Gene and miRNA expression profiles in PBMCs from patients with severe and mild emphysema and PiZZ alpha1-antitrypsin deficiency.

Introduction: COPD has complex etiologies involving both genetic and environmental determinants. Among genetic determinants, the most recognized is a severe PiZZ (Glu342Lys) inherited alpha1-antitrypsin deficiency (AATD). Nonetheless, AATD patients present a heterogeneous clinical evolution, which has not been completely explained by sociodemographic or clinical factors.

Recent updates and developments to plant genome size databases.

Two plant genome size databases have been recently updated and/or extended: the Plant DNA C-values database (http://data.kew.org/cvalues), and GSAD, the Genome Size in Asteraceae database (http://www.

The relationship between gene isoform multiplicity, number of exons and protein divergence.

At present we know that phenotypic differences between organisms arise from a variety of sources, like protein sequence divergence, regulatory sequence divergence, alternative splicing, etc. However, we do not have yet a complete view of how these sources are related. Here we address this problem, studying the relationship between protein divergence and the ability of genes to express multiple isoforms.

Characterization of structural variability sheds light on the specificity determinants of the interaction between effector domains and histone tails.

Structural characterization of the interaction between histone tails and effector modules (bromodomains, chromodomains, PHD fingers, etc.) is fundamental to understand the mechanistic aspects of epigenetic regulation of gene expression. In recent years many researchers have applied this approach to specific systems, thus providing a valuable but fragmentary view of the histone-effector interaction.