hypothesize that intron retentions and consequent nonsense mediated decay may collectively counteract the over-expression of genes promoting cancer development. Identification of genes with tumor-specific retentions may also help develop targeted therapies
Gas permeation through graphdiyne-based nanoporous membranes
Nanoporous membranes based on two dimensional materials are predicted to provide highly selective gas transport in combination with extreme permeance. Here we investigate membranes made from multilayer graphdiyne, a graphene-like crystal with a larger unit cell. Despite being nearly a hundred of nanometers thick, the membranes allow fast, Knudsen-type permeation of light gases such as helium and hydrogen whereas heavy noble gases like xenon exhibit strongly suppressed flows. Using isotope and cryogenic temperature measurements, the seemingly conflicting characteristics are explained by a high density of straight-through holes (direct porosity of ∼0.1%), in which heavy atoms are adsorbed on the walls, partially blocking Knudsen flows. Our work offers important insights into intricate transport mechanisms playing a role at nanoscale