recombination deficiency (HRD) genes, because BRCA/HRD mutations (BRCA/HRDm) are known to be associated with better prognosis.RESULTS: Enrollment was slow, accrual was closed when 7+ years had passed. With a median follow-up of 88.9 months, the median PFS was significantly better in arm A (55.5 months) than arm B (9.2 months) (hazard ratio [HR]=0.40; 95% confidence interval [CI]=0.19–0.87; p=0.020), yet the median overall survival was not significantly different in arm A (not reached) than arm B (95.1 months) (p=0.148). Overall grade 3/4 adverse events were more frequent in arm A than arm B (60.9% vs 0.0%) (p<0.001). Quality of life was generally not significantly different. Distribution of BRCA1/2m or BRCA/HRDm was not significantly biased between the two arms. Wild-type BRCA/non-HRD subgroup seemed to fare better with maintenance therapy (HR=0.35; 95% CI=0.11–1.18; p=0.091).CONCLUSIONS: Despite limitations in small sample size, it suggests that maintenance carboplatin-PLD chemotherapy could improve PFS in advanced ovarian cancer.]]>
Arm ; Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Bias (Epidemiology) ; Carboplatin ; Disease-Free Survival ; Doxorubicin ; Drug Therapy ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Maintenance Chemotherapy ; Ovarian Neoplasms ; Prognosis ; Quality of Life ; Recombination, Genetic ; Sample Size

Enterovirus species G (EV-G) is highly diverse, and is ubiquitous in pig populations, usually without diarrhea. The present study aimed to investigate the presence of novel EV-G recombinants with the torovirus papain-like cysteine protease (PLCP) in Jeju pig herds. EV-G1-PLCP mono-infections were most prevalent in diarrheic weaned piglets. The PLCP genes of the Jeju isolates varied in size and junction sequences, and were greatly heterogeneous, with 77.0–90.7% homology amongst all recombinants. Our results suggest that the exogenous PLCP gene has undergone continuous rapid mutation in the individual EV-G genomes following cross-order recombination, thereby causing clinical disease in swine.
Cysteine Proteases ; Diarrhea ; Enterovirus ; Genome ; Korea ; Prevalence ; Recombination, Genetic ; Swine ; Torovirus

Two infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) K046-12 and K047-12 strains were isolated and the nearly complete genomes of them were sequenced. Sequence comparisons showed that the K046-12 genome was most similar to Korean IBV strains, and the K047-12 genome was most similar to QX-like IBV strains. Phylogenetic analysis showed that nearly all K046-12 and most K046-12 genes were placed in the same cluster as Korean IBV isolates, but the S1 region was placed in the same cluster as Mass-type IBVs. For K047-12, nearly all K047-12 and most K047-12 genes were located in the same cluster as QX-like IBVs, but the M region was located in the same cluster as Korean IBV isolates with K047-12. Recombination analysis confirmed that K046-12 is a recombinant strain with the primary parental sequence derived from Korean IBVs and minor parental sequence derived from Mass-type IBV, and K047-12 is a recombinant strain with the major parental sequence derived from QX-IBV and minor parental sequence derived from Korean IBVs. This study showed that new IBV recombinants are constantly generated among various IBVs, including those used for vaccination. Therefore, genetic analysis of new virus isolates should be performed for effective infectious bronchitis control and appropriate vaccine development.
Bronchitis ; Genome ; Humans ; Infectious bronchitis virus ; Korea ; Parents ; Recombination, Genetic ; Vaccination

Exonuclease Ⅷ (Exo Ⅷ), an ATP-independent dsDNA 5'-3' exonuclease, is a candidate protein with great application value for in vitro DNA recombination. However, the application of Exo Ⅷ in DNA recombination in vitro has not been reported. In this study, the recombinant expression vector of the truncated Exo Ⅷ (tExo Ⅷ) with the full exonuclease activity was built and used to achieve the overexpression of tExo Ⅷ in Escherichia coli. Based on the purified tExo Ⅷ protein with high-purity, the feasibility of tExo Ⅷ applied in vitro DNA recombination and effects of the reaction temperatures, reaction duration, and homology arm lengths were examined. The results showed that tExo Ⅷ was highly expressed in soluble form in E. coli. One liter of bacterial culture yielded 92.40 mg of purified tExo Ⅷ with the specific activity of 1.21×10⁵ U/mg. In a 10 μL recombination system containing 2.5 U tExo Ⅷ, the highest cloning efficiency was achieved in a reaction at 25 °C for 12.5 min and followed by incubation at 50 °C for 50 min. With addition of Pfu DNA polymerase, the homology arm extension strategy can effectively improve the recombination efficiency. Using competent E. coli Mach1 T1 with 2.2×10⁶ cfu/μg transformation efficiency as recipient cell, the recombination of a 1 kb fragment with a 21 bp homology arm and a 5.8 kb linearized vector can form about 1.1×10⁴ recombinant clones per μg vector, and the positive rates was over 80%. The recombination efficiency was increased with the increasing length of homology arm ranged from 8 to 21 bp. Under the optimal reaction condition, only 8 bp homology arm can still achieve valid DNA recombination. This novel in vitro DNA recombination system mediated by tExo Ⅷ was particularly characterized by its easy preparation, no limitation on restriction sites and high recombination cloning efficiency. All results revealed that the new efficient gene cloning system has potential application in the field of molecular biology.
Cloning, Molecular ; Escherichia coli ; genetics ; Exonucleases ; genetics ; Recombinant Proteins ; metabolism ; Recombination, Genetic

