Category Archives: Genome

Juan Gaertner/Science Photo Library

An LDL, or 'bad' cholesterol molecule (round) binds to an LDL receptor protein (pink) in this illustration.

For years, medical researchers have hoped that a burgeoning class of cholesterol drugs targeting a protein called PCSK9 could be the next generation of blockbuster treatments. Now, a large clinical trial has demonstrated that this approach can lower the risk of heart disease. But its still unclear whether these drugs which attempt to mimic a beneficial genetic mutation will be the breakthrough that scientists and pharmaceutical companies had imagined.

The results, published in the New England Journal of Medicine1 and presented at the American College of Cardiology conference in Washington DC on 17 March, show that a drug called evolocumab (Repatha) reduced the risk of cardiovascular death, heart attack and stroke by about 20% in patients who were already taking other cholesterol-controlling drugs called statins. This reduction in risk is roughly the same magnitude as patients might see from taking statins alone. On another measure that also included hospitalizations for conditions that cause reduced blood flow to the heart, evolocumab reduced the risk by 15%.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved evolocumab in 2015 for use in some patients with high cholesterol, based on data showing that the drug could lower levels of bad low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol circulating in the blood by approximately 60%2. But researchers didnt have evidence then that the drug could also protect against heart attacks or strokes.

It is an exceptionally important study, says Harlan Krumholz, a cardiologist at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. The promise of these drugs has been very clear. Whether they would deliver on that promise was suspected, but not known.

The new results from a trial with more than 27,500 participants vindicate the concept that inhibiting PCSK9 can control cholesterol and heart-disease risk. The question now is whether physicians and health-care payers will consider that benefit great enough to warrant the annual price tag of roughly US$14,000.

The PCSK9 protein helps to control the amount of bad cholesterol in the blood by regulating the number of LDL receptor proteins on cell surfaces, which take LDL out of circulation. People with naturally occurring mutations in the PCSK9 gene have unusually low levels of bad cholesterol and up to an 88% lower risk of developing heart disease.

Turning that information into a successful treatment, however, has been a challenge. Several drugs that target PCSK9 are either in development or have been approved, but evolocumab is the first to report results from such a large trial.

Pfizer, based in New York City, abandoned a PCSK9-blocking drug called bococizumab last year after running into problems during patient trials. Bococizumab, like evolocumab, is an antibody that binds to the PCSK9 protein. But participants who received bococizumab tended to form an immune response against the drug, which interfered with the treatments3.

And the FDA approved evolocumab, made by Amgen in Thousand Oaks, California, only for certain patients, such as those with a hereditary condition that causes extremely high levels of LDL.

Now that the data on evolocumab are in, some health-care payers such as insurance companies and government programmes might be more willing to shoulder the treatments steep cost. But any new cholesterol drug faces stiff competition from cheaper statins, which have been used to control LDL levels for decades.

Some analysts say that demonstrating a statistically significant heart-health benefit would not be enough to ensure the PCSK9 drugs status as the next big thing. The more important hurdle is the one that payers have imposed restricting access to these medicines, wrote analysts at the investment bank Leerink Partners in New York City, in a report released 15 March.

To cross that threshold, Leerinks analysts estimated that evolocumab would need to reduce cardiovascular risks by 25% or more.

Overall, the risk reduction was less than what might have been expected based on how much evolocumab reduces the amount of LDL cholesterol in the body, says Krumholz. But the evidence of a benefit is strong enough that he will discuss the drug as an option with his patients, he adds.

