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Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the second leading cause of cancer-associated mortality worldwide. Transcription factors (TFs) are crucial proteins that regulate gene expression during cancer progression; however, the roles of TFs in HCC relapse remain unclear. To identify the TFs that drive HCC relapse, the present study constructed co-expression network and identified the Tan module the most relevant to HCC relapse. Numerous hub TFs (highly connected) were subsequently obtained from the Tan module according to the intra-module connectivity and the protein-protein interaction network connectivity. Next, E1A-binding protein p400 (EP400) and TIA1 cytotoxic granule associated RNA binding protein (TIA1) were identified as hub TFs differentially connected between the relapsed and non-relapsed subnetworks. In addition, zinc finger protein 143 (ZNF143) and Yin Yang 1 (YY1) were also identified by using the plugin iRegulon in Cytoscape as master upstream regulatory elements, which could potentially regulate expression of the genes and TFs of the Tan module, respectively. The Kaplan-Meier (KM) curves obtained from KMplot and Gene Expression Profiling Interactive Analysis tools confirmed that the high expression of EP400 and TIA1 were significantly associated with shorter relapse-free survival and disease-free survival of patients with HCC. Furthermore, the KM curves from the UALCAN database demonstrated that high EP400 expression significantly reduced the overall survival of patients with HCC. EP400 and TIA1 may therefore serve as potential prognostic and therapeutic biomarkers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Large-scale genotyping plays an important role in genetic association studies. It has provided new opportunities for gene discovery, especially when combined with high-throughput sequencing technologies. Here, we report an efficient solution for large-scale genotyping. We call it specific-locus amplified fragment sequencing (SLAF-seq). SLAF-seq technology has several distinguishing characteristics: i) deep sequencing to ensure genotyping accuracy; ii) reduced representation strategy to reduce sequencing costs; iii) pre-designed reduced representation scheme to optimize marker efficiency; and iv) double barcode system for large populations. In this study, we tested the efficiency of SLAF-seq on rice and soybean data. Both sets of results showed strong consistency between predicted and practical SLAFs and considerable genotyping accuracy. We also report the highest density genetic map yet created for any organism without a reference genome sequence, common carp in this case, using SLAF-seq data. We detected 50,530 high-quality SLAFs with 13,291 SNPs genotyped in 211 individual carp. The genetic map contained 5,885 markers with 0.68 cM intervals on average. A comparative genomics study between common carp genetic map and zebrafish genome sequence map showed high-quality SLAF-seq genotyping results. SLAF-seq provides a high-resolution strategy for large-scale genotyping and can be generally applicable to various species and populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To investigate the new single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) sites of HIV-1 coreceptor CCR5 gene and conduct genotyping of CCR5-894C deletion allele in Chinese populations., Methods: The full length fragment of CCR5 gene coding region was amplified by PCR amplification and sequenced in 45 healthy subjects from Han ethnic group. The sequencing data was analyzed by using DNAstar software for identification of new SNP sites. Furthermore, the genotyping of CCR5-894C deletion variant was performed by PCR-RFLP assay in 627 indigenous Chinese individuals including HIV-1 carriers, HIV-1 high risk population of STDs or IDUs as well as normal contrast., Results: Totally six SNPs and one cytosine base deletion at the 894 nucleotide of CCR5 gene coding region were found in forty five Chinese Han subjects. Four SNPs, i.e. 184A-->G, 503G-->T, 668G-->A, 999G-->T, cause alteration of corresponding amino acids in CCR5 protein and two SNPs are nonsense mutations. The 894C deletion mutation results in a frame shift mutation of CCR5 gene. Among the six SNPs identified, the three sites 184A-->G, 503G-->T, 999G-->T were firstly reported only in Chinese people. The allelic frequencies of mutant 184G, 503T and 999T alleles were 1.1%, 21.1% and 10.0% in Han healthy subjects, respectively. PCR-RFLP assay showed the frequencies of CCR5-894C deletion alleles are 1.11%, 0.53% and 0% for Chinese Han, Tibetan and Mongolian healthy individuals, respectively. There was not significant different of the frequencies of CCR5-894C deletion allele among HIV-1 high risk populations, HIV-1 carries and healthy subjects., Conclusion: The subjects from Chinese Han group has its own distinctive SNP sites in the HIV-1 coreceptor CCR5 gene, three new SNPs (184A-->G, 503G-->T, 999G-->T) were firstly identified. Taking together, the significance and implication of these distinctive SNP sites and the 894C deletion mutation in the pathogenesis of HIV/AIDS disease need to be further studied.