measuring-lactase-enzymatic-activity-in-the-teaching-lab

Measuring Lactase Enzymatic Activity in the Teaching Lab

Understanding how enzymes work, and relating this to real life examples, is critical to a wide range of undergraduate degrees in the biological and ...

University of Reading

Oligogenic inheritance implies a role for several genetic factors in disease etiology. We studied oligogenic inheritance in Parkinson's (PD) by assessing the potential burden of additional rare variants in established Mendelian genes and/or GBA, in individuals with and without a primary pathogenic genetic cause in two large independent cohorts totaling 7,900 PD cases and 6,166 controls. An excess (≥30%) of cases with a recognised primary genetic cause had ≥1 additional rare variants in Mendelian PD genes, as compared with no known mutation PD cases (17%) and unaffected controls (16%), supporting our hypothesis. Carriers of additional Mendelian gene variants have younger ages at onset (AAO). The effect of additional Mendelian variants in LRRK2 G2019S mutation carriers, of which ATP13A2 variation is particularly common, may account for some of the variation in penetrance. About 10% of No Known Mutation-PD cases harbour a rare GBA variant compared to known pathogenic mutation PD cases (8%) and controls (5%), with carriers having earlier AAOs. Together, the data suggest that the oligogenic inheritance of rare Mendelian variants may be important in patient with a primary pathogenic cause, whereas GBA increases risk across all forms of PD. This study highlights the potential genetic complexity of Mendelian PD. The identification of potential modifying variants provides new insights into disease mechanisms by potentially separating relevant from benign variants and by the interaction between genes in specific pathways. In the future this may be relevant to genetic testing and counselling of patients with PD and their families.

Additional rare variant analysis in Parkinson's disease cases with and without known pathogenic mutations: evidence for oligogenic inheritance.

Signal transduction cascades governed by kinases and GTPases are a critical component of the command and control of cellular processes, with the precise outcome partly determined by direct protein-protein interactions (PPIs). Here, we use the human ROCO proteins as a model for investigating PPI signaling events-taking advantage of the unique dual kinase/GTPase activities and scaffolding properties of these multidomain proteins. PPI networks are reported that encompass the human ROCO proteins, developed using two complementary approaches. First, using the recently developed weighted PPI network analysis (WPPINA) pipeline, a confidence-weighted overview of validated ROCO protein interactors is obtained from peer-reviewed literature. Second, novel ROCO PPIs are assessed experimentally via protein microarray screens. The networks derived from these orthologous approaches are compared to identify common elements within the ROCO protein interactome; functional enrichment analysis of this common core of the network identified stress response and cell projection organization as shared functions within this protein family. Despite the presence of these commonalities, the results suggest that many unique interactors and therefore some specialized cellular roles have evolved for different members of the ROCO proteins. Overall, this multi-approach strategy to increase the resolution of protein interaction networks represents a prototype for the utility of PPI data integration in understanding signaling biology.

Comparative Protein Interaction Network Analysis Identifies Shared and Distinct Functions for the Human ROCO Proteins.

Genome wide association studies (GWAS) have helped identify large numbers of genetic loci that significantly associate with increased risk of developing diseases. However, translating genetic knowledge into understanding of the molecular mechanisms underpinning disease (i.e. disease-specific impacted biological processes) has to date proved to be a major challenge. This is primarily due to difficulties in confidently defining candidate genes at GWAS-risk loci. The goal of this study was to better characterize candidate genes within GWAS loci using a protein interactome based approach and with Parkinson's disease (PD) data as a test case.

James E. Tomkins

School of Pharmacy

University of Reading

Measuring Lactase Enzymatic Activity in the Teaching Lab

James E. Tomkins

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University of Reading

Measuring Lactase Enzymatic Activity in the Teaching Lab

School of Pharmacy