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Full-Text Articles in Genetics and Genomics

Functional Analyses Of The Polycomb-Group Genes In Sea Lamprey Embryos Undergoing Programmed Dna Loss, Cody Saraceno Jan 2024

Functional Analyses Of The Polycomb-Group Genes In Sea Lamprey Embryos Undergoing Programmed Dna Loss, Cody Saraceno

Theses and Dissertations--Biology

During early embryonic development, the sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) undergoes programmatic elimination of DNA from somatic progenitor cells in a process termed programmed genome rearrangement (PGR). Eliminated DNA eventually becomes condensed into micronuclei, which are then physically degraded and permanently lost from the cell. Previous studies indicated that many of the genes eliminated during PGR have mammalian homologs that are bound by polycomb repressive complex (PRC) in embryonic stem cells. To test whether PRC components play a role in the faithful elimination of germline-specific sequences, we used a combination of CRISPR/Cas9 and lightsheet microscopy to investigate the impact …


Use Of Molecular Genetics To Investigate Population Structure And Swayback In Horses, Navid Yousefimashouf Jan 2023

Use Of Molecular Genetics To Investigate Population Structure And Swayback In Horses, Navid Yousefimashouf

Theses and Dissertations--Veterinary Science

The present research incorporated molecular genetic methods to 1) investigate the genetic basis of Juvenile Onset Lordosis or Swayback in the American Saddlebred horses; and 2) conduct a population genetic study to compare the Persian Kurdish, Persian Arabian and American Thoroughbred horse populations.

Juvenile-onset lordosis, or swayback, is a condition in horses where the conformational topline back curvature drops significantly within the first two years of life. The trait has a higher prevalence in Saddlebreds (5%). Prior research on them quantified the trait using a Measurement of Back Contour (MBC), defining an MBC of >7.0 centimeters as swayback, and8.0) MBC …


Placing The Evolutionary History Of Desmognathus Salamanders In Context: A Phylogeographic Approach, Kara Jones Jan 2023

Placing The Evolutionary History Of Desmognathus Salamanders In Context: A Phylogeographic Approach, Kara Jones

Theses and Dissertations--Biology

Patterns of genetic variation do not arise in a vacuum but are instead shaped by the interplay between evolutionary forces and ecological constraints. Here, I use a phylogeographic approach to examine the role that ecology played in lineage divergence in the Desmognathus quadramaculatus species complex (Family: Plethodontidae), which consists of three nominal species: D. quadramaculatus, D. marmoratus, and D. folkertsi. Previous phylogenetic studies have shown that individuals from these species do not form clades based on phenotype. My approach to reconciling phylogenetic discordance was two-fold, using (1) genome-wide markers to provide insight into the …


Genetic And Pharmacogenetics Associations Of Cancer Disparities In Appalachia, Nan Lin Jan 2023

Genetic And Pharmacogenetics Associations Of Cancer Disparities In Appalachia, Nan Lin

Theses and Dissertations--Pharmacy

Individuals residing in Appalachian regions have significant health disparities, including higher cancer incidence and mortality rates. Previous studies have addressed the impact of socioeconomic status and environmental risk factors on Appalachia cancer disparities, while few studies have evaluated genetic risk factors.

Germline whole exome sequencing samples from 7,078 individuals with cancer (759 Appalachians) were evaluated. Demographics and relatedness were assessed using KING. Ethnicity was verified by principal component analysis using TRACE, which included 6,034 individuals (85%) of European genetic ancestry. After QC filtering, 5,980 individuals were analyzed. To assess the overall predisposition of hereditary disease, gene level frequency of likely …


Alzheimer’S Disease Genetics And Short-Chain Fatty Acid Treatment In Studies Of The Murine Gut Microbiome, Diana Zajac Jan 2023

Alzheimer’S Disease Genetics And Short-Chain Fatty Acid Treatment In Studies Of The Murine Gut Microbiome, Diana Zajac

Theses and Dissertations--Physiology

Elucidating the relationship of the gut microbiome in Alzheimer's Disease (AD) risk and pathogenesis is an area of intense interest. Since 60 to 80% of AD risk is related to genetics and APOE alleles represent the most impactful genetic risk factors for AD, their mechanism(s) of action are under intense scrutiny.

