Exome sequencing in sporadic autism spectrum disorders identifies severe de novo mutations

Evidence for the etiology of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) has consistently pointed to a strong genetic component complicated by substantial locus heterogeneity. We sequenced the exomes of 20 individuals with sporadic ASD (cases) and their parents, reasoning that these families would be enriched for de novo mutations of major effect. We identified 21 de novo mutations, 11 of which were protein altering. Protein-altering mutations were significantly enriched for changes at highly conserved residues. We identified potentially causative de novo events in 4 out of 20 probands, particularly among more severely affected individuals, in FOXP1, GRIN2B, SCN1A and LAMC3. In the FOXP1 mutation carrier, we also observed a rare inherited CNTNAP2 missense variant, and we provide functional support for a multi-hit model for disease risk. Our results show that trio-based exome sequencing is a powerful approach for identifying new candidate genes for ASDs and suggest that de novo mutations may contribute substantially to the genetic etiology of ASDs.     

Phosphoglycerate dehydrogenase diverts glycolytic flux and contributes to oncogenesis

Most tumors exhibit increased glucose metabolism to lactate, however, the extent to which glucose-derived metabolic fluxes are used for alternative processes is poorly understood. Using a metabolomics approach with isotope labeling, we found that in some cancer cells a relatively large amount of glycolytic carbon is diverted into serine and glycine metabolism through phosphoglycerate dehydrogenase (PHGDH). An analysis of human cancers showed that PHGDH is recurrently amplified in a genomic region of focal copy number gain most commonly found in melanoma. Decreasing PHGDH expression impaired proliferation in amplified cell lines. Increased expression was also associated with breast cancer subtypes, and ectopic expression of PHGDH in mammary epithelial cells disrupted acinar morphogenesis and induced other phenotypic alterations that may predispose cells to transformation. Our findings show that the diversion of glycolytic flux into a specific alternate pathway can be selected during tumor development and may contribute to the pathogenesis of human cancer.     

Brownian motion: absolute negative particle mobility

Noise effects in technological applications, far from being a nuisance, can be exploited with advantage - for example, unavoidable thermal fluctuations have found application in the transport and sorting of colloidal particles and biomolecules. Here we use a microfluidic system to demonstrate a paradoxical migration mechanism in which particles always move in a direction opposite to the net acting force ('absolute negative mobility') as a result of an interplay between thermal noise, a periodic and symmetric microstructure, and a biased alternating-current electric field. This counterintuitive phenomenon could be used for bioanalytical purposes, for example in the separation and fractionation of colloids, biological molecules and cells.     

Effect of erythropoietin on red cell differentiation binding of erythropoietin to DNA

Zusammenfassung Die Fähigkeit der DNS verschiedener Rattengewebe, Erythropoietin zu binden, wurde durch Differentialzentrifugation im Sucrosegradient untersucht. Es ergab sich, dass DNS von Knochenmark, Leber, Milz und Thymus Erythropoietin binden, DNS von Hirn und Nieren Erythropoitein hingegen nicht zu binden vermögen.     

Cerebral vascular action of bradykinin in the dog

Zusammenfassung Die Wirkung von natürlichem und synthetischem Bradykinin auf den cerebralen Kreislauf wurde beim Hund in Chloralosenarkose durch die Registrierung des intracraniellen Venendruckes und Blutausflusses und des Nasenhöhlenplethysmogrammes untersucht. Bradykinin erzeugt in Dosen von 0.5–3 µg/kg i.v. eine deutliche Erweiterung der Hirngefässe, analog der durch eine gleiche oder etwas niedrigere Menge von Histamin hervorgerufenen. Im Gegensatz zum Histamin übt Bradykinin in dieser Dosierung keine erweiternde Wirkung auf die Nasenhöhlengefässe aus. Die durch Bradykinin erzeugte Zunahme der Gehirndurchblutung wird durch Neoantergan oder Atropin nicht gehemmt.