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Owing to the changes in the general ecological situation in Russia, livestock losses from ovine anaplasmosis have rapidly increased in recent years. The development of a vaccine against this disease is therefore all the more relevant. A continuous culture of tick cells could be used as an appropriate substrate for producing biomass of the pathogen of ovine anaplasmosis, Anaplasma ovis, for the purpose of manufacturing a cell-cultural inactivated vaccine. Such a continuous cell line of the tick Dermacentor marginatus, the definitive reservoir host of A. ovis, has been obtained by cultivation of homogenized tick eggs on a modified Leibovitz medium L15. The established cell line DM-77 has an undifferentiated phenotype: the cells are rounded, with large nuclei and well-visible nucleoli. By the end of the study, the cell line was passaged eight times and did not express signs of growth rate decrease. The duplication time was 2.8 ± 0.3 days for cultivation in a medium with 10% fetal serum at 32°C.

Specific expression patterns of the FLC and VIN3 genes, which play a key role in the vernalization-mediated transition to flowering of A. thaliana plants from northern natural populations (Karelia), have been revealed. The differences in the FLC and VIN3 expression patterns during vernalization for populations represented by late-flowering forms, on one hand, and a population which was mixed with respect to the onset of flowering, on the other hand, were observed. A low level of FLC and VIN3 expression in plants from the studied populations prior to cold exposure was established. During vernalization, the FLC mRNA levels increased on the 10th and 20th day, followed by its decrease by the 30th day. Prolonged exposure to cold caused an increase in VIN3 expression with a peak in the populations represented by late-flowering plant forms on the 30th day of vernalization and in the mixed population for the flowering onset of plants on the 40th day. Specific patterns of FLC and VIN3 expression during vernalization was observed in S1 offspring of one early-flowering plant, while FLC expression in it changed according to classical scheme; i.e., the initially high level of FLC expression decreased in the process of vernalization. It is suggested that genetic and epigenetic mechanisms involved in controlling the flowering rate and the genes involved in this process may differ in plants from populations of different geographic regions.

Patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) represent a risk group for developing chronic kidney disease (CKD), the terminal stages of which require renal replacement therapy. The study of genetic predisposition to CKD is of special significance from the perspective of the prediction and identification of risk groups at the preclinical stage. The present study is a review of the world literature on the genetics of CKD in diabetes and also includes data of our own studies.

This paper considers molecular mechanisms of DNA methylation and histone modifications in plants. The role of these epigenetic processes in plant development is discussed.

The increase in diabetes was noted at the turn of the 21st century. Patients with type 2 diabetes (T2DM) make up the majority of patients. Diabetes is a multifactorial disease. It arises from adverse effects of environmental factors on the body of genetically susceptible peoples. According to modern concepts, T2DM is a polygenic disease. Each of the involved genes contributes to the risk of developing of this disease. In our study, the association between polymorphic genetic markers rs7756992, rs9465871, rs7754840, and rs10946398 in the CDKAL1 gene and rs1111875 in the HHEX/IDE locus and T2DM in the Russian population were studied. Four hundred forty patients with type 2 diabetes and 264 healthy individuals without any signs of the disease were examined. The comparative analysis of distribution of genotypes and allele frequencies points to an association between polymorphic genetic markers rs7756992, rs9465871, and rs10946398 in the CDKAL1 gene and this disease. For the other polymorphic genetic markers (rs7754840 in the CDKAL1 gene and rs1111875 in the HHEX/IDE locus), no statistically significant associations are found. On the basis of these data, we can conclude that the CDKAL1 gene is associated with development of T2DM. For the HHEX/IDE locus, such an association is absent.