First, I conducted a study on APOE targeted replacement mice to investigate the impact of APOE alleles on the murine gut microbiome. The relative abundance of bacteria from the family Ruminococacceae and related genera increased with APOE2 status. The relative abundance of the class Erysipelotrichia increased with APOE4 status, …


Molecular Analysis Of Epigenetic Memory Of Stress Establishment And Long-Term Maintenance In A Perennial Woody Plant, Jia Wen Tan Jan 2023

Molecular Analysis Of Epigenetic Memory Of Stress Establishment And Long-Term Maintenance In A Perennial Woody Plant, Jia Wen Tan

Theses and Dissertations--Plant and Soil Sciences

Plants adapt to extreme environmental conditions through physiological adaptations, which are usually transient. Recent research has suggested that environmental conditions can activate a memory of stress that can result in a primed response to subsequent stress events. While the effect of priming has been observed in many plants, the underlying mechanisms are puzzling and seldom studied. A large body of research has been developed in the last decade linking response to stress, stress priming, and memory of stress with epigenetic mechanisms. This understanding of plant epigenetics has opened the door to the application of epigenetics to crop improvement, such as …


Molecular Genetic Studies Of Horses, Especially With Reference To Aggrecan And Dwarfism, John Edmund Eberth Jan 2023

Molecular Genetic Studies Of Horses, Especially With Reference To Aggrecan And Dwarfism, John Edmund Eberth

Theses and Dissertations--Veterinary Science

This work consists of studies on dwarfism in Miniature horses and a study on breakdowns in Thoroughbreds in relation to gene aggrecan. A correction of the description and designation of D3 dwarf variant in aggrecan (ACAN) from the master’s thesis Chondrodysplasia-like dwarfism in the Miniature horse (2013). Commercial sequencing showed previous sequencing reads presented an artifact and not a single base deletion. Analysis showed a single base missense mutation in exon 8 identified as D3* was the actual cause. Multiple alleles of ACAN associated with chondrodysplastic dwarfism in Miniature horses by Eberth et al. (2018), corrected the …


Rare Coding Variants In Rcn3 Are Associated With Blood Pressure, Karen Y. He, Tanika N. Kelly, Heming Wang, Jingjing Liang, Luke Zhu, Brian E. Cade, Themistocles L. Assimes, Lewis C. Becker, Amber L. Beitelshees, Lawrence F. Bielak, Adam P. Bress, Jennifer A. Brody, Yen-Pei Christy Chang, Yi-Cheng Chang, Paul S. De Vries, Ravindranath Duggirala, Ervin R. Fox, Nora Franceschini, Anna L. Furniss, Yan Gao, Donna K. Arnett Feb 2022

Rare Coding Variants In Rcn3 Are Associated With Blood Pressure, Karen Y. He, Tanika N. Kelly, Heming Wang, Jingjing Liang, Luke Zhu, Brian E. Cade, Themistocles L. Assimes, Lewis C. Becker, Amber L. Beitelshees, Lawrence F. Bielak, Adam P. Bress, Jennifer A. Brody, Yen-Pei Christy Chang, Yi-Cheng Chang, Paul S. De Vries, Ravindranath Duggirala, Ervin R. Fox, Nora Franceschini, Anna L. Furniss, Yan Gao, Donna K. Arnett

Epidemiology and Environmental Health Faculty Publications

BACKGROUND: While large genome-wide association studies have identified nearly one thousand loci associated with variation in blood pressure, rare variant identification is still a challenge. In family-based cohorts, genome-wide linkage scans have been successful in identifying rare genetic variants for blood pressure. This study aims to identify low frequency and rare genetic variants within previously reported linkage regions on chromosomes 1 and 19 in African American families from the Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) program. Genetic association analyses weighted by linkage evidence were completed with whole genome sequencing data within and across TOPMed ancestral groups consisting of 60,388 individuals of …


The Low Abundance Of Cpg In The Sars-Cov-2 Genome Is Not An Evolutionarily Signature Of Zap, Ali Afrasiabi, Hamid Alinejad-Rokny, Azad Khosh, Mostafa Rahnama, Nigel Lovell, Zhenming Xu, Diako Ebrahimi Feb 2022

