• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• 제16권16호
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• pp.7277-7284
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• 2015

Background: The Wnt/${\beta}$-catenin signaling pathway is an important regulator of cellular functions such as proliferation, survival and cell adhesion. Wnt/${\beta}$-catenin signaling is associated with tumor initiation and progression; ${\beta}$-catenin mutations explain only 30% of aberrant signaling found in breast cancer, indicating that other components and/or regulation of the Wnt/${\beta}$-catenin pathway may be involved. Objective: We evaluated AXIN2 rs2240308 and rs151279728 polymorphisms, and expression profiles of ${\beta}$-catenin destruction complex genes in breast cancer patients. Materials and Methods: We collected peripheral blood samples from 102 breast cancer and 102 healthy subjects. The identification of the genetic variation was performed using PCR-RFLPs and DNA sequencing. RT-qPCR was used to determine expression profiles. Results: We found significant association of AXIN2 rs151279728 and rs2240308 polymorphisms with breast cancer risk. Significant increase was observed in AXIN2 level expression in breast cancer patients. Further analyses showed APC, ${\beta}$-catenin, CK1${\alpha}$, GSK3${\beta}$ and PP2A gene expression to be associated to clinic-pathological characteristics. Conclusions: The present study demonstrated, for the first time, that AXIN2 genetic defects and disturbance of ${\beta}$-catenin destruction complex expression may be found in breast cancer patients, providing additional support for roles of Wnt/${\beta}$-catenin pathway dysfunction in breast cancer tumorigenesis. However, the functional consequences of the genetic alterations remain to be determined.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• 제14권4호
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• pp.216-221
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• 2016

Osteoporotic fractures (OFs) are critical hard outcomes of osteoporosis and are characterized by decreased bone strength induced by low bone density and microarchitectural deterioration in bone tissue. Most OFs cause acute pain, hospitalization, immobilization, and slow recovery in patients and are associated with increased mortality. A variety of genetic studies have suggested associations of genetic variants with the risk of OF. Genome-wide association studies have reported various single-nucleotide polymorphisms and copy number variations (CNVs) in European and Asian populations. To identify CNV regions associated with OF risk, we conducted a genome-wide CNV study in a Korean population. We performed logistic regression analyses in 1,537 Korean subjects (299 OF cases and 1,238 healthy controls) and identified a total of 8 CNV regions significantly associated with OF (p < 0.05). Then, one CNV region located on chromosome 20q13.12 was selected for experimental validation. The selected CNV region was experimentally validated by quantitative polymerase chain reaction. The CNV region of chromosome 20q13.12 is positioned upstream of a family of long non-coding RNAs, LINC01260. Our findings could provide new information on the genetic factors associated with the risk of OF.

• 환경생물
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• 제21권1호
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• pp.45-51
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• 2003

지리적으로 격리되어 있는 아무르산개구리 (Rana amurensis)의 유전적인 변이를 알아보기 위하여 미토콘드리아 165 rDNA 유전자 중 401 bp 염기서열을 분석하여 비교하였다. 아무르산개구리(4개 지역집단; 한국, 중국, 몽골 및 러시아), 참개구리(2개 지역집단: 한국, 일본) 및 다른 종류의 산개구리류 미토콘드리아 165 rDNA 유전자도 함께 비교하였다. 아무르산개구리의 형태적 유사성에도 불구하고, 한국 집단은 다른 지역의 집단들과 비교하여 염기서열상의 상당한 차이를 나타났다. 본 연구에서 염기서열 분석(401 bp 분석)으로 한국산 아무르산개구리가 아종인가 아니면 독립종인지에 대하여 설명할 수는 없으나, 본 연구의 결과와 Lee et at. (1999)에 의해 연구된 한국산 아무르산개구리의 미토콘드리아 cytochrome b유전자 분석 결과가 서로 일치하는 것을 알 수 있었다. 따라서, 한국산 아무르산개구리에 대한 분류학적 위치를 종 수준에서 다시 재검토해야 할 것으로 판단되나, 보다 명확한 결과를 위해서 더 많은 지역의 개체군을 포함하여 형태학적, 생태학적 연구가 진행될 필요가 있으며, 한국산 아무르산개구리의 유전적 차이도 함께 고려해 야 할 것으로 판단된다.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• 제19권7호
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• pp.943-952
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• 2006

