SARS-CoV-2 susceptibility and COVID-19 disease severity are associated with genetic variants affecting gene expression in a variety of tissues

Variability in SARS-CoV-2 susceptibility and COVID-19 disease severity between individuals is partly due to genetic factors. Here, we identify 4 genomic loci with suggestive associations for SARS-CoV-2 susceptibility and 19 for COVID-19 disease severity. Four of these 23 loci likely have an ethnicity-specific component. Genome-wide association study (GWAS) signals in 11 loci colocalize with expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs) associated with the expression of 20 genes in 62 tissues/cell types (range: 1:43 tissues/gene), including lung, brain, heart, muscle, and skin as well as the digestive system and immune system. We perform genetic fine mapping to compute 99% credible SNP sets, which identify 10 GWAS loci that have eight or fewer SNPs in the credible set, including three loci with one single likely causal SNP. Our study suggests that the diverse symptoms and disease severity of COVID-19 observed between individuals is associated with variants across the genome, affecting gene expression levels in a wide variety of tissue types

A first update on mapping the human genetic architecture of COVID-19

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Changes of Biochemical Components Contents and Gene Expression Profiles in Tissues of Litopenaeus vannamei During Spermatophore Regeneration

Spermatophore regeneration is an important biological process in Litopenaeus vannamei. In this study, changes of biochemical components contents during spermatophore regeneration showed that in hemolymph, the glucose content significantly increased from day 2 to day 8 and then decreased from day 10 to day 12; triglyceride (TG) and total cholesterol (TC) contents were relatively stable. In the hepatopancreas, glucose, and TG contents significantly decreased during regeneration; TC contents significantly increased at day 4 and then decreased. In the testes, glucose content significantly increased while TC content significantly decreased during whole stage; TG content at day 4 was highest. In terminal ampoule, changes of glucose and TC contents were similar, the contents at day 4 were highest; TG content at day 6 was significantly lower than day 2. During spermatophore regeneration, expression level of pyruvate kinase (PK) was significantly higher during day 2 to day 4 than at other times, and expression levels of three lipogenesis-related genes diacylglycerol O-acyltransferase homolog 1 (DGAT1), sterol regulatory element-binding protein 1 (SREBP1) and sterol O-acyltransferase 2 (SOAT2) were significantly higher during day 2 to day 8 than at other times. The results indicated that the hepatopancreas could be the energy source that provides glucose and TG; glucose, TG, and TC play important roles in spermatophore regeneratio

A coupled thermal-mechanical analysis of a mould-billet system during continuous casting

The three-dimensional (3-D) thermal-mechanical behavior of a mold-billet system under actual casting conditions is investigated with an FE approach, taking into account the main influencing factors, such as solidification heat, latent heat released during phase transformation, heat transfer, as well as the interaction between the moving billet and the mold. It is based on the coupled thermal-mechanical analysis for the whole mold-billet system, instead of analyzing the thermal-mechanical behavior of the mold and the billet individually, as is often used in practice. Comparison shows that the former approach can provide satisfactory results without making use of the empirical estimation of the heat flux through the inboard surface of the mold based on the difference between the temperature of inlet and outlet cooling water at steady-state and the temperature distribution near the surface of the inboard plate measured experimentally, which are usually necessarily required for the latter approach to be applied in practice

COVID-19 Host Genetics Initiative. A first update on mapping the human genetic architecture of COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to pose a major public health threat, especially in countries with low vaccination rates. To better understand the biological underpinnings of SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 severity, we formed the COVID-19 Host Genetics Initiative1. Here we present a genome-wide association study meta-analysis of up to 125,584 cases and over 2.5 million control individuals across 60 studies from 25 countries, adding 11 genome-wide significant loci compared with those previously identified2. Genes at new loci, including SFTPD, MUC5B and ACE2, reveal compelling insights regarding disease susceptibility and severity.</p