The Low Abundance Of Cpg In The Sars-Cov-2 Genome Is Not An Evolutionarily Signature Of Zap, Ali Afrasiabi, Hamid Alinejad-Rokny, Azad Khosh, Mostafa Rahnama, Nigel Lovell, Zhenming Xu, Diako Ebrahimi

Plant Pathology Faculty Publications

The zinc finger antiviral protein (ZAP) is known to restrict viral replication by binding to the CpG rich regions of viral RNA, and subsequently inducing viral RNA degradation. This enzyme has recently been shown to be capable of restricting SARS-CoV-2. These data have led to the hypothesis that the low abundance of CpG in the SARS-CoV-2 genome is due to an evolutionary pressure exerted by the host ZAP. To investigate this hypothesis, we performed a detailed analysis of many coronavirus sequences and ZAP RNA binding preference data. Our analyses showed neither evidence for an evolutionary pressure acting specifically on CpG …


Long-Read Sequencing Of The Zebrafish Genome Reorganizes Genomic Architecture, Yelena Chernyavskaya, Xiaofei Zhang, Jinze Liu, Jessica S. Blackburn Feb 2022

Long-Read Sequencing Of The Zebrafish Genome Reorganizes Genomic Architecture, Yelena Chernyavskaya, Xiaofei Zhang, Jinze Liu, Jessica S. Blackburn

Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry Faculty Publications

BACKGROUND: Nanopore sequencing technology has revolutionized the field of genome biology with its ability to generate extra-long reads that can resolve regions of the genome that were previously inaccessible to short-read sequencing platforms. Over 50% of the zebrafish genome consists of difficult to map, highly repetitive, low complexity elements that pose inherent problems for short-read sequencers and assemblers.

RESULTS: We used long-read nanopore sequencing to generate a de novo assembly of the zebrafish genome and compared our assembly to the current reference genome, GRCz11. The new assembly identified 1697 novel insertions and deletions over one kilobase in length and placed …


Apoe Genetics Influence Murine Gut Microbiome, Diana J. Zajac, Stefan J. Green, Lance A. Johnson, Steven Estus Feb 2022

Apoe Genetics Influence Murine Gut Microbiome, Diana J. Zajac, Stefan J. Green, Lance A. Johnson, Steven Estus

Physiology Faculty Publications

Apolipoprotein E (APOE) alleles impact pathogenesis and risk for multiple human diseases, making them primary targets for disease treatment and prevention. Previously, we and others reported an association between APOE alleles and the gut microbiome. Here, we evaluated effects of APOE heterozygosity and tested whether these overall results extended to mice maintained under ideal conditions for microbiome analyses. To model human APOE alleles, this study used APOE targeted replacement (TR) mice on a C57Bl/6 background. To minimize genetic drift, homozygous APOE3 mice were crossed to homozygous APOE2 or homozygous APOE4 mice prior to the study, and the resulting …


Chromomap: An R Package For Interactive Visualization Of Multi-Omics Data And Annotation Of Chromosomes, Lakshay Anand, Carlos M. Rodriguez Lopez Jan 2022

Chromomap: An R Package For Interactive Visualization Of Multi-Omics Data And Annotation Of Chromosomes, Lakshay Anand, Carlos M. Rodriguez Lopez

Horticulture Faculty Publications

BACKGROUND: The recent advancements in high-throughput sequencing have resulted in the availability of annotated genomes, as well as of multi-omics data for many living organisms. This has increased the need for graphic tools that allow the concurrent visualization of genomes and feature-associated multi-omics data on single publication-ready plots.

RESULTS: We present chromoMap, an R package, developed for the construction of interactive visualizations of chromosomes/chromosomal regions, mapping of any chromosomal feature with known coordinates (i.e., protein coding genes, transposable elements, non-coding RNAs, microsatellites, etc.), and chromosomal regional characteristics (i.e. genomic feature density, gene expression, DNA methylation, chromatin modifications, etc.) of organisms …


A Functional Genomics Approach To Overwintering Mechanisms In Insects, Emily Allison Wheeler Nadeau Jan 2022

A Functional Genomics Approach To Overwintering Mechanisms In Insects, Emily Allison Wheeler Nadeau

