Complete chloroplast genome of , an endemic fern in China.

is the only aquatic pteridophyte in China with high research value of phylogeny. It is in endangered status. A conservation strategy is therefore imperative for this endangered pteridophyte.

Oxidative stress induces imbalance of adipogenic/osteoblastic lineage commitment in mesenchymal stem cells through decreasing SIRT1 functions.

With rapidly ageing populations worldwide, the incidence of osteoporosis has reached epidemic proportions. Reactive oxygen species (ROS), a by-product of oxidative stress and ageing, has been thought to induce osteoporosis by inhibiting osteogenic differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). However, specific mechanisms of how ROS results in alterations on MSC differentiation capacity have been inconsistently reported.

Activation of mutant TERT promoter by RAS-ERK signaling is a key step in malignant progression of BRAF-mutant human melanomas.

Although activating BRAF/NRAS mutations are frequently seen in melanomas, they are not sufficient to drive malignant transformation and require additional events. Frequent co-occurrence of mutations in the promoter for telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT), along with BRAF alterations, has recently been noted and correlated with poorer prognosis, implicating a functional link between BRAF signaling and telomerase reactivation in melanomas. Here, we report that RAS-ERK signaling in BRAF mutant melanomas is critical for regulating active chromatin state and recruitment of RNA polymerase II at mutant TERT promoters.

Effect of oncogene activating mutations and kinase inhibitors on amino acid metabolism of human isogenic breast cancer cells.

We investigated the changes in amino acid (AA) metabolism induced in MCF10A, a human mammary epithelial cell line, by the sequential knock-in of K-Ras and PI3K mutant oncogenes. Differentially regulated genes associated to AA pathways were identified on comparing gene expression patterns in the isogenic cell lines. Additionally, we monitored the changes in the levels of AAs and transcripts in the cell lines treated with kinase inhibitors (REGO: a multi-kinase inhibitor, PI3K-i: a PI3K inhibitor, and MEK-i: a MEK inhibitor).

Non-canonical NF-κB signalling and ETS1/2 cooperatively drive C250T mutant TERT promoter activation.

Transcriptional reactivation of TERT, the catalytic subunit of telomerase, is necessary for cancer progression in about 90% of human cancers. The recent discovery of two prevalent somatic mutations-C250T and C228T-in the TERT promoter in various cancers has provided insight into a plausible mechanism of TERT reactivation. Although the two hotspot mutations create a similar binding motif for E-twenty-six (ETS) transcription factors, we show that they are functionally distinct, in that the C250T unlike the C228T TERT promoter is driven by non-canonical NF-κB signalling.