Isovalerylspiramycin (ISP)Ⅰ, as a major component of bitespiramycin (BT), exhibits similar antimicrobial activities with BT and has advantages in quality control and dosage forms. It has been under preclinical studies. The existing ISPⅠ producing strain, undergoing three genetic modifications, carries two resistant gene markers. Thus, it is hard for further genetic manipulation. It is a time-consuming and unsuccessful work to construct a new ISPⅠ strain without resistant gene marker by means of the classical homologous recombination in our preliminary experiments. Fortunately, construction of the markerless ISPⅠ strain, in which the bsm4 (responsible for acylation at 3 of spiramycin) gene was replaced by the Isovaleryltansferase gene (ist) under control of the constitutive promoter ermEp*, was efficiently achieved by using the CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing system. The mutant of bsm4 deletion can only produce SPⅠ. Isovaleryltransferase coded by ist catalyzes the isovalerylation of the SPⅠat C-4" hydroxyl group to produce ISPⅠ. As anticipated, ISPⅠ was the sole ISP component of the resultant strain (ΔEI) when detected by HPLC and mass spectrometry. The ΔEI mutant is suitable for further genetic engineering to obtain improved strains by reusing CRISPR-Cas9 system.
CRISPR-Cas Systems ; Gene Editing ; Genetic Engineering ; Homologous Recombination

Seamless modification is a popular genomic manipulation technique in genetic engineering. Selection stringency of the counter-selection system determines the efficiency of the seamless modification. Recently, a novel counter-selection system, kil, was constructed. It is reported that the selection selectivity of kil is higher in host bacteria harboring plasmid pSim6 than that harboring pKD46, indicating that recombinants could be selected out more efficiently by combining kil counter-selection system and plasmid pSim6. In order to confirm this speculation, four different loci (lacI, dbpa, ack, glk) in Escherichia coli strains W3110, MG1655 and DH10B were selected for testing: dsDNA fragments of different sizes (500 bp, 1 000 bp, and 2 000 bp) were used to substitute tet/kil. As expected, recombination efficiency was higher in host bacteria harboring plasmid pSim6 than that harboring pKD46, and the results were more obvious with the length of dsDNA increasing. Specifically, recombination efficiency was 1.2 to 2 fold higher in pSim6 harboring bacteria than in pKD46 harboring bacteria when dsDNA fragments were 1 000 bp in length. With the length of dsDNA increasing up to 2 000 bp, the gap increased to 2.2-5 fold. In conclusion, it is easier to perform seamless modification by combining kil counter-selection system and plasmid pSim6 than combining kil and pKD46. An alternative tool in genomic engineering is provided in this study.
Escherichia coli ; Escherichia coli Proteins ; Genetic Engineering ; Plasmids ; Recombination, Genetic

Antibacterial drugs are one of the most important therapeutic agents of bacterial infections but multidrug resistant Escherichia coli (MDREC) is an increasing problem worldwide. Major resistance mechanism of MDREC is horizontal gene transfer of R plasmids harboring integrons, which the integron integrase (IntI) catalyzes gene cassette insertion and excision through site specific recombination. In this study, resistance profiles of integron harboring E. coli isolated in Korea and the genetic environments of integron gene cassettes were analyzed by PCR and direct sequencing to clarify the mechanisms of spread of integron harboring E. coli. Resistance rates of integron harboring E. coli, including β-lactams, aminoglycosides, and fluoroquinolones and MDR frequencies were significantly higher than that of E. coli without integron (p < 0.01). Majority (80%) of integron harboring E. coli showed resistance transfer by conjugation. Most (80%) of E. coli had dfrA17-aadA5 cassette array and PcH1 hybrid promoter; 16.7% of E. coli had dfrA12-orfF-aadA2 cassette array and PcW promoter. The higher prevalence of weak Pc variants among most (96.7%) of integron harboring MDREC suggests that a flexible cassette array is more important than enhanced expression. All the integrons had LexA binding motif suggests that SOS responses control the expression of these integrons. In conclusion, the genetic bases of integrons were diverse, and the spread and the expression of prevalent gene cassette arrays may be deeply related with strengths of Pc promoters in integrons. These informations will provide important knowledge to control the increase of integron harboring MDREC.
Aminoglycosides ; Bacterial Infections ; Escherichia coli ; Escherichia ; Fluoroquinolones ; Gene Transfer, Horizontal ; Integrases ; Integrons ; Korea ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Prevalence ; R Factors ; Recombination, Genetic ; SOS Response (Genetics)

