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Full-Text Articles in Genetics and Genomics

The Role Of Tumor Suppressor Dear1 In The Acquisition Of Mammary Stem/Progenitor Cell Properties, Uyen Le Dec 2018

The Role Of Tumor Suppressor Dear1 In The Acquisition Of Mammary Stem/Progenitor Cell Properties, Uyen Le

Dissertations & Theses (Open Access)

Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in women in America. Ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), one of the earliest pre-invasive forms of invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC), has a 30-50% risk of progressing to IDC. Understanding the mechanisms regulating progression from DCIS to IDC would help identify biomarkers to stratify patients at higher risk of progression or metastasis. Cumulative literature suggests the earliest phase of dissemination from the primary tumor is driven by the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) program. DEAR1 is a tumor suppressor gene which is mutated, undergoes loss of heterozygosity in breast cancer, and is downregulated in DCIS …


Computational Insights Into The Generation Of Chromosomal Copy Number Changes, Yihua Liu May 2018

Computational Insights Into The Generation Of Chromosomal Copy Number Changes, Yihua Liu

Dissertations & Theses (Open Access)

Deviations from a diploid configuration of the human genome, spanning single genes or entire chromosomes, can have wide-ranging impacts on the variation of human phenotypes, including Mendelian and complex forms of diseases. These chromosomal alterations — such as duplications, deletions or copy-neutral loss-of-heterozygosity — are thus important forms of genetic variation for phenotyping populations of individuals as well as populations of cells. Indeed, copy number variants (CNVs) serve as hallmarks of critical changes in the development of particular diseases such as cancer and thus may be used as biomarkers. These CNVs may be either inherited (transmitted by germ cells, originating …


The Regulation Of Dna Methylation In Mammalian Development And Cancer, Nicolas Veland May 2018

The Regulation Of Dna Methylation In Mammalian Development And Cancer, Nicolas Veland

Dissertations & Theses (Open Access)

DNA methylation is an essential epigenetic modification in mammals, as it plays important regulatory roles in multiple biological processes, such as gene transcription, maintenance of chromosomal structure and genomic stability, genomic imprinting, retrotransposon silencing, and X-chromosome inactivation. Dysregulation of DNA methylation is associated with various human diseases. For example, cancer cells usually show global hypomethylation and regional hypermenthylation, which have been implicated in genomic instability and tumor suppressor silencing, respectively. Although great progress has been made in elucidating the biological functions of DNA methylation over the last several decades, how DNA methylation patterns and levels are regulated and dysregulated is …


Phosphorylation Impairs Dicer1 Function To Accelerate Aging And Tumorigenesis In Vivo, Neeraj Aryal May 2018

Phosphorylation Impairs Dicer1 Function To Accelerate Aging And Tumorigenesis In Vivo, Neeraj Aryal

Dissertations & Theses (Open Access)

Altered DICER1 protein levels are associated with developmental disorders, infertility, macular degenerative blindness, aging, and cancer in humans. Recently, post-translational regulation of Dicer1 via phosphorylation has been described in C. elegans. Oscillation of Dicer1 phosphorylation to regulate its activity is essential for germ cell development and embryogenesis in worms. These observations led us to posit that Dicer1 protein levels and activity are under tight regulation for normal mammalian homeostasis. To test whether phosphorylation of Dicer1 regulates its activity in mammals, I generated phospho-mimetic knock-in mouse models by replacing Serines 1712 and 1836 with Aspartic acids individually or together (dual …