To date, most genome-wide association studies (GWAS) and studies of fine-scale population structure have been conducted primarily on Europeans. Han Chinese, the largest ethnic group in the world, composing 20% of the entire global human population, is largely underrepresented in such studies. A well-recognized challenge is the fact that population structure can cause spurious associations in GWAS. In this study, we examined population substructures in a diverse set of over 1700 Han Chinese samples collected from 26 regions across China, each genotyped at approximately 160K single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). Our results showed that the Han Chinese population is intricately substructured, with the main observed clusters corresponding roughly to northern Han, central Han, and southern Han. However, simulated case-control studies showed that genetic differentiation among these clusters, although very small (F(ST) = 0.0002 approximately 0.0009), is sufficient to lead to an inflated rate of false-positive results even when the sample size is moderate. The top two SNPs with the greatest frequency differences between the northern Han and southern Han clusters (F(ST) > 0.06) were found in the FADS2 gene, which associates with the fatty acid composition in phospholipids, and in the HLA complex P5 gene (HCP5), which associates with HIV infection, psoriasis, and psoriatic arthritis. Ingenuity Pathway Analysis (IPA) showed that most differentiated genes among clusters are involved in cardiac arteriopathy (p < 10(-101)). These signals indicating significant differences among Han Chinese subpopulations should be carefully explained in case they are also detected in association studies, especially when sample sources are diverse.

Agricultural production and quality are adversely affected by various abiotic stresses worldwide and this will be exacerbated by the deterioration of global climate. To feed a growing world population, it is very urgent to breed stress-tolerant crops with higher yields and improved qualities against multiple environmental stresses. Since conventional breeding approaches had marginal success due to the complexity of stress tolerance traits, the transgenic approach is now being popularly used to breed stress-tolerant crops. So identifying and characterizing the critical genes involved in plant stress responses is an essential prerequisite for engineering stress-tolerant crops. Far beyond the manipulation of single functional gene, engineering certain regulatory genes has emerged as an effective strategy now for controlling the expression of many stress-responsive genes. Transcription factors (TFs) are good candidates for genetic engineering to breed stress-tolerant crop because of their role as master regulators of many stress-responsive genes. Many TFs belonging to families AP2/EREBP, MYB, WRKY, NAC, bZIP have been found to be involved in various abiotic stresses and some TF genes have also been engineered to improve stress tolerance in model and crop plants. In this review, we take five large families of TFs as examples and review the recent progress of TFs involved in plant abiotic stress responses and their potential utilization to improve multiple stress tolerance of crops in the field conditions.

Highly specific Cas9 nucleases derived from SpCas9 are valuable tools for genome editing, but their wide applications are hampered by a lack of knowledge governing guide RNA (gRNA) activity. Here, we perform a genome-scale screen to measure gRNA activity for two highly specific SpCas9 variants (eSpCas9(1.1) and SpCas9-HF1) and wild-type SpCas9 (WT-SpCas9) in human cells, and obtain indel rates of over 50,000 gRNAs for each nuclease, covering ~20,000 genes. We evaluate the contribution of 1,031 features to gRNA activity and develope models for activity prediction. Our data reveals that a combination of RNN with important biological features outperforms other models for activity prediction. We further demonstrate that our model outperforms other popular gRNA design tools. Finally, we develop an online design tool DeepHF for the three Cas9 nucleases. The database, as well as the designer tool, is freely accessible via a web server, http://www.DeepHF.com/.

Background Successful human reproduction depends on the fusion of a mature oocyte with a sperm cell to form a fertilized egg. The genetic events that lead to human oocyte maturation arrest are unknown. Methods We recruited a rare four-generation family with female infertility as a consequence of oocyte meiosis I arrest. We applied whole-exome and direct Sanger sequencing to an additional 23 patients following identification of mutations in a candidate gene, TUBB8. Expression of TUBB8 and all other β-tubulin isotypes was measured in human oocytes, early embryos, sperm cells and several somatic tissues by qRT-PCR. The effect of the TUBB8 mutations was assessed on α/β tubulin heterodimer assembly in vitro, on microtubule architecture in HeLa cells, on microtubule dynamics in yeast cells, and on spindle assembly in mouse and human oocytes via microinjection of the corresponding cRNAs. Results We identified seven mutations in the primate-specific gene TUBB8 that are responsible for human oocyte meiosis I arrest in seven families. TUBB8 expression is unique to oocytes and the early embryo, where this gene accounts for almost all of the expressed β-tubulin. The mutations affect the chaperone-dependent folding and assembly of the α/β-tubulin heterodimer, induce microtubule chaos upon expression in cultured cells, alter microtubule dynamics in vivo, and cause catastrophic spindle assembly defects and maturation arrest upon expression in mouse and human oocytes. Conclusions TUBB8 mutations function via dominant negative effects that massively disrupt proper microtubule behavior. TUBB8 is a key gene involved in human oocyte meiotic spindle assembly and maturation.