The upregulation of cognate and inducible heat shock proteins in the anoxic turtle brain.

Because heat shock proteins (HSPs) have an important protective function against ischemia/anoxia in mammalian brain, the authors investigated the expression of Hsp72 and Hsc73 in the anoxia-surviving turtle brain. Unlike the mammalian brain, high levels of Hsp72 were found in the normoxic turtle brain. Hsp72 levels were significantly increased by 4 hours of anoxia, remained constant until 8 hours, and then decreased to baseline at 12 hours.

Gene transcription of brain voltage-gated potassium channels is reversibly regulated by oxygen supply.

Voltage-dependent potassium channels (Kv channels) are important determinants of brain electrical activity. Hypoxia may be an important modifier, because several voltage-gated K+ channels are reversibly blocked by acute hypoxia and are thought to act as oxygen sensors. Here we show, using the anoxia-tolerant turtle brain (Trachemys scripta) as a model, that brain Kv1 channel transcription is reversibly regulated by oxygen supply.

Down's syndrome-associated single minded gene as a novel tumor marker.

The Cancer Genome Anatomy Project (CGAP) database has thousands of Expressed Sequence Tags encompassing both known and novel genes. Bioinformatics of the CGAP database led to the prediction that Single Minded Gene (sim2) could be specific to colon tumors. The sim2 gene is located in a minimum region of the chromosome 21 often implicated in trisomia called Down's Syndrome Critical Region.

Bioinformatics-based discovery of a novel factor with apparent specificity to colon cancer.

In a previous study, a data mining tool called Digital Differential Display (DDD) from the Cancer Genome Anatomy Project (CGAP) was used to predict solid tumor- and organ-specific genes from the expressed sequence tag (EST) database. To validate the use of bioinformatics approaches in gene discovery, one of the ESTs, which was predicted to be colon tumor-specific, was chosen for further study. Reverse Transcriptase-Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) analysis of matched sets of cDNAs from normal and colon tumor tissues indicated that the EST was specifically expressed in the majority of colon tumors.