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Genome-based cholesterol drug boosts heart health - Nature.com

More than 90 genomics researchers attended the recent launch of Qatar Genome Programmes (QGP) Research Consortium at Qatar Foundation headquarters in Education City. The consortium is the latest step in QGPs precision medicine implementation efforts. Participants at the launch represented several institutions in Qatar, including QGP, Qatar Biobank, Sidra Medical and Research Center, Hamad Medical Corporation, Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar, Qatar Biomedical Research Institute, Qatar Computing Research Institute, and Qatar University. Several of the investigators also have international collaborators. Dr Asmaa al-Thani, chairperson of Qatar Genome Programme Committee and vice chair of Qatar Biobank, said inaugurating the Research Consortium is a critical next step on the path towards precision medicine. By bringing together so many researchers from a variety of institutions, Qatar Genome Programme is helping co-ordinate the nationwide effort to map the Qatari genome. The investigators will work on exploring the extensive genotypic and phenotypic data sets produced by Qatar Biobank and QGP in an effort to identify key features of the Qatari genome. This knowledge will contribute to the development of individualised disease treatment and prevention methods, which in turn will lead to more efficient and effective outcomes. One of the key pillars of the Qatar Genome Programmes strategy is forging research partnerships with institutions in Qatar, as well as fostering international collaborations, said Dr Said Ismail, manager of QGP. This consortium, which involves key stakeholders from across the research spectrum in Qatar, significantly strengthens those relationships. By consolidating genomic research efforts in Qatar, QGP hopes to leverage the widest range of resources and expertise, as well as avoid duplication or contradiction in research. Also, QGPs publication strategy assures that different entities in Qatar get equal opportunities to work with the data gathered through Qatar Biobank. So far, Qatar Biobank has collected samples from more than 6,000 volunteers, including more than 5,000 Qataris. Of that sample group, QGP has sequenced more than 3,000 genomes.

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Genome Programme launches consortium - Gulf Times

March 14, 2017 Naturally, fruit flies feed on ripe fruits. A diet which matches the insects' amino acid composition makes the flies to grow even faster. Credit: MPI f. Biology of Ageing/ Grnke

A moderate reduction in food intake, known as dietary restriction, protects against multiple ageing-related diseases and extends life span, but can also supress growth and fertility. A research group from the Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing in Cologne has now developed a diet based on the model organism's genome, which enhances growth and fecundity with no costs to lifespan.

What is the best path to a long and healthy life? Scientists had a relatively simple answer for many years: less food. But it turned out that this could have unpleasant consequences. Experiments showed that putting flies or mice on diet could impair their development and fecundity. How could we take advantage of the beneficial effects of dieting, and at the same time avoid the damaging effects?

Genome-based diet

Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing in Cologne and UCL Institute of Healthy Ageing in London have now designed a diet based on the model organism's genome. In the study they calculated the amount of amino acids a fruit fly would need, thereby defining the diet's amino acid composition.

"The fly genome is entirely known. For our studies we used only the sections in the genetic material that serve as templates for protein assembly - the exons, which collectively make up the 'exome'. Then we calculated the relative abundance of each amino acid in the exome, and designed a fly diet that reflects this amino acid composition," explains George Soultoukis, scientist in the department of Linda Partridge, director at the Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing in Cologne and at the UCL Institute of Healthy Ageing in London.

Using a holidic fly diet previously developed by the team to enable manipulation of individual nutrients such as amino acids, the group found that flies eating this exome-matched diet develop a lot faster, grow bigger in size, and lay more eggs compared to flies fed a standard diet. Remarkably, the flies on the exome-matched diet lived as long as slower-growing, fewer-egg-laying flies fed with "standard" diets. "The flies that had free access to the exome-matched diet even ate less than controls. Thus, high quality protein, as defined by the genome, appears to have a higher satiety value," said Matthew Piper, who conducted the work at UCL and is now working at Monash University.

The study also found that similar phenomena may occur in mice, and future mouse work could further improve our understanding of how and why diets affect mammalian lifespan. "Our aim now is to characterize the effects of genome-based diets upon mammalian lifespan," says Soultoukis.

Human diet

In theory this approach is applicable to all organisms with a sequenced genome including humans. Soultoukis explains: "Dietary interventions based on amino acids can be a powerful strategy for protecting human health. Obviously factors such as age, gender, health, and personal lifestyle also have to be taken into account. Future studies may still employ novel -omics data to design diets whose amino acid supply matches the needs of an organism with even higher precision. Understanding why we need amino acids in the amounts we do will be key, and such studies provide novel and powerful insights into the vital interactions between nature and nurture."

