Structural Properties of Ribosomal Protein S8 from the Extreme Thermophile Thermus Thermophilus

The gene of ribosomal protein S8 from the extreme thermophile Thermus thermophilus was expressed in E. coli using the strain BL21(DE3) and vector pET3-1. A method of isolating this protein from the super producing strain was developed, which makes it possible to obtain 8-12 mg of product from 11 of culture. The secondary structure of protein S8 was determined by using CD spectroscopy. The protein was shown to be highly resistant to denaturants

Structural Properties of Ribosomal Protein S8 from the Extreme Thermophile Thermus Thermophilus

The gene of ribosomal protein S8 from the extreme thermophile Thermus thermophilus was expressed in E. coli using the strain BL21(DE3) and vector pET3-1. A method of isolating this protein from the super producing strain was developed, which makes it possible to obtain 8-12 mg of product from 11 of culture. The secondary structure of protein S8 was determined by using CD spectroscopy. The protein was shown to be highly resistant to denaturants

Development and validation of a 36-gene sequencing assay for hereditary cancer risk assessment

The past two decades have brought many important advances in our understanding of the hereditary susceptibility to cancer. Numerous studies have provided convincing evidence that identification of germline mutations associated with hereditary cancer syndromes can lead to reductions in morbidity and mortality through targeted risk management options. Additionally, advances in gene sequencing technology now permit the development of multigene hereditary cancer testing panels. Here, we describe the 2016 revision of the Counsyl Inherited Cancer Screen for detecting single-nucleotide variants (SNVs), short insertions and deletions (indels), and copy number variants (CNVs) in 36 genes associated with an elevated risk for breast, ovarian, colorectal, gastric, endometrial, pancreatic, thyroid, prostate, melanoma, and neuroendocrine cancers. To determine test accuracy and reproducibility, we performed a rigorous analytical validation across 341 samples, including 118 cell lines and 223 patient samples. The screen achieved 100% test sensitivity across different mutation types, with high specificity and 100% concordance with conventional Sanger sequencing and multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification (MLPA). We also demonstrated the screen’s high intra-run and inter-run reproducibility and robust performance on blood and saliva specimens. Furthermore, we showed that pathogenic Alu element insertions can be accurately detected by our test. Overall, the validation in our clinical laboratory demonstrated the analytical performance required for collecting and reporting genetic information related to risk of developing hereditary cancers

Analysis of the genome sequence of the flowering plant Arabidopsis thaliana

The flowering plant Arabidopsis thaliana is an important model system for identifying genes and determining their functions. Here we report the analysis of the genomic sequence of Arabidopsis. The sequenced regions cover 115.4 megabases of the 125-megabase genome and extend into centromeric regions. The evolution of Arabidopsis involved a whole-genome duplication, followed by subsequent gene loss and extensive local gene duplications, giving rise to a dynamic genome enriched by lateral gene transfer from a cyanobacterial-like ancestor of the plastid. The genome contains 25,498 genes encoding proteins from 11,000 families, similar to the functional diversity of Drosophila and Caenorhabditis elegans - the other sequenced multicellular eukaryotes. Arabidopsis has many families of new proteins but also lacks several common protein families, indicating that the sets of common proteins have undergone differential expansion and contraction in the three multicellular eukaryotes. This is the first complete genome sequence of a plant and provides the foundations for more comprehensive comparison of conserved processes in all eukaryotes, identifying a wide range of plant-specific gene functions and establishing rapid systematic ways to identify genes for crop improvement