SUMMARY Recent studies have demonstrated that MyoD initiates a feed-forward regulation of skeletal muscle gene expression, predicting that MyoD binds directly to many genes expressed during differentiation. We have used chromatin immunoprecipitation and high throughput sequencing to identify genome-wide binding of MyoD in several skeletal muscle cell types. As anticipated, MyoD preferentially binds to a VCASCTG sequence that resembles the in vitro selected site for a MyoD:E-protein heterodimer, and MyoD binding increases during differentiation at many of the regulatory regions of genes expressed in skeletal muscle. Unanticipated findings were that MyoD was constitutively bound to thousands of additional sites in both myoblasts and myotubes, and that the genome-wide binding of MyoD was associated with regional histone acetylation. Therefore, in addition to regulating muscle gene expression, MyoD binds genome-wide and has the ability to broadly alter the epigenome in myoblasts and myotubes.

Mixture modeling provides an effective approach to the differential expression problem in microarray data analysis. Methods based on fully parametric mixture models are available, but lack of fit in some examples indicates that more flexible models may be beneficial. Existing, more flexible, mixture models work at the level of one-dimensional gene-specific summary statistics, and so when there are relatively few measurements per gene these methods may not provide sensitive detectors of differential expression. We propose a hierarchical mixture model to provide methodology that is both sensitive in detecting differential expression and sufficiently flexible to account for the complex variability of normalized microarray data. EM-based algorithms are used to fit both parametric and semiparametric versions of the model. We restrict attention to the two-sample comparison problem; an experiment involving Affymetrix microarrays and yeast translation provides the motivating case study. Gene-specific posterior probabilities of differential expression form the basis of statistical inference; they define short gene lists and false discovery rates. Compared to several competing methodologies, the proposed methodology exhibits good operating characteristics in a simulation study, on the analysis of spike-in data, and in a cross-validation calculation.

Background: Recent advances in automation technologies have enabled the use of flow cytometry for high throughput screening, generating large complex data sets often in clinical trials or drug discovery settings. However, data management and data analysis methods have not advanced sufficiently far from the initial small-scale studies to support modeling in the presence of multiple covariates.

Variation in genome structure is an important source of human genetic polymorphism: It affects a large proportion of the genome and has a variety of phenotypic consequences relevant to health and disease. In spite of this, human genome structure variation is incompletely characterized due to a lack of approaches for discovering a broad range of structural variants in a global, comprehensive fashion. We addressed this gap with Optical Mapping, a highthroughput, high-resolution single-molecule system for studying genome structure. We used Optical Mapping to create genomewide restriction maps of a complete hydatidiform mole and three lymphoblast-derived cell lines, and we validated the approach by demonstrating a strong concordance with existing methods. We also describe thousands of new variants with sizes ranging from kb to Mb. structural variation | copy number variation | optical mapping | single-molecule genomics | genome assembly R ecent reports (1-11) have firmly established genome structural variation as an important and pervasive source of genetic polymorphism. Since the initial reports (1, 2) of widespread copy-number variation between the genomes of phenotypically normal individuals, investigators have applied hybridizationbased methods (3, 7, 9, 11), computational approaches (5, 6), clone paired-end sequencing (4, 10) and most recently a pairedend sequencing by synthesis approach (8) to the discovery and characterization of structural polymorphism. Others have described phenotypic consequences of these variants, including associations with myocardial infarction, neuroblastoma, autism, and schizophrenia (reviewed recently in ref. 12). Finally, their consistent association with segmental duplications and other classes of repeats (13) provides a mechanistic explanation for their origin (14) and points to a previously unappreciated role in evolution (15) as well as disease.Unfortunately, despite all efforts, a comprehensive picture of genome structure polymorphism has not yet emerged. Current genome-wide studies of structural variation manifest only modest concordance, possibly due to ascertainment biases arising from the techniques employed. For example, hybridization-based methods (2,3,7,9,11,16) are subject to nonspecific hybridization in repeat-rich regions, while clone-based strategies (4,8,10) are limited by maximum clone insert sizes and a wide clone size distribution relative to the events they are trying to detect. More recently, several entire human genomes were sequenced using high-throughput methods (17)(18)(19)(20), but the difficulty of interrogating repeat-rich regions is compounded by these systems' short read lengths.In an effort to overcome these challenges, we have applied Optical Mapping to the problem of discerning structural variation in normal human genomes. Optical Mapping (21-35) is a highthroughput system that combines single-molecule measurements with dedicated computational analysis to produce ordered restriction maps from individual molecules of genomic DNA: essentially, a singl...

Purpose: COVID-19-associated rhino-orbital-cerebral mucormycosis (ROCM) has reached epidemic proportion during India’s second wave of COVID-19 pandemic, with several risk factors being implicated in its pathogenesis. This study aimed to determine the patient demographics, risk factors including comorbidities, and medications used to treat COVID-19, presenting symptoms and signs, and the outcome of management. Methods: This was a retrospective, observational study of patients with COVID-19-associated ROCM managed or co-managed by ophthalmologists in India from January 1, 2020 to May 26, 2021. Results: Of the 2826 patients, the states of Gujarat (22%) and Maharashtra (21%) reported the highest number of ROCM. The mean age of patients was 51.9 years with a male preponderance (71%). While 57% of the patients needed oxygen support for COVID-19 infection, 87% of the patients were treated with corticosteroids, (21% for > 10 days). Diabetes mellitus (DM) was present in 78% of all patients. Most of the cases showed onset of symptoms of ROCM between day 10 and day 15 from the diagnosis of COVID-19, 56% developed within 14 days after COVID-19 diagnosis, while 44% had delayed onset beyond 14 days. Orbit was involved in 72% of patients, with stage 3c forming the bulk (27%). Overall treatment included intravenous amphotericin B in 73%, functional endoscopic sinus surgery (FESS)/paranasal sinus (PNS) debridement in 56%, orbital exenteration in 15%, and both FESS/PNS debridement and orbital exenteration in 17%. Intraorbital injection of amphotericin B was administered in 22%. At final follow-up, mortality was 14%. Disease stage >3b had poorer prognosis. Paranasal sinus debridement and orbital exenteration reduced the mortality rate from 52% to 39% in patients with stage 4 disease with intracranial extension ( p < 0.05). Conclusion: Corticosteroids and DM are the most important predisposing factors in the development of COVID-19-associated ROCM. COVID-19 patients must be followed up beyond recovery. Awareness of red flag symptoms and signs, high index of clinical suspicion, prompt diagnosis, and early initiation of treatment with amphotericin B, aggressive surgical debridement of the PNS, and orbital exenteration, where indicated, are essential for successful outcome.