Biology subjects

Wagutu, G.

Publications and source records attributed to Wagutu, G..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2024

The Association between the JAK-STAT Pathway and Hypertension among Kenyan Women Diagnosed with Breast Cancer

BackgroundBreast cancer is the most common malignant tumor in women worldwide, and disproportionately affects Sub-Saharan Africa compared to high income countries. The global disease burden is growing, with Sub-Saharan Africa reporting majority of the cases. In Kenya, breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer, with an annual incidence of 7,243 new cases in 2022, representing 25.5% of all reported cancers in women. Evidence suggests that women receiving breast cancer treatment are at a greater risk of developing hypertension than women without breast cancer. Hypertension prevalence has been on the rise in SSA, with poor detection, treatment and control. The JAK-STAT signaling is activated in hormone receptor-positive breast tumors, leading to inflammation, cell proliferation, and treatment resistance in cancer cells. We sought to understand the association between the expression of JAK-STAT Pathway genes and hypertension among Kenyan women diagnosed with breast cancer. MethodsBreast tumor and non-tumor tissues were acquired from patients with a pathologic diagnosis of invasive breast carcinoma. RNA was extracted from fresh frozen tumor and adjacent normal tissue samples of 23 participants who had at least 50% tumor after pathological examination, as well as their corresponding adjacent normal samples. Differentially expressed JAK-STAT genes between tumor and normal breast tissues were assessed using the DESEq2 R package. Pearson correlation was used to assess the correlation between differentially expressed JAK-STAT genes and participants blood pressure, heart rate, and body mass index (BMI). Results11,868 genes were differentially expressed between breast tumor and non-tumor tissues. Eight JAK-STAT genes were significantly dysregulated (Log2FC [≥] 1.0 and an Padj [≤] 0.05), with two genes (CISH and SCNN1A) being upregulated. Six genes (TGFBR2, STAT5A, STAT5B, TGFRB3, SMAD9, and SOCS2) were downregulated. We identified STAT5A and SOCS2 genes to be significantly correlated with elevated systolic pressure and heart rate, respectively. ConclusionsOur study provides insights underlying the molecular mechanisms of hypertension among Kenyan women diagnosed with breast cancer. Understanding these mechanisms may help develop targeted treatments that may improve health outcomes of Kenyan women diagnosed with breast cancer. Longitudinal studies with larger cohorts will be needed to validate our results.

cancer biology↗

bioRxiv2023

RAD-seq unravels local adaptation along a latitudinal gradient for the wild rice Zizania latifolia

The rapid climate change poses considerable threat to biodiversity by constantly alter-ing species distribution, phenotypic variation and allele frequencies. Understanding the interplay between the climate and species phenotypic and genetic variation is thus cru-cial to inform conservation strategies. In this study, we investigated local adaptation of a widespread aquatic species in China, Zizania latifolia. We performed restriction-site associated DNA sequencing (RAD-seq) for 66 wild samples composed of 10 populations, two populations in each of the five major eco-geographical regions of China and 6 cultivated samples derived from three culti-vars found in central China. We assessed genetic diversity and structure, genetic-envi-ronmental association, and genome-wide association studies for the 60 wild samples. Low levels of genetic variability were found in the Z. latifolia populations rang-ing from HE = 0.08 to HE = 1.52. Population structure showed that samples belonged to two major groups, north and south clades, split along a temperature boundary. It was estimated that the two groups diverged during the 8.2kiloyear event and later experi-enced severe genetic bottlenecks with advancement of agriculture and increase in hu-man population some 2k years later. Landscape analysis using SNP and trait data showed that environment was more important in shaping the genetic structure than geography, but the combined effect of environment and geography explained >90% of both genetic and morphological varia-tion. Several loci were found to be correlated with environmental variables as well as morphological traits, most of which were annotated as retrotransposons. Considering the abundance of transposable elements in the Z. latifolia genome, differentiation and local adaptation was inferred to be partly driven by temperature-induced transposable elements activity.

evolutionary biology↗

bioRxiv2023

Functional Trait Variations in Zizania latifolia: Insights into Climate Adaptation

The global warming could have significant impact on plant adaptation to local environments. Widespread species provides a useful model to examine the population dynamic under climate change. However, it is still unclear how widespread aquatic species response to rapidly changing environments. Wild-rice Zizania latifolia is an emergent macrophyte widely distributed across East Asia. Here, 28 Z. latifolia natural populations covering above 30 latitudes were transplanted in a common garden. The growth, photosynthesis and reproduction traits were quantified and compared among populations, and pairwise relationships among geographic and genetic variables were estimated. Results showed that, in the common garden, the high-latitude populations grew in small size indicating weaker competitiveness in warmer temperatures; the low-latitude populations had no sexual reproduction, suggesting that low-latitude individuals stood little chance to migrate successfully to higher latitude. Significant positive correlations among the distances of genetic, geographic and morphological traits for populations indicated that both isolation by distance and isolation by environment models affected the genetic pattern of populations, and phenotypic traits of Z. latifolia populations might be genetically determined. All our data suggest that Z. latifolia would be inadaptable to the global warming, indicating that this species would be at least at risk of local extinction in the warmer future.

plant biology↗