Explore further: High-sugar diet programs a short lifespan in flies

More information: Matthew D.W. Piper et al. Matching Dietary Amino Acid Balance to the In Silico-Translated Exome Optimizes Growth and Reproduction without Cost to Lifespan, Cell Metabolism (2017). DOI: 10.1016/j.cmet.2017.02.005

Journal reference: Cell Metabolism

Provided by: Max Planck Society

Flies with a history of eating a high sugar diet live shorter lives, even after their diet improves. This is because the unhealthy diet drives long-term reprogramming of gene expression, according to a UCL-led team of researchers.

Getting the correct balance of proteins in our diet may be more important for healthy ageing than reducing calories, new research funded by the Wellcome Trust and Research into Ageing suggests.

Regaining weight after weight loss is usually undesirable, but is this 'yo-yo effect' actually bad for your health? Scientists from Wageningen University recently investigated the influence of diet on the lifespan of fruit ...

Fruit flies deprived of specific essential nutrients alter their food choicesand even the way they search for food. A team of neuroscientists, led by researchers from the Champalimaud Foundation in Lisbon, Portugal, "dissected" ...

Aphids suck up an almost endless supply of sugary sap from their plant hosts. They can survive on this junk food diet because bacterial partners help them convert the handful of amino acids in the sap into other, essential ...

Fruit flies live 16% longer than average when given low doses of the mood stabiliser lithium, according to a UCL-led study.

For decades, the tiny roundworm C. elegans has been a vital tool in the biomedical researcher's toolkit, proving central to groundbreaking discoveries such as green fluorescent protein, the molecular marker used universally ...

Good vs bad cholesterol. Margarine vs butter. Red meat vs. vegan. The causal links between fats and health have been a hotly debated topic for scientists, physicians and the public.

Big, small, broad, narrow, long or short, turned up, pug, hooked, bulbous or prominent, humans inherit their nose shape from their parents, but ultimately, the shape of someone's nose and that of their parents was formed ...

A team of Dutch and German researchers has discovered the operation of one of the oldest biological clocks in the world, which is crucial for life on earth as we know it. The researchers applied a new combination of cutting-edge ...

New work from a joint team of plant biologists and ecologists from Carnegie and Stanford University has uncovered the factor behind an important innovation that makes grassesboth the kind that make up native prairies and ...

Tardigrades, the microscopic animals also known as water bears and moss piglets, have captured the imagination of scientists for almost 250 years, thanks to their Muppet-like appearance and their ability to survive extreme ...

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Genome-based diets maximise growth, fecundity, and lifespan - Phys.Org

Science Daily

Visualizing the genome: First 3-D structures of active DNA created ... Science Daily Scientists have determined the first 3-D structures of intact mammalian genomes from individual cells, showing how the DNA from all the chromosomes ... Mapping the Genome in 3DTechnology Networks all 8 news articles »

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Visualizing the genome: First 3-D structures of active DNA created ... - Science Daily

A recent report by Startup Genome and the Global Entrepreneurship Network has ranked Vancouver as Canadas top startup ecosystem.

The 2017 Global Startup Ecosystem Report (GSER) took a comprehensive look at how various global cities build and sustain strong startup ecosystems. Startup Genome surveyed over 10,000 entrepreneurs across 56 ecosystems, with the support of 300 partner organizations.

Were seeing a lot of demand for insight into what makes the worlds most successful innovation ecosystems tick.

The participating cities, which include Silicon Valley, Beijing, and Boston, were assessed based on their performance and eight factors influencing startup success: funding, market reach, global connectedness, technical talent, startup experience, resource attraction, corporate involvement, founder ambition, and strategy. The surveys goal was to help startup founders, employers, regional leaders, and policymakers determine how they can grow of their startup ecosystems.

GSER found that, in addition to being ranked as Canadas top startup hub, Vancouver ranked 15th globally. The city was ranked ahead of Toronto and Waterloo, which together ranked 16th globally. While the three cities made it to the top 20 startup ecosystems in the world, Montreal did not.

