Genetic findings in Czech patients with limb girdle muscular dystrophy.

Limb girdle muscular dystrophies (LGMD) are a genetically heterogeneous group of muscular dystrophies. The study presents an overview of molecular characteristics of a large cohort of LGMD patients who are representative of the Czech LGMD population. We present 226 LGMD probands in which 433 mutant alleles carrying 157 different variants with a supposed pathogenic effect were identified.

A founder pathogenic variant resulting in autosomal recessive Alport syndrome accounts for most genetic kidney failure in Romani people.

Introduction: Romani people have a high prevalence of kidney failure. This study examined a Romani cohort for pathogenic variants in the , and genes that are affected in Alport syndrome (AS), a common cause of genetic kidney disease, characterized by hematuria, proteinuria, end-stage kidney failure, hearing loss, and eye anomalies.

Materials And Methods: The study included 57 Romani from different families with clinical features that suggested AS who underwent next-generation sequencing (NGS) of the genes, and 83 family members.

Radiotherapy and radiosensitivity syndromes in DNA repair gene mutations.

Background: Ionizing radiation DNA damage is the main mechanism of radiotherapy (RT) action and the outcome of treatment and healthy tissue toxicity is influenced by a number of external and internal factors, including mutations in DNA damage recognition and repair. Disorders of DNA repair may result in increased sensitivity to cancer treatment.

Purpose: The mechanism of DNA repair and an overview of genetic syndromes with mutations in genes involved in DNA repair clarify the accelerated carcinogenesis and increased radiosensitivity in RT cancers.

Ten millennia of hepatitis B virus evolution.

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) has been infecting humans for millennia and remains a global health problem, but its past diversity and dispersal routes are largely unknown. We generated HBV genomic data from 137 Eurasians and Native Americans dated between ~10,500 and ~400 years ago. We date the most recent common ancestor of all HBV lineages to between ~20,000 and 12,000 years ago, with the virus present in European and South American hunter-gatherers during the early Holocene.

Dynamic changes in genomic and social structures in third millennium BCE central Europe.

Europe's prehistory oversaw dynamic and complex interactions of diverse societies, hitherto unexplored at detailed regional scales. Studying 271 human genomes dated ~4900 to 1600 BCE from the European heartland, Bohemia, we reveal unprecedented genetic changes and social processes. Major migrations preceded the arrival of "steppe" ancestry, and at ~2800 BCE, three genetically and culturally differentiated groups coexisted.