Interaction between pathogen-associated molecular patterns and pattern recognition receptors triggers innate and adaptive immune responses. Several studies have reported that toll-like receptors (TLRs) are involved in B cell proliferation, differentiation, and Ig class switch recombination (CSR). However, roles of TLRs in B cell activation and differentiation are not completely understood. In this study, we investigated the direct effect of stimulation of TLR1/2 agonist Pam3CSK4 on mouse B cell viability, proliferation, activation, Ig production, and Ig CSR in vitro. Treatment with 0.5 µg/ml of Pam3CSK4 only barely induced IgG1 production although it enhanced B cell viability. In addition, high-dosage Pam3CSK4 diminished IgG1 production in a dose-dependent manner, whereas the production of other Igs, cell viability, and proliferation increased. Pam3CSK4 additively increased TLR4 agonist lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced mouse B cell growth and activation. However, interestingly, Pam3CSK4 abrogated LPS-induced IgG1 production but enhanced LPS-induced IgG2a production. Further, Pam3CSK4 decreased LPS-induced germline γ1 transcripts (GLTγ1)/GLTε expression but increased GLTγ2a expression. On the other hand, Pam3CSK4 had no effect on LPS-induced plasma cell differentiation. Taken together, these results suggest that TLR1/2 agonist Pam3CSK4 acts as a potent mouse B cell mitogen in combination with TLR4 agonist LPS, but these 2 different TLR agonists play diverse roles in regulating the Ig CSR of each isotype, particularly IgG1/IgE and IgG2a.
Animals ; B-Lymphocytes ; Cell Proliferation ; Cell Survival ; Hand ; Immunoglobulin Class Switching ; Immunoglobulin E ; Immunoglobulin G ; In Vitro Techniques ; Mice ; Pathogen-Associated Molecular Pattern Molecules ; Plasma Cells ; Receptors, Pattern Recognition ; Recombination, Genetic ; Toll-Like Receptors

Transgenic (TG) pigs are important in biomedical research and are used in disease modeling, pharmaceutical toxicity testing, and regenerative medicine. In this study, we constructed two vector systems by using the promoter of the pig glial fibrillary acidic protein (pGFAP) gene, which is an astrocyte cell marker. We established donor TG fibroblasts with pGFAP-CreER(T2)/LCMV-EGFP(LoxP) and evaluated the effect of the transgenes on TG-somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) embryo development. Cleavage rates were not significantly different between control and transgene-donor groups. Embryo transfer was performed thrice just before ovulation of the surrogate sows. One sow delivered 5 TG piglets at 115 days after pregnancy. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis with genomic DNA isolated from skin tissues of TG pigs revealed that all 5 TG pigs had the transgenes. EGFP expression in all organs tested was confirmed by immunofluorescence staining and PCR. Real-time PCR analysis showed that pGFAP promoter-driven Cre fused to the mutated human ligand-binding domain of the estrogen receptor (CreER(T2)) mRNA was highly expressed in the cerebrum. Semi-nested PCR analysis revealed that CreER(T2)-mediated recombination was induced in cerebrum and cerebellum but not in skin. Thus, we successfully generated a TG pig with a 4-hydroxytamoxifen (TM)-inducible pGFAP-CreER(T2)/EGFP(LoxP) recombination system via SCNT.
Animals, Genetically Modified ; Astrocytes ; Central Nervous System ; Cerebellum ; Cerebrum ; DNA ; Embryo Transfer ; Embryonic Development ; Estrogens ; Female ; Fibroblasts ; Fluorescent Antibody Technique ; Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein ; Humans ; Nuclear Transfer Techniques ; Ovulation ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Pregnancy ; Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Recombination, Genetic ; Regenerative Medicine ; RNA, Messenger ; Skin ; Swine ; Tissue Donors ; Toxicity Tests ; Transgenes

Molecular characterization of swine leukocyte antigen (SLA) genes is important for elucidating the immune responses between swine-donor and human-recipient in xenotransplantation. Examination of associations between alleles of SLA class I genes, type of pig genetic modification, porcine endogenous retrovirus (PERV) viral titer, and PERV subtypes may shed light on the nature of xenograft acceptance or rejection and the safety of xenotransplantation. No significant difference in PERV gag RNA level between transgenic and non-transgenic pigs was noted; likewise, the type of applied transgene had no impact on PERV viremia. SLA-1 gene profile type may correspond with PERV level in blood and thereby influence infectiveness. Screening of pigs should provide selection of animals with low PERV expression and exclusion of specimens with PERV-C in the genome due to possible recombination between A and C subtypes, which may lead to autoinfection. Presence of PERV-C integrated in the genome was detected in 31.25% of specimens, but statistically significant increased viremia in specimens with PERV-C was not observed. There is a need for multidirectional molecular characterization (SLA typing, viremia estimation, and PERV subtype screening) of animals intended for xenotransplantation research in the interest of xeno-recipient safety.
Alleles ; Animals ; Endogenous Retroviruses ; Genes, MHC Class I ; Genes, MHC Class II ; Genome ; Heterografts ; Leukocytes ; Mass Screening ; Recombination, Genetic ; Retroviridae ; RNA ; Swine ; Transgenes ; Transplantation, Heterologous ; Viremia