The constitutions of glauconic,glaucanic and byssochlamic acids

Zusammenfassung Die Struktur der Pilzstoffwechselprodukte Glaucon- und Glaucansäure (C₁₈H₂₀O₇ bzw. C₁₈H₂₀O₆) ausPenicill. purp. wird in der Hauptsache durch das Studium der Reduktionsprodukte ermittelt. Diese Verbindungen enthalten zwei fünfgliedrige Säureanhydrid-Gruppierungen, die mit einem eigenartigen doppelt ungesättigten neungliedrigen Ringsystem gekuppelt sind, das unter verschiedenen Bedingungen in das Indangerüst übergeführt werden kann.Wie schon früher beschrieben, wird Glauconsäure leicht pyrolytisch zu Diäthylacrolein und Glauconin abgebaut. Die Formel des Glauconins, die durch Spektralmessungen und Synthese bewiesen wurde, ist für die Konstitutionsaufklärung der Glauconsäure in gewisser Hinsicht irreführend, da das Kohlenstoffskelett des Glauconins nicht schon in der Glauconsäure vorliegt, sondern erst durch eine Umlagerung unter Bildung neuer C-C-Bindungen bei der Spaltung der Glauconsäure entsteht.Die Biogenese der beiden Säuren wird diskutiert; sie scheint auf der Verknüpfung zweier Fragmente mit neun Kohlenstoffatomen und identischem Gerüst zu beruhen. Die Annahme einer andersartigen Verknüpfung der beiden Fragmente führt zu einer möglichen Struktur für Byssochlamsäure, C₁₈H₂₀O₇. Die so abgeleitete Konstitution wird durch röntgenkristallographische Strukturbestimmung bestätigt.Byssochlamsäure, ausByssochlamys fulva, enthält ebenfalls ein neungliedriges, doppelt ungesättigtes Ringsystem sowie zwei fünfgliedrige Säureanhydrid-Gruppierungen und zeigt die Tendenz, Indanderivate zu bilden. Ihr chemisches Verhalten wird anhand der durch Röntgenstrahlenkristallographie bestimmten Struktur diskutiert.     

Niche lability in the evolution of a Caribbean lizard community

Niche conservatism--the tendency for closely related species to be ecologically similar--is widespread. However, most studies compare closely related taxa that occur in allopatry; in sympatry, the stabilizing forces that promote niche conservatism, and thus inhibit niche shifts, may be countered by natural selection favouring ecological divergence to minimize the intensity of interspecific interactions. Consequently, the relative importance of niche conservatism versus niche divergence in determining community structure has received little attention. Here, we examine a tropical lizard community in which species have a long evolutionary history of ecological interaction. We find that evolutionary divergence overcomes niche conservatism: closely related species are no more ecologically similar than expected by random divergence and some distantly related species are ecologically similar, leading to a community in which the relationship between ecological similarity and phylogenetic relatedness is very weak. Despite this lack of niche conservatism, the ecological structuring of the community has a phylogenetic component: niche complementarity only occurs among distantly related species, which suggests that the strength of ecological interactions among species may be related to phylogeny, but it is not necessarily the most closely related species that interact most strongly.     

A murine lung cancer co-clinical trial identifies genetic modifiers of therapeutic response

Targeted therapies have demonstrated efficacy against specific subsets of molecularly defined cancers. Although most patients with lung cancer are stratified according to a single oncogenic driver, cancers harbouring identical activating genetic mutations show large variations in their responses to the same targeted therapy. The biology underlying this heterogeneity is not well understood, and the impact of co-existing genetic mutations, especially the loss of tumour suppressors, has not been fully explored. Here we use genetically engineered mouse models to conduct a 'co-clinical' trial that mirrors an ongoing human clinical trial in patients with KRAS-mutant lung cancers. This trial aims to determine if the MEK inhibitor selumetinib (AZD6244) increases the efficacy of docetaxel, a standard of care chemotherapy. Our studies demonstrate that concomitant loss of either p53 (also known as Tp53) or Lkb1 (also known as Stk11), two clinically relevant tumour suppressors, markedly impaired the response of Kras-mutant cancers to docetaxel monotherapy. We observed that the addition of selumetinib provided substantial benefit for mice with lung cancer caused by Kras and Kras and p53 mutations, but mice with Kras and Lkb1 mutations had primary resistance to this combination therapy. Pharmacodynamic studies, including positron-emission tomography (PET) and computed tomography (CT), identified biological markers in mice and patients that provide a rationale for the differential efficacy of these therapies in the different genotypes. These co-clinical results identify predictive genetic biomarkers that should be validated by interrogating samples from patients enrolled on the concurrent clinical trial. These studies also highlight the rationale for synchronous co-clinical trials, not only to anticipate the results of ongoing human clinical trials, but also to generate clinically relevant hypotheses that can inform the analysis and design of human studies.     

Frequent mutation of histone-modifying genes in non-Hodgkin lymphoma

Follicular lymphoma (FL) and diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) are the two most common non-Hodgkin lymphomas (NHLs). Here we sequenced tumour and matched normal DNA from 13 DLBCL cases and one FL case to identify genes with mutations in B-cell NHL. We analysed RNA-seq data from these and another 113 NHLs to identify genes with candidate mutations, and then re-sequenced tumour and matched normal DNA from these cases to confirm 109 genes with multiple somatic mutations. Genes with roles in histone modification were frequent targets of somatic mutation. For example, 32% of DLBCL and 89% of FL cases had somatic mutations in MLL2, which encodes a histone methyltransferase, and 11.4% and 13.4% of DLBCL and FL cases, respectively, had mutations in MEF2B, a calcium-regulated gene that cooperates with CREBBP and EP300 in acetylating histones. Our analysis suggests a previously unappreciated disruption of chromatin biology in lymphomagenesis.     

Subgroup-specific structural variation across 1,000 medulloblastoma genomes

Medulloblastoma, the most common malignant paediatric brain tumour, is currently treated with nonspecific cytotoxic therapies including surgery, whole-brain radiation, and aggressive chemotherapy. As medulloblastoma exhibits marked intertumoural heterogeneity, with at least four distinct molecular variants, previous attempts to identify targets for therapy have been underpowered because of small samples sizes. Here we report somatic copy number aberrations (SCNAs) in 1,087 unique medulloblastomas. SCNAs are common in medulloblastoma, and are predominantly subgroup-enriched. The most common region of focal copy number gain is a tandem duplication of SNCAIP, a gene associated with Parkinson's disease, which is exquisitely restricted to Group 4α. Recurrent translocations of PVT1, including PVT1-MYC and PVT1-NDRG1, that arise through chromothripsis are restricted to Group 3. Numerous targetable SCNAs, including recurrent events targeting TGF-β signalling in Group 3, and NF-κB signalling in Group 4, suggest future avenues for rational, targeted therapy.