When Startup Genome first launched this report in 2013, Vancouver scored 9th out of all global cities studied. In 2015, Vancouver dropped to 18th, but still remained in the Top 20.

Were seeing a lot of demand for insight into what makes the worlds most successful innovation ecosystems tick, and how this knowledge can be replicated and scaled in different regions around the world, said JF Gauthier, the CEO of Startup Genome. Civic leaders want to invest in innovation, entrepreneurship, and job creation, but they often lack the know-how to quantify what development stage their local ecosystem is at and what tangible policies and activities to focus on in order to accelerate through the ecosystem lifecycle. This report offers a concrete starting point.

The report analyzed different cities market reach to determine how well a regions startups can go global and how well ecosystems help in doing so. The report revealed that when it comes to market reach, Vancouver and the Toronto-Waterloo region ranked fifth and seventh, respectively, ahead of cities like Stockholm, Boston, and Shanghai. The report said this was in part due to Canadian cities access to the US market.

Canadian cities score particularly well on market reach, driven by the high share of foreign customers that startups in Toronto-Waterloo, Vancouver, and Ottawa are able to reach, the report reads. This is largely because of Canadian startups access to the US market. When we remove that from market reach calculationsToronto-Waterloo and Vancouver both rank below the 10th position.

While GSER indicated that Canadian startup hubs are doing well in terms of market reach, it revealed access to talent as a weakness for Canadian startup hubs. Among the top 20 cities, Vancouver and the Toronto-Waterloo regions ranked towards the bottom of the list. The report attributed this to issues these regions face when hiring software engineers and growth employees with two or more years of experience at a prior startup.

When looking at team experiences across startup ecosystems, GSER ranked Vancouver 1st, placing it ahead of Beijing, Silicon Valley (in second place), and Boston.

Vancouver is leveraging its unique combination of assets: Hollywood North, a strong industrial foundation, enterprise data and cloud underpinnings, and a remarkably diverse talent pool, with over half its residents having a first tongue other than English, the report reads.

The report found that Vancouvers 800 to 1,100 startups are worth about $9 billion, and the average Vancouver startup is bringing in $334,000 in early stage funding, which is higher than the global average of $252,000.

The city may have the fewest number of startups in top 20, but their valuations are highly competitive. Its funding metrics point to the Vancouver ecosystem holding steady, not rising or sinking greatly, the report reads.

The [Corridor] benefits from multicultural talent drawn from sixteen academic institutions.

In comparison, the Toronto-Waterloo corridor is home to between 2,100 to 2,700 startups, which are worth about $7.2 billion and pull in about $443,000 in early stage funding. The report also indicated that Toronto-Waterloo generally attract larger Series A rounds such as League, which raised a $25 million USD Series A round in June 2016.

An estimated 2,100 to 2,700 startups thrive thanks in part to world-class engineering talent, strong entrepreneurial culture, an affordable rental market, and a global base of customers, the report reads about the Toronto-Waterloo corridor. The [corridor] benefits from multicultural talent drawn from sixteen academic institutionsalongside generous tax credits, government grants, and favourable currency exchange.

Overall, the report suggests that Canadian startup ecosystems are faring well, but to continue growing, its important to encourage further integration and increased connections between startups, universities, and innovation hubs to develop these cities even further as leading global startup hubs.

Access the full report here.

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Startup Genome report ranks Vancouver as Canada's top startup hub, 15th globally - BetaKit

March 13, 2017 An Antirrhinum line has Tam3 adjacent to pal, a gene required for pigment synthesis. At 25C, Tam 3 is immobile and suppresses pal expression resulting in an ivory petal color (left). At 15C, Tam3 becomes mobile and translocate in the genome allowing pal gene expression and therefore resulting in a red petal color (right). Credit: Hokkaido University

A team of Hokkaido University researchers has discovered a hitherto-unknown mechanism that detains transposable elements or "mobile genes" - which can move and insert into new positions in plant genomes.

