The WFDC1 gene is frequently down-regulated or lost in prostate cancer, and the encoded protein, ps20, has been implicated in epithelial cell behaviour and angiogenesis. However, ps20 remains largely uncharacterised with respect to its structure and interacting partners. This study characterised the evolution, functionality and structural characteristics of WFDC1/ps20 using phylogenetic reconstruction and other computational approaches. Bayesian phylogenetic analyses suggested that ps20 appeared in a common ancestor of deuterostomes-protostomes. The rate of evolutionary change within the coding regions of vertebrate WFDC1 genes and the synteny conservation in mammals differed from that of other vertebrate clades, indicating a possible functional diversity of ps20 homologues. A gene set enrichment analysis of the genes around WFDC1 (conserved synteny) showed functional relationships between the WFDC1, CDH13, CRISPLD2, IRF8 and TFPI2 genes. The molecular evolution of ps20 has been driven by purifying selection, particularly in the segments corresponding to exons 3 and 4, which encode the most conserved regions of the protein. A co-evolution analysis showed that residues within these regions co-vary with each other during the evolution of ps20. These results show that the regions corresponding to exons 3 and 4 are ps20-specific structure-function modules. Homology modelling of the exon 2-encoded polypeptide and subsequent dynamics calculus using a Gaussian network model showed that residues with high conformational flexibility are part of a loop region involved in protein-protein recognition, given the similarity with other serine protease inhibitors. Residues C96, R94, L105, and C66 are critical for the integrity and functionality of this ps20 region.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.gene.2018.10.046 | DOI Listing |
N Engl J Med
January 2025
From Médecins Sans Frontières (L.G., F.V.), Sorbonne Université, INSERM Unité 1135, Centre d'Immunologie et des Maladies Infectieuses (L.G.), Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris, Groupe Hospitalier Universitaire Sorbonne Université, Hôpital Pitié-Salpêtrière, Centre National de Référence des Mycobactéries et de la Résistance des Mycobactéries aux Antituberculeux (L.G.), and Epicentre (M.G., E. Baudin), Paris, and Translational Research on HIV and Endemic and Emerging Infectious Diseases, Montpellier Université de Montpellier, Montpellier, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, Montpellier, INSERM, Montpellier (M.B.) - all in France; Interactive Development and Research, Singapore (U.K.); McGill University, Epidemiology, Biostatistics, and Occupational Health, Montreal (U.K.); UCSF Center for Tuberculosis (G.E.V., P.N., P.P.J.P.) and the Division of HIV, Infectious Diseases, and Global Medicine (G.E.V.), University of California at San Francisco, San Francisco; the National Scientific Center of Phthisiopulmonology (A.A., E. Berikova) and the Center of Phthisiopulmonology of Almaty Health Department (A.K.), Almaty, and the City Center of Phthisiopulmonology, Astana (Z.D.) - all in Kazakhstan; Médecins Sans Frontières (C.B., I.M.), the Medical Research Council Clinical Trials Unit at University College London (I.M.), and St. George's University of London Institute for Infection and Immunity (S.W.) - all in London; MedStar Health Research Institute, Washington, DC (M.C.); Médecins Sans Frontières, Mumbai (V. Chavan), the Indian Council of Medical Research Headquarters-New Delhi, New Delhi (S. Panda), and the Indian Council of Medical Research-National AIDS Research Institute, Pune (S. Patil) - all in India; the Centre for Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Research (V. Cox) and the Department of Medicine (H. McIlleron), University of Cape Town, and the Wellcome Centre for Infectious Diseases Research in Africa, Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine (S.W.) - both in Cape Town, South Africa; the Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium (B. C. J.); Médecins Sans Frontières, Geneva (G.F., N.L.); Médecins Sans Frontières, Yerevan, Armenia (O.K.); the National Center for Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases, Tbilisi, Georgia (N.K.); Partners In Health (M.K.) and Jhpiego Lesotho (L.O.) - both in Maseru; Socios En Salud Sucursal Peru (L.L., S.M.-T., J.R., E.S.-G., D.E.V.-V.), Hospital Nacional Sergio E. Bernales, Centro de Investigacion en Enfermedades Neumologicas (E.S.-G.), Hospital Nacional Dos de Mayo (E.T.), Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos (E.T.), and Hospital Nacional Hipólito Unanue (D.E.V.-V.) - all in Lima; Global Health and Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School (L.L., K.J.S., M.L.R., C.D.M.), Partners In Health (L.L., K.J.S., M.L.R., C.D.M.), the Division of Global Health Equity, Brigham and Women's Hospital (K.J.S., M.L.R., C.D.M.), the Department of Biostatistics and Computational Biology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, (L.T.), and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (L.T.) - all in Boston; and the Indus Hospital and Health Network, Karachi, Pakistan (H. Mushtaque, N.S.).
Background: For decades, poor treatment options and low-quality evidence plagued care for patients with rifampin-resistant tuberculosis. The advent of new drugs to treat tuberculosis and enhanced funding now permit randomized, controlled trials of shortened-duration, all-oral treatments for rifampin-resistant tuberculosis.
Methods: We conducted a phase 3, multinational, open-label, randomized, controlled noninferiority trial to compare standard therapy for treatment of fluoroquinolone-susceptible, rifampin-resistant tuberculosis with five 9-month oral regimens that included various combinations of bedaquiline (B), delamanid (D), linezolid (L), levofloxacin (Lfx) or moxifloxacin (M), clofazimine (C), and pyrazinamide (Z).
J Hered
January 2025
Center for Evolutionary Hologenomics, The Globe Institute, The University of Copenhagen, 5A, Oester Farimagsgade, Copenhagen, 1353, Denmark.
The stone marten (Martes foina) is an important species for cytogenetic studies in the order Carnivora. ZooFISH probes created from its chromosomes provided a strong and clean signal in chromosome painting experiments and were valuable for studying the evolution of carnivoran genome architecture. The research revealed that the stone marten chromosome set is similar to the presumed ancestral karyotype of the Carnivora, which added an additional value for the species.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFProc Natl Acad Sci U S A
February 2025
Department of Biotechnology and Environmental Protection, Estación Experimental del Zaidín, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Granada 18008, Spain.
Bacterial receptors feed into multiple signal transduction pathways that regulate a variety of cellular processes including gene expression, second messenger levels, and motility. Receptors are typically activated by signal binding to ligand-binding domains (LBDs). Cache domains are omnipresent LBDs found in bacteria, archaea, and eukaryotes, including humans.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFProc Natl Acad Sci U S A
February 2025
Department of Biosphere Sciences and Engineering, Carnegie Institution for Science, Stanford, CA 94305.
Microbial mats are stratified communities often dominated by unicellular and filamentous phototrophs within an exopolymer matrix. It is challenging to quantify the dynamic responses of community members in situ as they experience steep gradients and rapid fluctuations of light. To address this, we developed a binary consortium using two representative isolates from hot spring mats: the unicellular oxygenic phototrophic cyanobacterium OS-B' (Syn OS-B') and the filamentous anoxygenic phototroph MS-CIW-1 (Chfl MS-1).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPLoS One
January 2025
Department of Entomology and Acarology, Luiz de Queiroz College of Agriculture (ESALQ), University of São Paulo (USP), Piracicaba, São Paulo, Brazil.
Insecticide resistance is a major problem in food production, environmental sustainability, and human health. The cotton bollworm Helicoverpa armigera is a globally distributed crop pest affecting over 300 crop species. H.
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