News

Dec152012

A phylogenetic approach to test for evidence of parental conflict or gene duplications associated with protein-encoding imprinted orthologous genes in placental mammals

BlogBy Mary O'ConnellDecember 15, 2012

There are multiple theories on the evolution of genomic imprinting. We investigated whether the molecular evolution of true orthologs of known imprinted genes provides support for theories based on gene duplication or parental conflicts (where mediated by amino-acid changes). Our analysis of 34 orthologous genes demonstrates that the vast majority of mammalian imprinted genes have…

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Dec152012

Selection and the cell cycle: Positive Darwinian Selection in a well-known DNA damage response pathway

PublicationsBy Mary O'ConnellDecember 15, 2012

Cancer is a common occurrence in multi-cellular organisms and is not strictly limited to the elderly in a population. It is therefore possible that individuals with genotypes that protect against early onset cancers have a selective advantage. In this study the patterns of mutation in the proteins of a well-studied DNA damage response pathway have been examined…

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Dec152012

A case-by-case analysis of imprinted retrogenes

PublicationsBy Mary O'ConnellDecember 15, 2012

Retroposition is a widespread phenomenon resulting in the generation of new genes that are initially related to a parent gene via very high coding sequence similarity. We examine the evolutionary fate of four retrogenes generated by such an event; mouse Inpp5f_v2, Mcts2, Nap1l5, and U2af1-rs1. These genes are all subject to the epigenetic phenomenon of parental imprinting. We first…

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Dec152012

A role for TLR4 in Clostridium difficile infection and the recognition of surface layer proteins

BlogBy Mary O'ConnellDecember 15, 2012

Clostridium difficile is the etiological agent of antibiotic-associated diarrhoea (AAD) and pseudomembranous colitis in humans. The role of the surface layer proteins (SLPs) in this disease has not yet been fully explored. The aim of this study was to investigate a role for SLPs in the recognition of C. difficile and the subsequent activation of…

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