The genetic variation in 10 indigenous Caucasian sheep breeds was studied with 14 micro-satellite loci in order to determine the genetic diversity among and between the breeds. Five breeds from Asia, five breeds from Europe and one breed from Africa, were included in order to study any relationships or influences they may have with the Caucasian sheep analyzed. A Karakul population from Uzbekistan was included in the study to see whether there was any Central Asian influence. All the 14 loci were found to be polymorphic in all the breeds, with the exception of ILST0056, which was monomorphic in Imeretian. A total of 231 alleles were generated from all the 688 individuals of the sheep analyzed. The mean number of alleles (MNA) at each locus was 16.5. The total number of alleles detected in all samples ranged from 13 in several loci to 23 in OarJMP029. Out of total 308 Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium (HWE) tests, 85 gave significant results. After Bonferroni correction for multiple tests, 30 comparisons still remained significant to the experimental levels. The Gala population was the most diverse and Imeretian the least diverse with a MNA of 8.50 and 5.51, respectively. Gene diversity estimates exhibited the same trend and ranged from 0.803 in Gala and 0.623 in Imeretian, but generally there is higher diversity among the Caucasian breeds in comparison to other eference breeds. The closest breeds were Tushin and Bozakh with Da of 0.113 and most distant breeds were $Djallonk{\acute{e}}$ and North Rondalsy with Da of 0.445. Principal Component (PC) analyses were done. PC1 described 14% of the differences. PC2, which described 13% of the differences, further separated the Caucasian breeds from Asian breeds except Karakul and Awasi, and the two British breeds. PC3 described 10% of the differences, allowing better differentiation of the Caucasian breeds. A moderate degree of reliability was observed for individual-breed assignment from the 14 loci using different approaches among which the Bayesian method proved to be the most efficient. About 72% of individuals analyzed were correctly assigned to their respective breeds.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• 제18권2호
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• pp.169-175
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• 2014

Human organic cation/carnitine transporter 1 (OCTN1) plays an important role in the transport of drugs and endogenous substances. It is known that a missense variant of OCTN1 is significantly associated with Crohn's disease susceptibility. This study was performed to identify genetic variants of the OCTN1 promoter in Korean individuals and to determine their functional effects. First, the promoter region of OCTN1 was directly sequenced using genomic DNA samples from 48 healthy Koreans. OCTN1 promoter activity was then measured using a luciferase reporter assay in HCT-116 cells. Seven variants of the OCTN1 promoter were identified, two of which were novel. There were also four major OCTN1 promoter haplotypes. Three haplotypes (H1, H3, and H4) showed decreased transcriptional activity, which was reduced by 22.9%, 23.0%, and 44.6%, respectively (p<0.001), compared with the reference haplotype (H2). Transcription factor binding site analyses and gel shift assays revealed that NF-Y could bind to the region containing g.-1875T>A, a variant present in H3, and that the binding affinity of NF-Y was higher for the g.-1875T allele than for the g.-1875A allele. NF-Y could also repress OCTN1 transcription. These data suggest that three OCTN1 promoter haplotypes could regulate OCTN1 transcription. To our knowledge, this is the first study to identify functional variants of the OCTN1 promoter.

• Animal cells and systems
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• 제15권1호
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• pp.37-43
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• 2011

The Korean freshwater crayfish, Cambaroides similis, has recently suffered from range reduction and habitat degradation caused by environmental changes and water pollution. For the conservation and restoration of this species, it is necessary to understand the current population structures of Korean C. similis using estimation of their genetic variation. In this study, eight micro satellite loci were developed and characterized from 49 individuals collected from four locations: one population from Mt. Bukhan (BH) and three populations from Mt. Gwanak (GA) in Seoul, Korea. As a result, the number of alleles per locus ranged from 2 to 12. The observed heterozygosities and expected heterozygosities ranged from 0.000 to 0.833 and from 0.125 to 0.943, respectively, and the former values were significantly lower than the latter ones expected under the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. No significant linkage disequilibrium was revealed between any of the locus pairs after Bonferroni correction. From the pairwise Fst results over all samples, higher differentiation between GA-BH population pairs (mean 0.1789) was observed than between GA population pairs (mean 0.0454). This was also supported by Mantel's test showing that the genetic distances of these crayfish populations were significantly correlated with geographic distances. This result may show the regional differentiation caused by restricted gene flow between northern (BH) and southern (GA) populations within Seoul. These micro satellite markers have the potential for use in analyses of the genetic diversity and population structure of C. similis species, with implications for its conservation and management plans.

• 환경생물
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• 제22권1호
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• pp.66-74
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• 2004

한국에 분포하고 있는 개구리 속에 대한 염기서열을 결정하고 상호 비교하여 종간 유전적 변이 정도를 밝히고자 한국산 개구리 속 6종과 일본산 개구리 속 1종에 대한 미토콘드리아 165 rDNA를 분석하였으며, Gene-bank에 수록된 일본산 산개구리류 3종도 함께 비교 분석하여 총 437 bp의 염기서열을 결정하였다. 산개구리류 7종에 대한 similarity는 91.3∼97.3％이며, 참개구리류는 96.1∼97.3％로 나타났다. 또한, 참개구리류와 옴개구리류의 genetic distance가 참개구리류와 산개구리류보다 더 가깝게 나타났다. Neighbor-joining분석에서 참개구리류와 산개구리류로 2개의 cluster를 형성하였는데, 이 중산개구리류는 총 3개의 subcluster를 형성하였다. 또한, 참개구리는 내륙지방과 도서지방에 분포하는 집단이 각각 나눠지는 것은 지리적 격리에 의한 결과라고 사료된다. Maximum-likelihood분석도 NJ 분석 결과와 매우 유사하게 나타났으나 옴개구리(R. rugosa)는 NJ와 ML분석에서 서로 상반된 결과를 나타냈다. 이는 한국산 옴 개구리가 남부지역과 기타 지역에서 유전적 차이가 크게 나타나며, 일본 집단과 외부 특징에서 차이를 보이는 등 문제점을 가지고 있기 때문에 보다 다양한 연구가 이루어져야 올바른 해석 이 가능하리라 판단된다.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• 제9권4호
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• pp.152-160
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• 2011