Transposable elements (TEs), also known as mobile genes, are considered parasites of host genomes because they act as powerful mutagens. If not kept in check, they can cause gene disruption, genome rearrangement and genomic takeover. Thus, an essential function of organisms is controlling the movements of this troublemaker. Until now, all identified TE regulations were epigenetic-dependent, meaning that the production of TE proteins are suppressed.

A TE called Tam3 in snapdragons (Antirrhinum majus) can be regulated into active and inactive states through temperature fluctuations. It is thus possible for researchers to identify a mechanism whereby TE falls into an inactive state. The Hokkaido University research team then focused on the Tam 3 transposase protein, which is produced by the TE to enable it to move, and by employing various means investigated its positions in the cell.

According to their research, snapdragons detained Tam3 transposase within the plasma membrane when Tam3 was inactivated. When Tam3 was activated, Tam3 moved to the cell nucleus, where it is normally found.

The team also found that a structure called "Znf-BED" within Tam3 transposase plays a pivotal role in detaining Tam3 at the plasma membrane. When part of Znf-BED was changed, the transposase did not move to the plasma membrane and instead entered the cell nucleus. The team thus suggests that unknown protein produced by snapdragons binds to Tam3 transposase through Znf-BED, and detains them at the plasma membrane.

"It is the first time that such a TE detainment has been discovered," says Kaien Fujino in the research team. "The newly-found mechanism, which detains TEs after proteins are produced, is different from epigenetic regulation, where gene expression is controlled before protein is generated. Our findings should facilitate research on similar mechanisms of mobile elements in other organisms."

Explore further: PERK protein opens line of communication between inside and outside of the cell

More information: Hua Zhou et al. Detainment of Tam3 Transposase at Plasma Membrane by Its BED-Zinc Finger Domain, Plant Physiology (2017). DOI: 10.1104/pp.16.00996

PERK is known to detect protein folding errors in the cell. Researchers at the Laboratory of Cell Death Research & Therapy at KU Leuven (University of Leuven, Belgium) have now revealed a hidden perk: the protein also coordinates ...

EPFL scientists have carried out a genomic and evolutionary study of a large and enigmatic family of human proteins, to demonstrate that it is responsible for harnessing the millions of transposable elements in the human ...

The targeted incorporation of proteins into the membrane is a vital process for cell maintenance; these membrane proteins ensure the proper functioning of the cell's metabolism, communication with its environment, and energy ...

The research group of Professor Pekka Lappalainen at the Institute of Biotechnology, University of Helsinki, has identified a previously unknown mechanism which modifies the structure of plasma membranes in intestinal epithelial ...

To understand how transposable elements shape genomes, where they are maintained over generations, it is vital to discover the mechanisms behind their targeted integration. Researchers from the Laboratoire Pathologie et Virologie ...

Transposable elements are DNA sequences that are capable of changing their genome position by cut and paste or copy and paste through the enzyme transposase. This ability can be harmful for hosts if transposable elements ...

For decades, the tiny roundworm C. elegans has been a vital tool in the biomedical researcher's toolkit, proving central to groundbreaking discoveries such as green fluorescent protein, the molecular marker used universally ...

Good vs bad cholesterol. Margarine vs butter. Red meat vs. vegan. The causal links between fats and health have been a hotly debated topic for scientists, physicians and the public.

Big, small, broad, narrow, long or short, turned up, pug, hooked, bulbous or prominent, humans inherit their nose shape from their parents, but ultimately, the shape of someone's nose and that of their parents was formed ...

A team of Dutch and German researchers has discovered the operation of one of the oldest biological clocks in the world, which is crucial for life on earth as we know it. The researchers applied a new combination of cutting-edge ...

New work from a joint team of plant biologists and ecologists from Carnegie and Stanford University has uncovered the factor behind an important innovation that makes grassesboth the kind that make up native prairies and ...

Tardigrades, the microscopic animals also known as water bears and moss piglets, have captured the imagination of scientists for almost 250 years, thanks to their Muppet-like appearance and their ability to survive extreme ...