Theses and Dissertations--Entomology

Insects living in temperate and polar environments have developed numerous adaptations to increase survival at low temperatures. A majority of insects are freeze-intolerant and die from internal ice formation, but some are freeze-tolerant and can survive ice formation in extracellular spaces. Both categories of insects prepare for winter with a combination of seasonal and rapid acclimation responses, which differ both in time course and in underlying mechanisms. In this dissertation, I examine adaptations for winter survival in several insect species with a specific focus on molecular mechanisms. To better understand the underpinning mechanisms of these adaptations, I leverage functional genomics …


Immunoregulatory Receptor Genetics, Expression, And Splicing Studies In Alzheimer’S Disease, Benjamin C. Shaw Jan 2022

Immunoregulatory Receptor Genetics, Expression, And Splicing Studies In Alzheimer’S Disease, Benjamin C. Shaw

Theses and Dissertations--Physiology

Microglia are the resident immune cells of the brain, undertaking many critical tissue maintenance functions such as immune surveillance and phagocytosis. Microglial dysfunction has recently been identified as a multi-stage signature of many neurodegenerative diseases, including late-onset Alzheimer’s Disease (LOAD). Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in over thirty genes that modulate risk of developing LOAD. In the central nervous system, roughly half of these LOAD-associated genes are primarily expressed in microglia. The proteins encoded by these genes include cell surface receptors that contain either immunomodulatory tyrosine-phosphorylated activating motifs (ITAMs) or inhibitory motifs (ITIMs), including TREM2 …


Investigating The Role Of Chd7 And Sox11 In Retinal Cell Development And The Ocular Complications Of Charge Syndrome, Laura Krueger Jan 2022

Investigating The Role Of Chd7 And Sox11 In Retinal Cell Development And The Ocular Complications Of Charge Syndrome, Laura Krueger

Theses and Dissertations--Biology

Proper formation of the visual system requires the precise interaction of several embryonic cell lineages, including the neuroectoderm (forms the retina and retinal pigment epithelium), surface ectoderm (forms the lens), mesoderm and cranial neural crest cells (form the ocular blood vessels and anterior ocular structures). When this process is disrupted structural birth defects such as coloboma result, leading to pediatric visual deficits. Ocular developmental defects are often present in larger syndromic disorders. One example is CHARGE syndrome, a genetic disorder characterized by coloboma, heart defects, choanal atresia, growth retardation, genital abnormalities, and ear abnormalities. Pathogenic variants in CHD7 have been …


Identifying Epidermal Enriched Genes Required For Planarian Regeneration- Sp. Schmidtea Mediterranea, Pallob Barai Jan 2022

Identifying Epidermal Enriched Genes Required For Planarian Regeneration- Sp. Schmidtea Mediterranea, Pallob Barai

Theses and Dissertations--Biology

The outer epithelial layer covering an organism, commonly known as the epidermis, is crucial for maintaining homeostasis and for the wound healing processes after injury. The planarian epidermis allows flatworms to heal their wounds and virtually restore any missing tissues. Immediately after amputation, planarians contract their muscle and stretch their epidermis to heal the wound area. However, how the planarian epidermis coordinates with other tissues and mechanisms after the initial wound healing processes begins is not understood in detail. I hypothesized that epidermal cell stretching upon wound healing induces transcriptional changes that are required for effective regeneration. To test this …


Use Of Heterothallic Mat Deletion Strains Of Fusarium Graminearum As Test Mates In Crosses To Evaluate The Genetics Of Pathogenicity And Fitness, Gabdiel Emmanuel Yulfo-Soto Jan 2022

Use Of Heterothallic Mat Deletion Strains Of Fusarium Graminearum As Test Mates In Crosses To Evaluate The Genetics Of Pathogenicity And Fitness, Gabdiel Emmanuel Yulfo-Soto

Theses and Dissertations--Plant Pathology

Fusarium Head Blight (FHB), caused by Fusarium graminearum sensu stricto and other members of the F. graminearum species complex (FGSC), is a plant disease that occurs on cereal crops worldwide. FHB causes yield losses not only by reducing grain weight, but also by contaminating the kernels with dangerous trichothecene mycotoxins, especially deoxynivalenol (DON). There is a high degree of genotypic and phenotypic variation among pathogen species and strains, but current FHB risk assessment models and treatments do not account for pathogen diversity. Therefore, it is difficult to predict what will happen if a new, potentially more aggressive variant is introduced, …


