Cajuns (Research Report #118)

This review discusses the experiences of Cajuns in the region. Acadians, or Cajuns, are a unique group of people who now reside primarily in 22 parishes in south Louisiana and are often characterized by their unique culture.https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/agcenter_researchreports/1000/thumbnail.jp

Asians (Research Report #117)

This is the third in a series of reviews. This review discusses the experiences of other Asians (not Vietnamese) in the region. Given the significant number of Vietnamese immigrants living in the southeastern United States, a vast body of literature in the social sciences has described, explored and explained the presence of Vietnamese immigrants living along the Gulf of Mexico.https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/agcenter_researchreports/1004/thumbnail.jp

Native Americans (Research Report #120)

This is the sixth in a series of reviews. This review discusses the experiences of Native Americans in the region – a group that was the foundation of the southeastern United States long before European or Spanish colonization. Although much of the documentation about American Indian history, migration and culture is fragmented, this group had substantial effects on the economy, culture and history of the southeastern United States.https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/agcenter_researchreports/1007/thumbnail.jp

A Sustained Dietary Change Increases Epigenetic Variation in Isogenic Mice

Epigenetic changes can be induced by adverse environmental exposures, such as nutritional imbalance, but little is known about the nature or extent of these changes. Here we have explored the epigenomic effects of a sustained nutritional change, excess dietary methyl donors, by assessing genomic CpG methylation patterns in isogenic mice exposed for one or six generations. We find stochastic variation in methylation levels at many loci; exposure to methyl donors increases the magnitude of this variation and the number of variable loci. Several gene ontology categories are significantly overrepresented in genes proximal to these methylation-variable loci, suggesting that certain pathways are susceptible to environmental influence on their epigenetic states. Long-term exposure to the diet (six generations) results in a larger number of loci exhibiting epigenetic variability, suggesting that some of the induced changes are heritable. This finding presents the possibility that epigenetic variation within populations can be induced by environmental change, providing a vehicle for disease predisposition and possibly a substrate for natural selection.This work was supported by the Australian Research Council (DP0771859) and the National Health and Medical Research Council (#459412, #635510)

Evolutionary models of the optical component of the LMC X-1/Star 32 binary system

Calculations carried out to model the evolution of Star 32 under different assumptions about the stellar wind mass-loss rate provide robust limits on the present mass of the star. The obtained range is 31 to 35.5 Msun, which is in very good agreement with the orbital solution of Orosz et al., namely 28.3 to 35.3 Msun. The initial mass of Star 32 had to be in the range 35 to 40 Msun and the present age of the system is 3.7 to 4.0 Myr.Comment: accepted for publication in MNRA

Cancer-Associated noncoding mutations affect RNA G-quadruplex-mediated regulation of gene expression

© 2017 The Author(s). Cancer is a multifactorial disease driven by a combination of genetic and environmental factors. Many cancer driver mutations have been characterised in protein-coding regions of the genome. However, mutations in noncoding regions associated with cancer have been less investigated. G-quadruplex (G4) nucleic acids are four-stranded secondary structures formed in guanine-rich sequences and prevalent in the regulatory regions. In this study, we used published whole cancer genome sequence data to find mutations in cancer patients that overlap potential RNA G4-forming sequences in 5ⲠUTRs. Using RNAfold, we assessed the effect of these mutations on the thermodynamic stability of predicted RNA G4s in the context of full-length 5ⲠUTRs. Of the 217 identified mutations, we found that 33 are predicted to destabilise and 21 predicted to stabilise potential RNA G4s. We experimentally validated the effect of destabilising mutations in the 5ⲠUTRs of BCL2 and CXCL14 and one stabilising mutation in the 5ⲠUTR of TAOK2. These mutations resulted in an increase or a decrease in translation of these mRNAs, respectively. These findings suggest that mutations that modulate the G4 stability in the noncoding regions could act as cancer driver mutations, which present an opportunity for early cancer diagnosis using individual sequencing information.Link_to_subscribed_fulltex

The atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) knockout mouse does not exhibit the phenotypic features of pre-eclampsia or demonstrate fetal growth restriction

The ANP knockout mouse is reported to exhibit pregnancy-associated hypertension, proteinuria and impaired placental trophoblast invasion and spiral artery remodeling, key features of pre-eclampsia (PE). We hypothesized that these mice may provide a relevant model of human PE with associated fetal growth restriction (FGR). Here, we investigated pregnancies of ANP wild type (ANP+/+), heterozygous (ANP+/-) and knockout (ANP−/-) mice. Maternal blood pressure did not differ between genotypes (E12.5, E17.5), and fetal weight (E18.5) was unaffected. Placental weight was greater in ANP−/− versus ANP+/+ mice. Therefore, in our hands, the ANP model does not express phenotypic features of PE with FGR

The Psychiatry Milestones 2.0: How Did We Get from 1.0 to 2.0 and What Can Users Expect?

Graduate medical education (GME) in psychiatry, like other medical specialties, has been transitioning to competency-based training and assessment. Competency-based medical education was born from a desire to certify physicians based on training outcomes, rather than training inputs such as the amount of time one spends in training [1]. The transition to a focus on training outcomes has been at least 25 years in the makin