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Novel mechanism that detains mobile genes in plant genome - Phys.Org

What if a simple genetic test could tell cancer patients what their odds of survival are? Its an approach that researchers at the Department of Energys Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory are developing, and they have made significant inroads in several types of cancer, most recently for breast cancer.

Berkeley Lab researchers have developed a genetic score reflecting the prognosis for specific types of breast cancer. The score is based upon a 12-gene signature identified through analysis of large genomic datasets and clinical patient data. (Credit: iStockphoto)

After analyzing large genomic datasets and clinical patient data, scientists at Berkeley Lab found the expression of 381 genes to be significantly associated with relapse-free survival in breast cancer patients.

They further narrowed down the data to a 12-gene signature and developed a scoring system that would help predict patient prognosis. Low scores were linked with higher chances of survival past 20 years, while high scores correlated with lower survival rates. The results were reported recently in the journal Oncotarget.

Distinguishing patients with good prognosis could potentially spare them the toxic side effects associated with adjuvant therapy, said study corresponding author Antoine Snijders, a research scientist at Berkeley Labs Biological Systems and Engineering Division. Determining prognosis involves a range of other clinical factors, including tumor size and grade, the degree to which the cancer has spread, and the age and race of the patient. Our scoring system was predictive of survival independent of these other variables.

The signature was most effective for two specific subtypes of breast cancer: HER2 and Luminal A.

Among women in the United States, breast cancer is the most common cancer and the second leading cause of cancer deaths, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Death rates have dropped in recent decades; the chance is now 1 in 37 that a woman will die from breast cancer.

There is obviously a lot of variability in mortality rates, but this paper presents a path towards getting more information specific to an individual, said Snijders.

Researchers have been taking advantage of advances in computational biology and genome-wide screening techniques to identify genetic signatures for cancer prognosis. In 2016, another Berkeley Lab group found a potential new biomarker for early stages of tumor development in a wide variety of cancers.

Such scoring systems could be developed into an additional tool to help doctors and patients make informed decisions about the course of treatment.

The authors of this study included Xuan Mao, Matthew Lee, Jeffrey Zhu and Carissa Zhu, all students from Campolindo High School in Moraga, California, who worked as interns at Berkeley Lab in 2016. Under the supervision of Snijders, they led the programming effort and computational analysis that helped identify the relevant genes and that formed the basis of the scoring system.

Snijders says future steps include multi-center prospective studies to validate the scoring system in clinical settings.

###

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory addresses the worlds most urgent scientific challenges by advancing sustainable energy, protecting human health, creating new materials, and revealing the origin and fate of the universe. Founded in 1931, Berkeley Labs scientific expertise has been recognized with 13 Nobel Prizes. The University of California manages Berkeley Lab for the U.S. Department of Energys Office of Science. For more, visitwww.lbl.gov.

DOEs Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visitscience.energy.gov.

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What a Genome-Wide Screening Can Reveal about Cancer Survival - Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Through the Iowa Corn Promotion Boards investment in research, Iowa corn farmers continue making strides in sustainably increasing corn plant efficiency while reducing the environmental impact of corn production.

In 2014, ICPB embarked on creating a public, broad-umbrella initiative to translate genomic information for the benefit of growers, consumers and society. The initiative, called Genomes To Fields, is funded with the Iowa Corn Promotion Board, National Corn Growers Association and now includes 21 states plus Ontario. This program leverages the mapping of the corn genome to identify key corn genetic traits that impact yield and the plants ability to respond to environmental stressors to design a better corn plant in the future.

When the genes of corn were mapped back in 2009, for the first time we could see all the genes in a corn plant, said Iowa Corn Research and Business Development Committee Chair Curt Mether, a farmer from Logan. But having the complete corn gene sequenced doesnt tell us anything about what all these genes do in terms of crop growth and production. So, the Iowa Corn Promotion Board has been taking the initiative to do something about this.