The Role Of Nitric Oxide In Inter- And Intra- Cellular Signaling In Plant Defense, Fan Xia Jan 2022

The Role Of Nitric Oxide In Inter- And Intra- Cellular Signaling In Plant Defense, Fan Xia

Theses and Dissertations--Plant Pathology

Plants have evolved a sophisticated immune system to defend themselves against pathogens. This immune response can be triggered in response to pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMP) or specialized effectors that are recognized by the plant resistance (R) proteins. The latter, commonly referred to as effector-triggered immunity (ETI), is well known to induce broad-spectrum resistance throughout the plants. This phenomenon known as systemic acquired resistance (SAR) is regulated by several chemical signals including salicylic acid (SA), and free radical nitric oxide (NO) and reactive oxygen species (ROS). These signals operate in two parallel branches with NO/ROS functioning downstream of pipecolic acid (Pip) …


Editorial For The Genetics Of Alzheimer’S Disease Special Issue: October 2021, Laura Ibanez, Justin B. Miller Nov 2021

Editorial For The Genetics Of Alzheimer’S Disease Special Issue: October 2021, Laura Ibanez, Justin B. Miller

Sanders-Brown Center on Aging Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.


Genomics Of Postprandial Lipidomics In The Genetics Of Lipid-Lowering Drugs And Diet Network Study, Marguerite R. Irvin, May E. Montasser, Tobias Kind, Sili Fan, Dinesh K. Barupal, Amit Patki, Rikki M. Tanner, Nicole D. Armstrong, Kathleen A. Ryan, Steven A. Claas, Jeffrey R. O’Connell, Hemant K. Tiwari, Donna K. Arnett Nov 2021

Genomics Of Postprandial Lipidomics In The Genetics Of Lipid-Lowering Drugs And Diet Network Study, Marguerite R. Irvin, May E. Montasser, Tobias Kind, Sili Fan, Dinesh K. Barupal, Amit Patki, Rikki M. Tanner, Nicole D. Armstrong, Kathleen A. Ryan, Steven A. Claas, Jeffrey R. O’Connell, Hemant K. Tiwari, Donna K. Arnett

Epidemiology and Environmental Health Faculty Publications

Postprandial lipemia (PPL) is an important risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Inter-individual variation in the dietary response to a meal is known to be influenced by genetic factors, yet genes that dictate variation in postprandial lipids are not completely characterized. Genetic studies of the plasma lipidome can help to better understand postprandial metabolism by isolating lipid molecular species which are more closely related to the genome. We measured the plasma lipidome at fasting and 6 h after a standardized high-fat meal in 668 participants from the Genetics of Lipid-Lowering Drugs and Diet Network study (GOLDN) using ultra-performance liquid chromatography coupled …


Decoding The Equine Genome: Lessons From Encode, Sichong Peng, Jessica L. Petersen, Rebecca R. Bellone, Theodore S. Kalbfleisch, N. B. Kingsley, Alexa M. Barber, Eleonora Cappelletti, Elena Giulotto, Carrie J. Finno Oct 2021

Decoding The Equine Genome: Lessons From Encode, Sichong Peng, Jessica L. Petersen, Rebecca R. Bellone, Theodore S. Kalbfleisch, N. B. Kingsley, Alexa M. Barber, Eleonora Cappelletti, Elena Giulotto, Carrie J. Finno

Veterinary Science Faculty Publications

The horse reference genome assemblies, EquCab2.0 and EquCab3.0, have enabled great advancements in the equine genomics field, from tools to novel discoveries. However, significant gaps of knowledge regarding genome function remain, hindering the study of complex traits in horses. In an effort to address these gaps and with inspiration from the Encyclopedia of DNA Elements (ENCODE) project, the equine Functional Annotation of Animal Genome (FAANG) initiative was proposed to bridge the gap between genome and gene expression, providing further insights into functional regulation within the horse genome. Three years after launching the initiative, the equine FAANG group has generated data …


Against The Odds: Hybrid Zones Between Mangrove Killifish Species With Different Mating Systems, Waldir M. Berbel-Filho, Andrey Tatarenkov, George Pacheco, Helder M. V. Espírito-Santo, Mateus G. Lira, Carlos Garcia De Leaniz, John C. Avise, Sergio M. Q. Lima, Carlos M. Rodriguez Lopez, Sofia Consuegra Sep 2021

