Published in GigaScience
Everyone loves the birds of the world. From their haunting songs and majesty of flight to dazzling plumage and mating rituals, bird watchers – both amateurs and professionals - have marveled for centuries at their considerable adaptations. Now, we are offered a special treat with the publication of a series of papers in dedicated issues of Science,...
Published in BMC Immunology
BackgroundTo understand the role of genetic factors on chromosome 1 in the regulation of spontaneous arthritis in mice deficient in IL-1 receptor antagonist protein (IL_1RA), we previously used speed congenic breeding to transfer the QTL region from DBA/1−/− mice that are resistant to spontaneous arthritis into BALB/c−/− mice which are susceptible....
Published in British journal of pharmacology
The finding that the voltage-dependence of inactivation and the pharmacology of Kv 1.5 + Kv β1.3 channels after PKC inhibition resembled that observed in Kv 1.5 channels suggests that both processes are dependent on PKC-mediated phosphorylation. These results may have clinical relevance in diseases that are characterized by alterations in kinase ac...
Published in Cold Spring Harbor perspectives in biology
The trithorax group of genes (trxG) was identified in mutational screens that examined developmental phenotypes and suppression of Polycomb mutant phenotypes. The protein products of these genes are primarily involved in gene activation, although some can also have repressive effects. There is no central function for these proteins. Some move nucle...
Published in Science (New York, N.Y.)
For proper development, cells must retain patterns of gene expression and repression through cell division. Repression via methylation of histone H3 on Lys27 (H3K27me) by Polycomb repressive complex 2 (PRC2) is conserved, but its transmission is not well understood. Our studies suggest that PRC2 represses the X chromosomes in Caenorhabditis elegans...
Published in Cell reports
The identification of cell types of origin for cancer has important implications for tumor stratification and personalized treatment. For prostate cancer, the cell of origin has been intensively studied, but it has remained unclear whether basal or luminal epithelial cells, or both, represent cells of origin under physiological conditions in vivo. ...
Published in Stem cell reports
WNT signaling stimulates the self-renewal of many types of adult stem cells, including mammary stem cells (MaSCs), but mechanisms that limit this activity are poorly understood. Here, we demonstrate that SLIT2 restricts stem cell renewal by signaling through ROBO2 in a subset of basal cells to negatively regulate WNT signaling. The absence of SLIT/...
Published in Nature
Genome function is dynamically regulated in part by chromatin, which consists of the histones, non-histone proteins and RNA molecules that package DNA. Studies in Caenorhabditis elegans and Drosophila melanogaster have contributed substantially to our understanding of molecular mechanisms of genome function in humans, and have revealed conservation...
Published in Nature
Haematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) self-renew for life, thereby making them one of the few blood cells that truly age. Paradoxically, although HSCs numerically expand with age, their functional activity declines over time, resulting in degraded blood production and impaired engraftment following transplantation. While many drivers of HSC ageing have ...
Published in Cell
Recent genomic analyses of pathologically defined tumor types identify "within-a-tissue" disease subtypes. However, the extent to which genomic signatures are shared across tissues is still unclear. We performed an integrative analysis using five genome-wide platforms and one proteomic platform on 3,527 specimens from 12 cancer types, revealing a u...
