The YEATS domain of Taf14 in Saccharomyces cerevisiae has a negative impact on cell growth

The role of a highly conserved YEATS protein motif is explored in the context of the Taf14 protein of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. In S. cerevisiae, Taf14 is a protein physically associated with many critical multisubunit complexes including the general transcription factors TFIID and TFIIF, the chromatin remodeling complexes SWI/SNF, Ino80 and RSC, Mediator and the histone modification enzyme NuA3. Taf14 is a member of the YEATS superfamily, conserved from bacteria to eukaryotes and thought to have a transcription stimulatory activity. However, besides its ubiquitous presence and its links with transcription, little is known about Taf14’s role in the nucleus. We use structure–function and mutational analysis to study the function of Taf14 and its well conserved N-terminal YEATS domain. We show here that the YEATS domain is not necessary for Taf14’s association with these transcription and chromatin remodeling complexes, and that its presence in these complexes is dependent only on its C-terminal domain. Our results also indicate that Taf14’s YEATS domain is not necessary for complementing the synthetic lethality between TAF14 and the general transcription factor TFIIS (encoded by DST1). Furthermore, we present evidence that the YEATS domain of Taf14 has a negative impact on cell growth: its absence enables cells to grow better than wild-type cells under stress conditions, like the microtubule destabilizing drug benomyl. Moreover, cells expressing solely the YEATS domain grow worser than cells expressing any other Taf14 construct tested, including the deletion mutant. Thus, this highly conserved domain should be considered part of a negative regulatory loop in cell growth

Identification of progressive mild cognitive impairment patients using incomplete longitudinal MRI scans

Distinguishing progressive mild cognitive impairment (pMCI) from stable mild cognitive impairment (sMCI) is critical for identification of patients who are at-risk for Alzheimer’s disease (AD), so that early treatment can be administered. In this paper, we propose a pMCI/sMCI classification framework that harnesses information available in longitudinal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data, which could be incomplete, to improve diagnostic accuracy. Volumetric features were first extracted from the baseline MRI scan and subsequent scans acquired after 6, 12, and 18 months. Dynamic features were then obtained by using the 18th-month scan as the reference and computing the ratios of feature differences for the earlier scans. Features that are linearly or non-linearly correlated with diagnostic labels are then selected using two elastic net sparse learning algorithms. Missing feature values due to the incomplete longitudinal data are imputed using a low-rank matrix completion method. Finally, based on the completed feature matrix, we build a multi-kernel support vector machine (mkSVM) to predict the diagnostic label of samples with unknown diagnostic statuses. Our evaluation indicates that a diagnosis accuracy as high as 78.2% can be achieved when information from the longitudinal scans is used – 6.6% higher than the case using only the reference time point image. In other words, information provided by the longitudinal history of the disease improves diagnosis accuracy

Extraneural Sclerosing Perineurioma of the Buccal Mucosa: A Case Report and Clinicopathologic Review

The perineurioma is an infrequently encountered benign peripheral nerve sheath tumor composed of a clonal proliferation of perineurial cells. Rare cases of perineurioma have been reported in the oral cavity. An extraneural sclerosing perineurioma arising in the buccal mucosa of a 17-year-old male is presented. Histopathologically, the tumor is composed of a well circumscribed nodular proliferation of spindle cells arranged in a storiform growth pattern, in some areas subtly arranged around vascular channels. The tumor cells reveal positive immunostaining for epithelial membrane antigen (EMA), collagen type IV and vimentin, and negative immunostaining for S-100 protein, consistent with a perineurial origin. To the best of our knowledge, this case represents the first report of an extraneural sclerosing perineurioma involving the oral cavity