Against The Odds: Hybrid Zones Between Mangrove Killifish Species With Different Mating Systems, Waldir M. Berbel-Filho, Andrey Tatarenkov, George Pacheco, Helder M. V. Espírito-Santo, Mateus G. Lira, Carlos Garcia De Leaniz, John C. Avise, Sergio M. Q. Lima, Carlos M. Rodriguez Lopez, Sofia Consuegra

Horticulture Faculty Publications

Different mating systems are expected to affect the extent and direction of hybridization. Due to the different levels of sexual conflict, the weak inbreeder/strong outbreeder (WISO) hypothesis predicts that gametes from self-incompatible (SI) species should outcompete gametes from self-compatible (SC) ones. However, other factors such as timing of selfing and unilateral incompatibilities may also play a role on the direction of hybridization. In addition, differential mating opportunities provided by different mating systems are also expected to affect the direction of introgression in hybrid zones involving outcrossers and selfers. Here, we explored these hypotheses with a unique case of recent hybridization …


Set1 Targets Genes With Essential Identity And Tumor-Suppressing Functions In Planarian Stem Cells, Prince Verma, Courtney K. M. Waterbury, Elizabeth M. Duncan Jul 2021

Set1 Targets Genes With Essential Identity And Tumor-Suppressing Functions In Planarian Stem Cells, Prince Verma, Courtney K. M. Waterbury, Elizabeth M. Duncan

Biology Faculty Publications

Tumor suppressor genes (TSGs) are essential for normal cellular function in multicellular organisms, but many TSGs and tumor-suppressing mechanisms remain unknown. Planarian flatworms exhibit particularly robust tumor suppression, yet the specific mechanisms underlying this trait remain unclear. Here, we analyze histone H3 lysine 4 trimethylation (H3K4me3) signal across the planarian genome to determine if the broad H3K4me3 chromatin signature that marks essential cell identity genes and TSGs in mammalian cells is conserved in this valuable model of in vivo stem cell function. We find that this signature is indeed conserved on the planarian genome and that the lysine methyltransferase Set1 …


Highly Contiguous Assemblies Of 101 Drosophilid Genomes, Bernard Y. Kim, Jeremy R. Wang, Danny E. Miller, Olga Barmina, Emily Delaney, Ammon Thompson, Aaron A. Comeault, David Peede, Emmanuel R. R. D'Agostino, Julianne Pelaez, Jessica M. Aguilar, Diler Haji, Teruyuki Matsunaga, Ellie E. Armstrong, Molly Zych, Yoshitaka Ogawa, Marina Stamenković-Radak, Mihailo Jelić, Marija Savić Veselinović, Marija Tanasković, Jeremy S. Davis Jul 2021

Highly Contiguous Assemblies Of 101 Drosophilid Genomes, Bernard Y. Kim, Jeremy R. Wang, Danny E. Miller, Olga Barmina, Emily Delaney, Ammon Thompson, Aaron A. Comeault, David Peede, Emmanuel R. R. D'Agostino, Julianne Pelaez, Jessica M. Aguilar, Diler Haji, Teruyuki Matsunaga, Ellie E. Armstrong, Molly Zych, Yoshitaka Ogawa, Marina Stamenković-Radak, Mihailo Jelić, Marija Savić Veselinović, Marija Tanasković, Jeremy S. Davis

Biology Faculty Publications

Over 100 years of studies in Drosophila melanogaster and related species in the genus Drosophila have facilitated key discoveries in genetics, genomics, and evolution. While high-quality genome assemblies exist for several species in this group, they only encompass a small fraction of the genus. Recent advances in long-read sequencing allow high-quality genome assemblies for tens or even hundreds of species to be efficiently generated. Here, we utilize Oxford Nanopore sequencing to build an open community resource of genome assemblies for 101 lines of 93 drosophilid species encompassing 14 species groups and 35 sub-groups. The genomes are highly contiguous and complete, …


