The expression of selected fibrotic factors in COPD and asthma.

BACKGROUND: Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and asthma are associated with chronic inflammation leading to airway obstruction and remodelling. There is little information on possible differences in the TGFB signalling pathway in the pathologies compared to less severe chronic bronchitis without airway obstruction. AIM: To assess the expression of the selected TGFB signalling pathway-associated genes in the pathologies. METHOD: RT-PCR was used to quantify the mRNAs in bronchoalveolar cells obtained from the Czech patients with chronic bronchitis (n = 26), COPD (n = 22), asthmatic (n = 14) patients. RESULTS: There was no difference in the BAL cell expression of TGFB1-3, TGFBR1-2, SMAD2,4,5, and 7 between our patients with COPD and those with chronic bronchitis. The expressions were also similar in the patients with asthma and chronic bronchitis. There was no difference between the patients with asthma and COPD. CONCLUSION: Although we observed no differences in our patients, other studies should investigate the genes and their possible correlation with advanced airway obstruction and emphysematous changes (Tab. 2, Fig. 3, Ref. 27). Text in PDF www.elis.sk Keywords: TGFB signalling pathway, COPD, asthma, chronic bronchitis, bronchoalveolar lavage.

The in silico identification and characterization of a bread wheat/Triticum militinae introgression line.

The capacity of the bread wheat (Triticum aestivum) genome to tolerate introgression from related genomes can be exploited for wheat improvement. A resistance to powdery mildew expressed by a derivative of the cross-bread wheat cv. Tähti × T. militinae (Tm) is known to be due to the incorporation of a Tm segment into the long arm of chromosome 4A. Here, a newly developed in silico method termed rearrangement identification and characterization (RICh) has been applied to characterize the introgression. A virtual gene order, assembled using the GenomeZipper approach, was obtained for the native copy of chromosome 4A; it incorporated 570 4A DArTseq markers to produce a zipper comprising 2132 loci. A comparison between the native and introgressed forms of the 4AL chromosome arm showed that the introgressed region is located at the distal part of the arm. The Tm segment, derived from chromosome 7G, harbours 131 homoeologs of the 357 genes present on the corresponding region of Chinese Spring 4AL. The estimated number of Tm genes transferred along with the disease resistance gene was 169. Characterizing the introgression's position, gene content and internal gene order should not only facilitate gene isolation, but may also be informative with respect to chromatin structure and behaviour studies.

Genetic Diversity of Blumeria graminis f. sp. hordei in Central Europe and Its Comparison with Australian Population.

Population surveys of Blumeria graminis f. sp. hordei (Bgh), a causal agent of more than 50% of barley fungal infections in the Czech Republic, have been traditionally based on virulence tests, at times supplemented with non-specific Restriction fragment length polymorphism or Random amplified polymorphic DNA markers. A genomic sequence of Bgh, which has become available recently, enables identification of potential markers suitable for population genetics studies. Two major strategies relying on transposable elements and microsatellites were employed in this work to develop a set of Repeat junction markers, Single sequence repeat and Single nucleotide polymorphism markers. A resolution power of the new panel of markers comprising 33 polymorphisms was demonstrated by a phylogenetic analysis of 158 Bgh isolates. A core set of 97 Czech isolates was compared to a set 50 Australian isolates on the background of 11 diverse isolates collected throughout the world. 73.2% of Czech isolates were found to be genetically unique. An extreme diversity of this collection was in strong contrast with the uniformity of the Australian one. This work paves the way for studies of population structure and dynamics based on genetic variability among different Bgh isolates originating from geographically limited regions.

The utility of flow sorting to identify chromosomes carrying a single copy transgene in wheat.

BACKGROUND: Identification of transgene insertion sites in plant genomes has practical implications for crop breeding and is a stepping stone to analyze transgene function. However, single copy sequences are not always easy to localize in large plant genomes by standard approaches. RESULTS: We employed flow cytometric chromosome sorting to determine chromosomal location of barley sucrose transporter construct in three transgenic lines of common wheat. Flow-sorted chromosomes were used as template for PCR and fluorescence in situ hybridization to identify chromosomes with transgenes. The chromosomes carrying the transgenes were then confirmed by PCR using DNA amplified from single flow-sorted chromosomes as template. CONCLUSIONS: Insertion sites of the transgene were unambiguously localized to chromosomes 4A, 7A and 5D in three wheat transgenic lines. The procedure presented in this study is applicable for localization of any single-copy sequence not only in wheat, but in any plant species where suspension of intact mitotic chromosomes suitable for flow cytometric sorting can be prepared.