All current categorizations of human population, such as ethnicity, ancestry and race, are based on various selections and combinations of complex and dynamic common characteristics, that are mostly societal and cultural in nature, perceived by the members within or from outside of the categorized group. During the last decade, a massive amount of a new type of characteristics, that are exclusively genomic in nature, became available that allows us to analyze the inherited whole-genome demographics of extant human, especially in the fields such as human genetics, health sciences and medical practices (e.g.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe DAMA/LIBRA collaboration has reported the observation of an annual modulation in the event rate that has been attributed to dark matter interactions over the last two decades. However, even though tremendous efforts to detect similar dark matter interactions were pursued, no definitive evidence has been observed to corroborate the DAMA/LIBRA signal. Many studies assuming various dark matter models have attempted to reconcile DAMA/LIBRA's modulation signals and null results from other experiments, however no clear conclusion can be drawn.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPeriodontitis is caused by an oral microbial dysbiosis-mediated imbalance of the local immune microenvironment, which is promoted by insulin resistance and obesity. The prevalence and severity of periodontitis is higher in patients with type 2 diabetes than in healthy individuals, possibly because of differences in immune responses. The level of glycemic control also affects the saliva profile, which may further promote periodontal disease in diabetes patients.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFProc Natl Acad Sci U S A
December 2020
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A
February 2020
An organism tree of life (organism ToL) is a conceptual and metaphorical tree to capture a simplified narrative of the evolutionary course and kinship among the extant organisms. Such a tree cannot be experimentally validated but may be reconstructed based on characteristics associated with the organisms. Since the whole-genome sequence of an organism is, at present, the most comprehensive descriptor of the organism, a whole-genome sequence-based ToL can be an empirically derivable surrogate for the organism ToL.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFungi belong to one of the largest and most diverse kingdoms of living organisms. The evolutionary kinship within a fungal population has so far been inferred mostly from the gene-information-based trees ("gene trees"), constructed commonly based on the degree of differences of proteins or DNA sequences of a small number of highly conserved genes common among the population by a multiple sequence alignment (MSA) method. Since each gene evolves under different evolutionary pressure and time scale, it has been known that one gene tree for a population may differ from other gene trees for the same population depending on the subjective selection of the genes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Circulating cell-free DNA (cfDNA) is emerging as a surrogate sample type for mutation analyses. To improve the clinical utility of cfDNA, we developed a sensitive peptide nucleic acid (PNA)-based method for analyzing EGFR and KRAS mutations in the plasma cfDNA of patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
Methods: Baseline tissue and plasma samples were collected from treatment-naïve advanced NSCLC patients participated in a randomized phase II study, which was registered with ClinicalTrials.
The detection of antiviral-resistant hepatitis B virus (HBV) mutations is important for monitoring the response to treatment and for effective treatment decisions. We have developed an array using peptide nucleic acid (PNA) probes to detect point mutations in HBV associated with antiviral resistance. PNA probes were designed to detect mutations associated with resistance to lamivudine, adefovir, and entecavir.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Microbiol Biotechnol
February 2010
Reliable discrimination of single nucleotide mismatch was demonstrated using arrays with peptide nucleic acid (PNA) probes. Newly developed PNA probes immobilization method and hybridization conditions for PNA arrays gave excellent specificity and sensitivity. And we compared the specificity, sensitivity, and stability obtained with the PNA and DNA arrays in discriminating single nucleotide mismatches.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe describe a novel array for accurate and reliable genotyping of human papillomavirus (HPV) using peptide nucleic acid (PNA) probes. In order to exploit the superior hybridization properties of PNA with target HPV DNAs, we developed a novel PNA array (PANArray HPV). PANArray HPV enables the detection and genotyping of HPVs using 32 type-specific PNA capture probes for medically important HPVs.
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