Mineralogical studies of lunar meteorite Yamato-793169, a mare basalt

A preliminary mineralogical study of the lunar meteorites Yamato (Y)-793169 and Asuka (A)-881757,which were apparently derived from a mare region of the Moon, has been performed to identify crystallization trends of their pyroxenes. Y-793169 is a crystalline basalt with similar basaltic components to lunar breccias EET87521 and Y-793274,containing strongly zoned Fe-Ca-rich pyroxenes. Their zoning trends in the pyroxene quadrilateral are closest to those found in the basaltic clast in an Apollo 16 breccia. Differentiation trends expressed by Ti/(Ti+Cr) versus Fe/(Fe+Mg) of Y-793169 and A-881757 pyroxenes are similar but they differ from those of EET87521. The Y-793169 trend starts at a more Mg-rich composition point than the A-881757 trend. Based on differences in textures and ranges of zoning trends, the pyroxene of A-881757 could represent growth deeper in the lava unit under conditions more closely approaching equilibrium, than Y-793169,which appears to have formed from a lava flow of similar bulk composition. Although Y-793169 has been described as the VLT basalt, some mesostases contain significant amounts of ilmenite and ulvospinel, together with fayalite, troilite, chromite and a silica mineral. Mg-rich pyroxenes as found in Y-793274 and EET87521 are not present in Y-793169 and A-881757 basalts

Mineralogy of Yamato-791192, HED breccia and relationship between cumulate eucrites and ordinary eucrites

Cumulate eucrites and noncumulate (ordinary) eucrites are considered to have come from one (or similar) parent body and to have formed the crust of the Vesta-like asteroid. However, their relationship is not well established as to whether they have crystallized in a different magma or have differentiated within the same magma. We studied mineralogically Yamato-791192,which is a unique HED breccia with abundant cumulate eucrite and a rare ordinary eucrite clasts. The characteristics of pyroxene suggest that the polymict breccia was generated by gathering locally ordinary eucrites and cumulate eucrites. On the other hand, the Fe/Mg distribution shows that the liquid coexisting with most cumulate eucrites was too Fe-rich (mg [=Mg/ (Mg+Fe) atomic ratio]=0.25-0.30) to have crystallized as ordinary eucrites (mg=0.35-0.40). We also applied the liquid trapping model of fractional crystallization and calculate the change of mg of liquid and solid during fractional crystallization. This calculation suggests that if the cumulates include a large amount of residual liquid (40-50%), a cumulate eucrite (mg=0.50-0.55) could crystallize from ordinary eucritic liquid (mg=0.35-0.40). In conclusion, cumulate eucrites probably crystallized directly from slightly evolved liquid, or they are produced by fractional crystallization with a large amount of trapped liquid

The whole blood transcriptional regulation landscape in 465 COVID-19 infected samples from Japan COVID-19 Task Force

「コロナ制圧タスクフォース」COVID-19患者由来の血液細胞における遺伝子発現の網羅的解析 --重症度に応じた遺伝子発現の変化には、ヒトゲノム配列の個人差が影響する--. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2022-08-23.Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a recently-emerged infectious disease that has caused millions of deaths, where comprehensive understanding of disease mechanisms is still unestablished. In particular, studies of gene expression dynamics and regulation landscape in COVID-19 infected individuals are limited. Here, we report on a thorough analysis of whole blood RNA-seq data from 465 genotyped samples from the Japan COVID-19 Task Force, including 359 severe and 106 non-severe COVID-19 cases. We discover 1169 putative causal expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs) including 34 possible colocalizations with biobank fine-mapping results of hematopoietic traits in a Japanese population, 1549 putative causal splice QTLs (sQTLs; e.g. two independent sQTLs at TOR1AIP1), as well as biologically interpretable trans-eQTL examples (e.g., REST and STING1), all fine-mapped at single variant resolution. We perform differential gene expression analysis to elucidate 198 genes with increased expression in severe COVID-19 cases and enriched for innate immune-related functions. Finally, we evaluate the limited but non-zero effect of COVID-19 phenotype on eQTL discovery, and highlight the presence of COVID-19 severity-interaction eQTLs (ieQTLs; e.g., CLEC4C and MYBL2). Our study provides a comprehensive catalog of whole blood regulatory variants in Japanese, as well as a reference for transcriptional landscapes in response to COVID-19 infection

DOCK2 is involved in the host genetics and biology of severe COVID-19

「コロナ制圧タスクフォース」COVID-19疾患感受性遺伝子DOCK2の重症化機序を解明 --アジア最大のバイオレポジトリーでCOVID-19の治療標的を発見--. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2022-08-10.Identifying the host genetic factors underlying severe COVID-19 is an emerging challenge. Here we conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) involving 2, 393 cases of COVID-19 in a cohort of Japanese individuals collected during the initial waves of the pandemic, with 3, 289 unaffected controls. We identified a variant on chromosome 5 at 5q35 (rs60200309-A), close to the dedicator of cytokinesis 2 gene (DOCK2), which was associated with severe COVID-19 in patients less than 65 years of age. This risk allele was prevalent in East Asian individuals but rare in Europeans, highlighting the value of genome-wide association studies in non-European populations. RNA-sequencing analysis of 473 bulk peripheral blood samples identified decreased expression of DOCK2 associated with the risk allele in these younger patients. DOCK2 expression was suppressed in patients with severe cases of COVID-19. Single-cell RNA-sequencing analysis (n = 61 individuals) identified cell-type-specific downregulation of DOCK2 and a COVID-19-specific decreasing effect of the risk allele on DOCK2 expression in non-classical monocytes. Immunohistochemistry of lung specimens from patients with severe COVID-19 pneumonia showed suppressed DOCK2 expression. Moreover, inhibition of DOCK2 function with CPYPP increased the severity of pneumonia in a Syrian hamster model of SARS-CoV-2 infection, characterized by weight loss, lung oedema, enhanced viral loads, impaired macrophage recruitment and dysregulated type I interferon responses. We conclude that DOCK2 has an important role in the host immune response to SARS-CoV-2 infection and the development of severe COVID-19, and could be further explored as a potential biomarker and/or therapeutic target

マグマ分子モデルからみたユ-クライト隕石の起源について

University of Tokyo (東京大学