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BACKGROUND Autophagy has recently been found to play important roles in tumorigenesis and LRPPRC has been identified as an inhibitor that suppresses autophagy and mitophagy and maintains mitochondrial activity. We hypothesized that LRPPRC levels can be used as a biomarker for diagnosis and prognosis of prostate cancer. METHODS We performed immunochemistry analysis to evaluate the levels of LRPPRC in 112 samples collected from patients with prostate adenocarcinomas (PCa) and 38 samples from patients with benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH) enrolled in hospitals in Guangzhou city of China that have been followed up for 10 years. RESULTS We found that there were significant higher levels of LRPPRC in PCa than in BPH. More than three quarters of PCa patients showed high levels of LRPPRC while only 10% of BPH patients had similar levels of LRPPRC. The levels of LRPPRC protein were positively correlated with tumor grade, metastasis and serum PSA, but negatively correlated with hormone therapy sensitivity after 2 years of surgery and overall survival. The association of high levels of LRPPRC with late stage of PCa or hormone therapy insensitivity was confirmed in tissue samples collected from prostate-specific PTEN−/− mice or hormone-dependent and independent prostate cancer cell lines. CONCLUSION The levels of LRPPRC may be used as an independent biomarker for PCa patients at late-stage with poor prognosis.

BackgroundKisspeptins are the peptide products of KISS1 gene, which operate via the G - protein-coupled receptor GPR54. These peptides have emerged as essential upstream regulators of neurons secreting gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH), the major hypothalamic node for the stimulatory control of the hypothalamic–pituitary– gonadal (HPG) axis. The present study detected the polymorphisms of caprine KISS1 gene in three goat breeds and investigated the associations between these genetic markers and litter size.ResultsThree goat breeds (n = 680) were used to detect single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the coding regions with their intron–exon boundaries and the proximal flanking regions of KISS1 gene by DNA sequencing and PCR–RFLP. Eleven novel SNPs (g.384G>A, g.1147T>C, g.1417G>A, g.1428_1429delG, g.2124C>T, g.2270C>T, g.2489T>C, g.2510G>A, g.2540C>T, g.3864_3865delCA and g.3885_3886insACCCC) were identified. It was shown that Xinong Saanen and Guanzhong goat breeds were in Hardy-Weinberg disequilibrium at g.384G>A locus (P < 0.05). Both g.2510G>A and g.2540C>T loci were closely linked in Xinong Saanen (SN), Guanzhong (GZ) and Boer (BG) goat breeds (r2 > 0.33). The g.384G>A, g.2489T>C, g.2510G>A and g.2540C>T SNPs were associated with litter size (P<0.05). Individuals with AATTAATT combinative genotype of SN breed (SC) and TTAATT combinative genotype of BG breed (BC) had higher litter size than those with other combinative genotypes in average parity. The results extend the spectrum of genetic variation of the caprine KISS1 gene, which might contribute to goat genetic resources and breeding.ConclusionsThis study explored the genetic polymorphism of KISS1 gene, and indicated that four SNPs may play an important role in litter size. Their genetic mechanism of reproduction in goat breeds should be further investigated. The female goats with SC1 (AATTAATT) and BC7 (TTAATT) had higher litter size than those with other combinative genotypes in average parity and could be used for the development of new breeds of prolific goats. Further research on a large number of animals is required to confirm the link with increased prolificacy in goats.

We isolated and characterized 150 novel microsatellite markers of Zhikong scallop ( Chlamys farreri ) from three simple sequence repeat-enriched libraries constructed with (GA) 15 and (CA) 15 . The polymorphism was assessed with 48 individuals, and the result showed the number of allele ranged from two to 30, with an average of 8.4 alleles/locus. The values of observed and expected heterozygosities ranged from 0.0791 to 0.9878 and from 0 to 1.0000, respectively. Sixty-five loci showed significant departure from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium, and 14 locus pairs displayed linkage disequilibrium. These markers are therefore potentially useful for conservation studies, population structure assessment, ecological analyses and linkage map construction.

BackgroundThe NIMA-related kinase 2 (NEK2) is a serine/threonine kinase that is involved in regulation of centrosome duplication and spindle assembly during mitosis. Dysregulation of these processes causes chromosome instability and aneuploidy, which are hallmark changes of many solid tumors. However, whether aberrant expression of NEK2 is associated with outcome of prostate cancer (PCa) patients remains to be determined.MethodsExpression of NEK2 in human PCa cells and primary PCa tissues was assessed by quantitative RT-PCR. Expression of NEK2 in human PCa cells was depleted with siRNA. Effects of the depletion on cell proliferation, survival, and tumorigenicity were assessed both in vitro with cell cultures and in vivo with subcutaneous implantation of xenografts. In silico analyses of the online Taylor dataset were carried out to determine whether the expression level of NEK2 correlated with the clinicopathological characteristics of prostate cancer.ResultsCompared with benign human prostatic epithelial cells and tissues, the expression of NEK2 was elevated in human PCa cells and primary PCa tissues. Depleting NEK2 expression inhibited human PCa cell proliferation in vitro and xenograft growth in vivo. Expression level of NEK2 in PCa positively correlated with the Gleason score and pathologic stage of the patient.ConclusionThe results suggest that overexpression of NEK2 has the potential to serve as a biomarker for PCa prognosis. Further validation with large sample pool is warrant.