Hypertension is the major factor of most death and high blood pressure (BP) can lead to stroke, myocardial infarction and cardiac failure. Moreover, hypertension is strongly correlated with body mass index (BMI). Although the exact causes of hypertension are still unclear, some of genetic loci were discovered from genome-wide association study (GWAS). Therefore, it is essential to study genetic variation for finding more genetic factor affecting hypertension. The purpose of our study is to conduct a CNV association study for hypertension-related traits, BP and BMI, in Korean individuals. We identified 2,206 CNV regions from 3,274 community-based Korean participants using the Affymetrix Genome-Wide Human SNP Array 6.0 platform and performed a logistic regression analysis of CNVs with two hypertension-related traits, BP and BMI. Moreover, the 4,692 participants in an independent cohort were selected for respective replication analyses. GWAS of CNV identified two loci encompassing previously known hypertension-related genes: LPA (lipoprotein) on 6q26, and JAK2 (Janus kinase 2) on 9p24, with suggestive p-values (0.0334 for LPA and 0.0305 for JAK2 ). These two positive findings, however, were not evaluated in the replication stage. Our result confirmed the conclusion of CNV study from the WTCCC suggesting weak association with common diseases. This is the first study of CNV association study with BP and BMI in Korean population and it provides a state of CNV association study with common human diseases using SNP array.

• Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• 제2권1호
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• pp.66-77
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• 1999

The sequences coding for the 5.8S rDNA and the internal transcribed spacers (ITS1 and ITS 2) from the isolates of nine isolates of Gyrodinium impudicum and two isolates of Gymnodinium sanguineum species were amplified, sequenced and compared with the previously known Alexandrium species and Gymnodinium catenatum. The genetic distance analyses based on the sequence alignment indicated that Gymnodinium catenatum and Gyrodinium impudicum species were some related, Alexandrium species was distant. G. catenatum and G. sanguineum were quite separate, but these two species belonged to the same genus. G. impudicum and G. catenatum forming the closet cluster showed some variation in the alignment of ITS regions. The length of ITS1 varied more than that of ITS2 and the length of ITS1 and ITS2 was different for each G. impudicum, Gymnodinium and Alexandrium species. Also, the length of ITS1 was shorter than that of ITS2. However, on the sequences of G. sanguineum, the length of ITS1 was longer about 23 nucleotides than that of ITS2. The phylogenetic analysis and rDNA similarity of G. impudicum and G. catenatum $(59\%)$ is higher than the that of G. catenatum and G. sanguineum $(55\%)$. It was thought that the phylogenetic analysis and the genetic distance revealed that G. impudicum and G. catenatum were clearly different species and G. impudicum may belong to the genus of Gymnodinium.

• Journal of Periodontal and Implant Science
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• 제25권3호
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• pp.487-496
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• 1995

Previous studies have demonstrated that not all A. actinomycetemcomitans produced significant level of leukotoxic factor and its leukotoxicity have associated with serotype and genetic variation. Our aim was to investigate on the interrelationship between serotype and leukotoxicity of an A. actinomycetemcomitans consisting of 13 clinically well characterized. Korean isolates and to evaluate if particular virulent clonal types of A. actinomycetemcomitans are associated with periodontal disease. For this study, 13 strains of A. actinomycetemcomitans from 6 patients with periodontal disease were isolated and identified by using a selective medium(tryptic soy agar supplemented with 10% serum, $75{\mu}g$ of bacitracin and $5{\mu}g$ of vancomycin per ml) in 10% C02 incubator for 3days with routine Gram staining, colony morphology and biochemical test..For serotyping, antisera were prepared from reference strains of 5 serotypes. (ATCC 29523,Y4, SUNY aB 67, IDH 781, IDH 1705) and then ammonium sulfate precipitation, immunoabsorption and indirect immunofluoroscent procedures were done. For analysis of leukotoxicity, sonic extract of A. actinomycetemcomitans exposed to PMN, and trypan blue was stained for counting the cell viability. Finally Southern blot analyses of genomic DNA digested with the restriction enzyme Tag I was done and the Southern blots were hybridized with the 530bp fragment, termed delta 530, originating from the ltx promoter of strain 652 and deleted from strain JP2. Also ltxA-3.1 and SC2 probe from strain JP2 were hybridized with genomic DNA fragments. Results reveal that strains isolated showed approximately equal proportions of 3 serotypes(b, d, e) and serotype b was not detected. 2 patients harbored 2 different serotypes in the same disease site. The prevalence of leukotoxic strain was 23% and there was no relationship between serotype, leukotoxicity and clinical observations. Especially virulent clonal types of Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitan (JP2 strain) could not found. Further studies are necessary on the genetic polymorphism of leukotoxin and its relations to clinical status.