Corn growth and productivity is determined by its genes and how those genes interact with the environmental conditions in which a corn plant is placed, such as temperature, rainfall, soil types, and pests, something researchers refer to as the Genotype x Environment interaction, or GxE. To understand how genes affect corn growth, we need to evaluate this GxE effect for a large number of hybrids (genotypes) grown in a wide range of environments.

At the beginning of the program, Iowa Corns Research and Business Development committee funded the Genomes To Field Initiative (aka Phenotyping), with the initial emphasis on the GxE Trial, where hundreds of genotyped corn hybrids grown across dozens of environments in several states, from New York to Arizona to South Dakota to Georgia. The objective was to understand how genes and environments interact to impact corn traits and performance.

One of the requirements of the committee has always been that the results of this work needs to be public, explained Mether. A key step is building an open source data information site for corn research. This past month that finally happened. The 2014 and 2015 data is now publicly available with the 2016 data available to G2F researchers.

This represents the largest dataset of corn genotype, environmental and phenotypic data that has ever been made available to researchers at universities and agencies such as the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

This knowledge base will assist seed companies in commercializing improved corn hybrids and will advance farmers precision farming techniques including the more efficient use of land and the more precise use of pesticides and fertilizers, Mether said.

But the release of this dataset marks just the beginning, not the end. Unlike sequencing the corn genome, which was completed in 2009, researchers will never be finished collecting phenotype data and understanding how plants respond to various environmental factors. This dataset represents the beginnings of a resource that will continue to grow and become more valuable over time. It will allow researchers to convert the corn genome sequence into functional knowledge and develop new methods and devices to analyze the relationship between genetic, trait and environmental data to predict performance of plants.

2017 will be the fourth year of the G2F GxE Trials including three new states. The initiative is working closely with Iowa Corn Growers Association in developing a strategy to use with Congress and government agencies to obtain research funding. Funds raised by the Iowa Corn Promotion Board, Illinois Corn and Nebraska Corn boards have been matched by grants from the USDAs National Institute of Food and Agriculture totaling $500,000.

To learn more about ICPBs research and science funding, visit iowacorn.org/research.

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Iowa Corn Promotion Board invests in genome research - High Plains Journal

More Than Bread and Beer

Humans have found a friend in yeast. The single-celled eukaryotes are used by humans for a wide variety of applications, such as making alcoholic beverages and baking, among others. Scientists are heading toward a breakthrough in bioengineering that could create synthetic organisms that will help make new kinds of drugs and fuels.

An international team of researchers has been able to devise a way to synthesize a large part of yeasts genetic code. Prior to this announcement, the team had been able to completely synthesize one of yeasts 16 chromosomes. Now, the team has published a series of papers in the journal Scienceshowing that they have been able to add another five chromosomes, thus bringing their total to six. They say theyre on track to finish the remaining ten chromosomes to form a completely synthetic genome by the end of this year.

While the scientific community remains leery of synthetic genome creation, many have united in praising this projects work. In an article accompanying the research, Daniel Gibson, vice president of DNA technologies at Synthetic Genomics, stated, This is really going to allow us to understand how to design cells from the bottom up that can be reprogrammed for many applications.

Some of those many applications are what worry bioethicists, biologists, and environmentalists, among others. Todd Kuiken from North Carolina State Universitys Genetic Engineering and Society Center compares the potential accidental orpurposeful release of synthetic organisms to the introduction of invasive species. You can think of it of like introducing an invasive species into a different environment. It will have some type of impact to the system.

The yeast project is operating under conditions emphasizing safety as well as ethics. This is a whole new era where were moving beyond little edits on single genes to being able to write whatever we want throughout the genome, says George Church, a prominent Harvard University geneticist. The goal is to be able to change it as radically as our understanding permits.

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Scientists Are Close to Creating a Fully Synthetic Genome - Futurism

Forbes

The GOP Wants To Let Your Boss Poke Around In Your Genome Forbes Have you ever sent your spit in a vial to a commercial genetic testing company to get a peek into your family's genetics? If you have, the House GOP would like ... and more »

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The GOP Wants To Let Your Boss Poke Around In Your Genome - Forbes