Common variants in ZNF365 are associated with both mammographic density and breast cancer risk

High-percent mammographic density adjusted for age and body mass index is one of the strongest risk factors for breast cancer. We conducted a meta analysis of five genome-wide association studies of percent mammographic density and report an association with rs10995190 in ZNF365 (combined P = 9.6 × 10(-10)). Common variants in ZNF365 have also recently been associated with susceptibility to breast cancer.     

Wetting of flexible fibre arrays

Fibrous media are functional and versatile materials, as demonstrated by their ubiquity both in natural systems such as feathers and adhesive pads and in engineered systems from nanotextured surfaces to textile products, where they offer benefits in filtration, insulation, wetting and colouring. The elasticity and high aspect ratios of the fibres allow deformation under capillary forces, which cause mechanical damage, matting self-assembly or colour changes, with many industrial and ecological consequences. Attempts to understand these systems have mostly focused on the wetting of rigid fibres or on elastocapillary effects in planar geometries and on a fibre brush withdrawn from an infinite bath. Here we consider the frequently encountered case of a liquid drop deposited on a flexible fibre array and show that flexibility, fibre geometry and drop volume are the crucial parameters that are necessary to understand the various observations referred to above. We identify the conditions required for a drop to remain compact with minimal spreading or to cause a pair of elastic fibres to coalesce. We find that there is a critical volume of liquid, and, hence, a critical drop size, above which this coalescence does not occur. We also identify a drop size that maximizes liquid capture. For both wetting and deformation of the substrates, we present rules that are deduced from the geometric and material properties of the fibres and the volume of the drop. These ideas are applicable to a wide range of fibrous materials, as we illustrate with examples for feathers, beetle tarsi, sprays and microfabricated systems.     

Stimulation of haematopoiesis in primates by continuous infusion of recombinant human GM-CSF

Certain proteins are known to play an important part in the proliferation, differentiation and functional activation of haematopoietic progenitor cells in vitro. These proteins include erythropoietin and various colony-stimulating factors (CSFs), one of which is granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF). Recently, both murine and human GM-CSF have been purified to homogeneity and complementary DNAs encoding them have been cloned. Although the in vitro activity of recombinant human GM-CSF has been investigated intensively, little is known about the functional activity of this protein in vivo. There is strong evidence that colony-stimulating activities produced by various human and murine tumour tissues and cell lines can stimulate granulopoiesis in mice, as can human urinary extracts. A partially purified preparation of human urinary colony-stimulating factor, however, proved only marginally effective in stimulating granulopoiesis in humans. All these studies suffer from the lack of a homogeneous preparation of colony-stimulating factor. It has recently been shown that recombinant murine multi-CSF or interleukin-3 can stimulate haematopoiesis in mice in vivo. Large-scale production of recombinant human GM-CSF now permits us to examine its effects in vivo using a primate model. We find that the continuous infusion of GM-CSF in healthy monkeys rapidly elicits a dramatic leukocytosis and a substantial reticulocytosis. A similar effect has been observed in one pancytopenic, immunodeficient rhesus macaque. These results suggest that GM-CSF could prove useful in several clinical situations.     

A mutation in adenylosuccinate lyase associated with mental retardation and autistic features.

We have examined the molecular basis of three cases of severe mental retardation with autistic features in one family. A point mutation in a purine nucleotide biosynthetic enzyme, adenylosuccinate lyase (ASL), segregates with the disorder. The affected children are homozygous for the point mutation while the parents and all four unaffected children are heterozygous. The point mutation is absent in control subjects. The point mutation results in a Ser413Pro substitution which leads to structural instability of the recombinant mutant enzyme, and this instability lowers ASL levels in lymphocytes. These observations suggest that the instability of ASL underlies the severe developmental disorder in the affected children, and that mutations in the ASL gene may result in other cases of mental retardation and autistic features.     

Variation in genome-wide mutation rates within and between human families

J.B.S. Haldane proposed in 1947 that the male germline may be more mutagenic than the female germline. Diverse studies have supported Haldane's contention of a higher average mutation rate in the male germline in a variety of mammals, including humans. Here we present, to our knowledge, the first direct comparative analysis of male and female germline mutation rates from the complete genome sequences of two parent-offspring trios. Through extensive validation, we identified 49 and 35 germline de novo mutations (DNMs) in two trio offspring, as well as 1,586 non-germline DNMs arising either somatically or in the cell lines from which the DNA was derived. Most strikingly, in one family, we observed that 92% of germline DNMs were from the paternal germline, whereas, in contrast, in the other family, 64% of DNMs were from the maternal germline. These observations suggest considerable variation in mutation rates within and between families.     

Predicting spontaneous recovery of memory.

Long after a new language has been learned and forgotten, relearning a few words seems to trigger the recall of other words. Neural-network models indicate that this form of spontaneous recovery may result from the storage of distributed representations, which are thought to mediate human memory. Here we use a psychomotor learning task to show that a corresponding effect of spontaneous memory recovery occurs in human subjects.