Genetic Relationships In The Toxin-Producing Fungal Endophyte, Alternaria Oxytropis Using Polyketide Synthase And Non-Ribosomal Peptide Synthase Genes, Rebecca Creamer, Deana Baucom Hille, Marwa Neyaz, Tesneem Nusayr, Christopher L. Schardl, Daniel Cook Jul 2021

Genetic Relationships In The Toxin-Producing Fungal Endophyte, Alternaria Oxytropis Using Polyketide Synthase And Non-Ribosomal Peptide Synthase Genes, Rebecca Creamer, Deana Baucom Hille, Marwa Neyaz, Tesneem Nusayr, Christopher L. Schardl, Daniel Cook

Plant Pathology Faculty Publications

The legume Oxytropis sericea hosts a fungal endophyte, Alternaria oxytropis, which produces secondary metabolites (SM), including the toxin swainsonine. Polyketide synthase (PKS) and non-ribosomal peptide synthase (NRPS) enzymes are associated with biosynthesis of fungal SM. To better understand the origins of the SM, an unannotated genome of A. oxytropis was assessed for protein sequences similar to known PKS and NRPS enzymes of fungi. Contigs exhibiting identity with known genes were analyzed at nucleotide and protein levels using available databases. Software were used to identify PKS and NRPS domains and predict identity and function. Confirmation of sequence for selected gene …


Successful Atac-Seq From Snap-Frozen Equine Tissues, Sichong Peng, Rebecca Bellone, Jessica L. Petersen, Theodore S. Kalbfleisch, Carrie J. Finno Jun 2021

Successful Atac-Seq From Snap-Frozen Equine Tissues, Sichong Peng, Rebecca Bellone, Jessica L. Petersen, Theodore S. Kalbfleisch, Carrie J. Finno

Veterinary Science Faculty Publications

An assay for transposase-accessible chromatin with high-throughput sequencing (ATAC-seq) has become an increasingly popular method to assess genome-wide chromatin accessibility in isolated nuclei from fresh tissues. However, many biobanks contain only snap-frozen tissue samples. While ATAC-seq has been applied to frozen brain tissues in human, its applicability in a wide variety of tissues in horse remains unclear. The Functional Annotation of Animal Genome (FAANG) project is an international collaboration aimed to provide high quality functional annotation of animal genomes. The equine FAANG initiative has generated a biobank of over 80 tissues from two reference female animals and experiments to begin …


Patterns Of Recent Natural Selection On Genetic Loci Associated With Sexually Differentiated Human Body Size And Shape Phenotypes, Audrey M. Arner, Kathleen E. Grogan, Mark Grabowski, Hugo Reyes-Centeno, George H. Perry Jun 2021

Patterns Of Recent Natural Selection On Genetic Loci Associated With Sexually Differentiated Human Body Size And Shape Phenotypes, Audrey M. Arner, Kathleen E. Grogan, Mark Grabowski, Hugo Reyes-Centeno, George H. Perry

Anthropology Faculty Publications

Levels of sex differences for human body size and shape phenotypes are hypothesized to have adaptively reduced following the agricultural transition as part of an evolutionary response to relatively more equal divisions of labor and new technology adoption. In this study, we tested this hypothesis by studying genetic variants associated with five sexually differentiated human phenotypes: height, body mass, hip circumference, body fat percentage, and waist circumference. We first analyzed genome-wide association (GWAS) results for UK Biobank individuals (~194,000 females and ~167,000 males) to identify a total of 114,199 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) significantly associated with at least one of …


Epigenome-Wide Association Study Of Kidney Function Identifies Trans-Ethnic And Ethnic-Specific Loci, Charles E. Breeze, Anna Batorsky, Mi Kyeong Lee, Mindy D. Szeto, Xiaoguang Xu, Daniel L. Mccartney, Rong Jiang, Amit Patki, Holly J. Kramer, James M. Eales, Laura Raffield, Leslie Lange, Ethan Lange, Peter Durda, Yongmei Liu, Russ P. Tracy, David Van Den Berg, Nhlbi Trans-Omics For Precision Medicine (Topmed) Consortium, Topmed Mesa Multi-Omics Working Group, Kathryn L. Evans, William E. Kraus, Donna K. Arnett Apr 2021

