The genome of the colonial hydroid Hydractinia reveals that their stem cells use a toolkit of evolutionarily shared genes with all animals.

Hydractinia is a colonial marine hydroid that shows remarkable biological properties, including the capacity to regenerate its entire body throughout its lifetime, a process made possible by its adult migratory stem cells, known as i-cells. Here, we provide an in-depth characterization of the genomic structure and gene content of two Hydractinia species, Hydractinia symbiolongicarpus and Hydractinia echinata, placing them in a comparative evolutionary framework with other cnidarian genomes. We also generated and annotated a single-cell transcriptomic atlas for adult male H. symbiolongicarpus and identified cell-type markers for all major cell types, including key i-cell markers. Orthology analyses based on the markers revealed that Hydractinia's i-cells are highly enriched in genes that are widely shared amongst animals, a striking finding given that Hydractinia has a higher proportion of phylum-specific genes than any of the other 41 animals in our orthology analysis. These results indicate that Hydractinia's stem cells and early progenitor cells may use a toolkit shared with all animals, making it a promising model organism for future exploration of stem cell biology and regenerative medicine. The genomic and transcriptomic resources for Hydractinia presented here will enable further studies of their regenerative capacity, colonial morphology, and ability to distinguish self from nonself.

Slow Release of GA3 Hormone from Polymer Coating Overcomes Seed Dormancy and Improves Germination.

Seed dormancy often hinders direct seeding efforts that are attempting to restore degraded landscapes. Gibberellic acid (GA3) can be applied to physiologically dormant seeds to induce germination, but this hormone is rarely effective, as it can degrade or be leached from the seed. We tested different polymer matrixes (polylactic acid, polyvinylpyrrolidone, and ethylcellulose) to apply and slowly release GA3 to the seed. These polymers were tested as seed coatings in either a powder, liquid, or a combination of powder and liquid forms. We found that a liquid ethylcellulose/GA3 coating generally outperformed the other polymers and applications methods using our test species Penstemon palmeri. With this top-performing treatment, seed germination was 3.0- and 3.9-fold higher at 15 °C and 25 °C, respectively. We also evaluated the liquid ethylcellulose/GA3 coating on P. comharrenus, P. strictus, P. pachyphyllus, and P. eatonii. Again, the coating had a strong treatment response, with the degree of difference related to the relative level of dormancy of the species. Growth studies were also performed in pots to ensure that the side effects of GA3 overdosing were not present. Here, we found minimal differences in root length, shoot length, or biomass between plants grown from untreated and GA3-coated seeds.

The genome of the colonial hydroid Hydractinia reveals their stem cells utilize a toolkit of evolutionarily shared genes with all animals.

Hydractinia is a colonial marine hydroid that exhibits remarkable biological properties, including the capacity to regenerate its entire body throughout its lifetime, a process made possible by its adult migratory stem cells, known as i-cells. Here, we provide an in-depth characterization of the genomic structure and gene content of two Hydractinia species, H. symbiolongicarpus and H. echinata, placing them in a comparative evolutionary framework with other cnidarian genomes. We also generated and annotated a single-cell transcriptomic atlas for adult male H. symbiolongicarpus and identified cell type markers for all major cell types, including key i-cell markers. Orthology analyses based on the markers revealed that Hydractinia's i-cells are highly enriched in genes that are widely shared amongst animals, a striking finding given that Hydractinia has a higher proportion of phylum-specific genes than any of the other 41 animals in our orthology analysis. These results indicate that Hydractinia's stem cells and early progenitor cells may use a toolkit shared with all animals, making it a promising model organism for future exploration of stem cell biology and regenerative medicine. The genomic and transcriptomic resources for Hydractinia presented here will enable further studies of their regenerative capacity, colonial morphology, and ability to distinguish self from non-self.

Race and smoking status associated with paclitaxel drug response in patient-derived lymphoblastoid cell lines.

The use of ex-vivo model systems to provide a level of forecasting for in-vivo characteristics remains an important need for cancer therapeutics. The use of lymphoblastoid cell lines (LCLs) is an attractive approach for pharmacogenomics and toxicogenomics, due to their scalability, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness. There is little data on the impact of demographic or clinical covariates on LCL response to chemotherapy. Paclitaxel sensitivity was determined in LCLs from 93 breast cancer patients from the University of North Carolina Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center Breast Cancer Database to test for potential associations and/or confounders in paclitaxel dose-response assays. Measures of paclitaxel cell viability were associated with patient data included treatment regimens, cancer status, demographic and environmental variables, and clinical outcomes. We used multivariate analysis of variance to identify the in-vivo variables associated with ex-vivo dose-response. In this unique dataset that includes both in-vivo and ex-vivo data from breast cancer patients, race (P = 0.0049) and smoking status (P = 0.0050) were found to be significantly associated with ex-vivo dose-response in LCLs. Racial differences in clinical dose-response have been previously described, but the smoking association has not been reported. Our results indicate that in-vivo smoking status can influence ex-vivo dose-response in LCLs, and more precise measures of covariates may allow for more precise forecasting of clinical effect. In addition, understanding the mechanism by which exposure to smoking in-vivo effects ex-vivo dose-response in LCLs may open up new avenues in the quest for better therapeutic prediction.

Plexiform fibromyxoma with cotyledon-like serosal growth: A case report of a rare gastric tumor and review of the literature.

Plexiform fibromyxoma is a rare, benign mesenchymal neoplasm that predilects the gastric antrum and has potential for misdiagnosis as a gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST). The histology of the tumor is characterized by interwoven fascicular growth of cytologically bland spindled cells within a variably myxoid stroma. The current study reports the clinicopathological and immunohistochemical findings of a plexiform fibromyxoma resected from a 28-year-old Vietnamese female. The patient presented with acute, severe abdominal pain and worsening anemia. The initial fine-needle aspiration and needle core biopsy of the gastric antral mass led to an initial diagnosis of GIST. The subsequent distal partial gastrectomy revealed a 5.5-cm transmural antral mass that ulcerated the overlying mucosa and grew as variably elongated, myxoedematous, polypoid (cotyledon-like) excrescences from the serosal surface. Microscopically, the tumor demonstrated plexiform and multinodular growth of cytologically bland spindled cells proliferating in an abundant myxocollagenous stroma with a prominent capillary network. Tumor cells immunohistochemically expressed smooth muscle actin and CD10, but did not express CD117, Discovered on GIST-1 or nuclear ß-catenin. Follow-up evaluation 23 months post surgery revealed no evidence of residual tumor. A review the cases of this rare entity reported in the English language literature is also provided.

Case Report of Autopsy and Placental Examination After Radiofrequency Ablation of an Acardiac Twin.

We report the autopsy and placental findings in a monochorionic twin gestation complicated by twin reversed arterial perfusion (TRAP) sequence. Radiofrequency ablation (RFA) was performed at 24 weeks gestation to abort the acardiac fetus, and vaginal delivery of the co-twin and acardiac fetus occurred at 33 weeks gestation. An autopsy of the acardiac fetus revealed multiple congenital anomalies including complete absence of the upper extremities and poor development of the skull and facial structures. In contrast to the upper body, the lower half of the body, although malformed, was more developed. The monochorionic twin placenta showed velamentous, atrophied, proximal artery-artery and vein-vein intertwin vascular connections which essentially bypassed the placental parenchyma for the acardiac fetus. Ink injection and histologic examination confirmed thrombosis of these critical intertwin vascular connections after RFA. This report highlights the fetal and placental anatomy of TRAP sequence and stresses the importance of placental examination after fetal surgical techniques.