RESUMO
The genetic and molecular basis of flagellar motility has been investigated for several decades, with innovative research strategies propelling advances at a steady pace. Furthermore, as the phenomenon is examined in diverse bacteria, new taxon-specific regulatory and structural features are being elucidated. Motility is also a straightforward bacterial phenotype that can allow undergraduate researchers to explore the palette of molecular genetic tools available to microbiologists. This study, driven primarily by undergraduate researchers, evaluated hundreds of flagellar motility mutants in the Gram-negative plant-associated bacterium Agrobacterium fabrum. The nearly saturating screen implicates a total of 37 genes in flagellar biosynthesis, including genes of previously unknown function.
Assuntos
Agrobacterium , Proteínas de Bactérias , Proteínas de Bactérias/genética , Agrobacterium/genética , Flagelos/metabolismo , Regulação Bacteriana da Expressão GênicaRESUMO
Variants in the engulfment and cell motility 1 gene, ELMO1, have previously been associated with kidney disease attributed to type 2 diabetes. The Pima Indians of Arizona have high rates of diabetic nephropathy, which is strongly dependent on genetic determinants; thus, we sought to investigate the role of ELMO1 polymorphisms in mediating susceptibility to this disease in this population. Genotype distributions were compared among 141 individuals with nephropathy and 416 individuals without heavy proteinuria in a family study of 257 sibships, and 107 cases with diabetic ESRD and 108 controls with long duration diabetes and no nephropathy. We sequenced 17.4 kb of ELMO1 and identified 19 variants. We genotyped 12 markers, excluding those in 100% genotypic concordance with other variants or with a minor allele frequency <0.05, plus 21 additional markers showing association with ESRD in earlier studies. In the family study, the strongest evidence for association was with rs1345365 (odds ratio [OR]=2.42 per copy of A allele [1.35-4.32]; P=0.001) and rs10951509 (OR=2.42 per copy of A allele [1.31-4.48]; P=0.002), both of which are located in intron 13 and are in strong pairwise linkage disequilibrium (r(2)=0.97). These associations were in the opposite direction from those observed in African Americans, which suggests that the relationship between diabetic kidney disease and ELMO1 variation may involve as yet undiscovered functional variants or complex interactions with other biological variables.
Assuntos
Proteínas Adaptadoras de Transdução de Sinal/genética , Nefropatias Diabéticas/genética , Indígenas Norte-Americanos/genética , Adulto , Idoso , Diabetes Mellitus Tipo 2/genética , Nefropatias Diabéticas/etnologia , Feminino , Predisposição Genética para Doença , Variação Genética , Genótipo , Humanos , Falência Renal Crônica/genética , Masculino , Pessoa de Meia-Idade , Polimorfismo de Nucleotídeo Único , Análise de Sequência de DNARESUMO
Much of the knowledge regarding the regulatory pathways for adult stem cell self-renewal and differentiation has been obtained from the results of in vitro cultures. However, it is unclear if adult stem cells are controlled in the same way under physiological conditions. We examined this issue with respect to the migration of stem cells to tissue injury and how switch from a migratory state to one of proliferation wherein they participate in development. Building on our previous identification of multipotent stem cells in trabecular bone, we have examined the in vitro behavior of these cells within the bone milieu. We found that cell proliferation is inhibited within the trabecular bone niche as cells migrate out of the trabecular bone prior to proliferation. Additionally, multiple cell types were detected in adult trabecular bone, including osteoblasts, osteoclasts, endothelial cells, and Stro-1-positive mesenchymal stem cells. Furthermore, we demonstrated that Stro-1-positive cells migrated out of their native bone niche to generate multipotential stem and progenitor cells during in vitro culture. We conclude that self-renewal and differentiation of adult stem cells in connective tissues are tightly controlled and separately orchestrated processes. A regulatory network of extrinsic factors and intrinsic signals acts to stimulate the exit of stem cells from their niche so that they can localize to sites of wound healing, where they participate in development after functional differentiation.