Epigenome-Wide Association Study Of Kidney Function Identifies Trans-Ethnic And Ethnic-Specific Loci, Charles E. Breeze, Anna Batorsky, Mi Kyeong Lee, Mindy D. Szeto, Xiaoguang Xu, Daniel L. Mccartney, Rong Jiang, Amit Patki, Holly J. Kramer, James M. Eales, Laura Raffield, Leslie Lange, Ethan Lange, Peter Durda, Yongmei Liu, Russ P. Tracy, David Van Den Berg, Nhlbi Trans-Omics For Precision Medicine (Topmed) Consortium, Topmed Mesa Multi-Omics Working Group, Kathryn L. Evans, William E. Kraus, Donna K. Arnett

Epidemiology and Environmental Health Faculty Publications

BACKGROUND: DNA methylation (DNAm) is associated with gene regulation and estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), a measure of kidney function. Decreased eGFR is more common among US Hispanics and African Americans. The causes for this are poorly understood. We aimed to identify trans-ethnic and ethnic-specific differentially methylated positions (DMPs) associated with eGFR using an agnostic, genome-wide approach.

METHODS: The study included up to 5428 participants from multi-ethnic studies for discovery and 8109 participants for replication. We tested the associations between whole blood DNAm and eGFR using beta values from Illumina 450K or EPIC arrays. Ethnicity-stratified analyses were performed using linear …


An Ensemble Of The Icluster Method To Analyze Longitudinal Lncrna Expression Data For Psoriasis Patients, Suyan Tian, Chi Wang Apr 2021

An Ensemble Of The Icluster Method To Analyze Longitudinal Lncrna Expression Data For Psoriasis Patients, Suyan Tian, Chi Wang

Internal Medicine Faculty Publications

BACKGROUND: Psoriasis is an immune-mediated, inflammatory disorder of the skin with chronic inflammation and hyper-proliferation of the epidermis. Since psoriasis has genetic components and the diseased tissue of psoriasis is very easily accessible, it is natural to use high-throughput technologies to characterize psoriasis and thus seek targeted therapies. Transcriptional profiles change correspondingly after an intervention. Unlike cross-sectional gene expression data, longitudinal gene expression data can capture the dynamic changes and thus facilitate causal inference.

METHODS: Using the iCluster method as a building block, an ensemble method was proposed and applied to a longitudinal gene expression dataset for psoriasis, with the …


Chromosome Xq23 Is Associated With Lower Atherogenic Lipid Concentrations And Favorable Cardiometabolic Indices, Pradeep Natarajan, Akhil Pampana, Sarah E. Graham, Sanni E. Ruotsalainen, James A. Perry, Paul S. De Vries, Jai G. Broome, James P. Pirruccello, Michael C. Honigberg, Krishna Aragam, Brooke Wolford, Jennifer A. Brody, Lucinda Antonacci-Fulton, Moscati Arden, Stella Aslibekyan, Themistocles L. Assimes, Christie M. Ballantyne, Lawrence F. Bielak, Joshua C. Bis, Brian E. Cade, Donna K. Arnett Apr 2021

Chromosome Xq23 Is Associated With Lower Atherogenic Lipid Concentrations And Favorable Cardiometabolic Indices, Pradeep Natarajan, Akhil Pampana, Sarah E. Graham, Sanni E. Ruotsalainen, James A. Perry, Paul S. De Vries, Jai G. Broome, James P. Pirruccello, Michael C. Honigberg, Krishna Aragam, Brooke Wolford, Jennifer A. Brody, Lucinda Antonacci-Fulton, Moscati Arden, Stella Aslibekyan, Themistocles L. Assimes, Christie M. Ballantyne, Lawrence F. Bielak, Joshua C. Bis, Brian E. Cade, Donna K. Arnett

Epidemiology and Environmental Health Faculty Publications

Autosomal genetic analyses of blood lipids have yielded key insights for coronary heart disease (CHD). However, X chromosome genetic variation is understudied for blood lipids in large sample sizes. We now analyze genetic and blood lipid data in a high-coverage whole X chromosome sequencing study of 65,322 multi-ancestry participants and perform replication among 456,893 European participants. Common alleles on chromosome Xq23 are strongly associated with reduced total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, and triglycerides (min P = 8.5 × 10−72), with similar effects for males and females. Chromosome Xq23 lipid-lowering alleles are associated with reduced odds for CHD among 42,545 …