抗原变异可使得多种致病微生物易于逃避宿主免疫应答。表达在感染红细胞表面的恶性疟原虫红细胞表面蛋白1（PfPMP1）与感染红细胞、内皮细胞、树突状细胞以及胎盘的单个或多个受体作用，在黏附及免疫逃避中起关键的作用。每个单倍体基因组var基因家族编码约60种成员，通过启动转录不同的var基因变异体为抗原变异提供了分子基础。

疟原虫var基因转换速率变化导致抗原变异[英]／Paul H, Robert P, Christodoulou Z, et al//Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A

Probability Distributions.- Linear Models for Regression.- Linear Models for Classification.- Neural Networks.- Kernel Methods.- Sparse Kernel Machines.- Graphical Models.- Mixture Models and EM.- Approximate Inference.- Sampling Methods.- Continuous Latent Variables.- Sequential Data.- Combining Models.

Pattern Recognition and Machine Learning

We report the generation and analysis of functional data from multiple, diverse experiments performed on a targeted 1% of the human genome as part of the pilot phase of the ENCODE Project. These data have been further integrated and augmented by a number of evolutionary and computational analyses. Together, our results advance the collective knowledge about human genome function in several major areas. First, our studies provide convincing evidence that the genome is pervasively transcribed, such that the majority of its bases can be found in primary transcripts, including non-protein-coding transcripts, and those that extensively overlap one another. Second, systematic examination of transcriptional regulation has yielded new understanding about transcription start sites, including their relationship to specific regulatory sequences and features of chromatin accessibility and histone modification. Third, a more sophisticated view of chromatin structure has emerged, including its inter-relationship with DNA replication and transcriptional regulation. Finally, integration of these new sources of information, in particular with respect to mammalian evolution based on inter- and intra-species sequence comparisons, has yielded new mechanistic and evolutionary insights concerning the functional landscape of the human genome. Together, these studies are defining a path for pursuit of a more comprehensive characterization of human genome function.

/pdf/identification-and-analysis-of-functional-elements-in-1-of-2o640l8ikl.pdf

Identification and analysis of functional elements in 1% of the human genome by the ENCODE pilot project

Molecular approaches to understanding the functional circuitry of the nervous system promise new insights into the relationship between genes, brain and behaviour. The cellular diversity of the brain necessitates a cellular resolution approach towards understanding the functional genomics of the nervous system. We describe here an anatomically comprehensive digital atlas containing the expression patterns of approximately 20,000 genes in the adult mouse brain. Data were generated using automated high-throughput procedures for in situ hybridization and data acquisition, and are publicly accessible online. Newly developed image-based informatics tools allow global genome-scale structural analysis and cross-correlation, as well as identification of regionally enriched genes. Unbiased fine-resolution analysis has identified highly specific cellular markers as well as extensive evidence of cellular heterogeneity not evident in classical neuroanatomical atlases. This highly standardized atlas provides an open, primary data resource for a wide variety of further studies concerning brain organization and function.

/pdf/genome-wide-atlas-of-gene-expression-in-the-adult-mouse-2j5ql1rdgm.pdf

Genome-wide atlas of gene expression in the adult mouse brain

In mammals and other eukaryotes most of the genome is transcribed in a developmentally regulated manner to produce large numbers of long non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs). Here we review the rapidly advancing field of long ncRNAs, describing their conservation, their organization in the genome and their roles in gene regulation. We also consider the medical implications, and the emerging recognition that any transcript, regardless of coding potential, can have an intrinsic function as an RNA.

Long non-coding RNAs: insights into functions

Tissue-clearing technology is an emerging imaging technique currently utilized not only in neuroscience research but also in cancer research. In our previous reports, tissue-clearing methods were used for the detection of metastatic tumors. Here, we showed that the cell cycles of primary and metastatic tumors were visualized by tissue-clearing methods using a reporter system. First, we established cancer cell lines stably expressing fluorescent ubiquitination-based cell cycle indicator (Fucci) reporter with widely used cancer cell lines A549 and 4T1. Fluorescence patterns of the Fucci reporter were investigated in various tumor inoculation models in mice. Interestingly, fluorescence patterns of the Fucci reporter of tumor colonies were different between various organs, and even among colonies in the same organs. The effects of anti-tumor drugs were also evaluated using these Fucci reporter cells. Of the three anti-tumor drugs studied, 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) treatment on 4T1-Fucci cells resulted in characteristic fluorescent patterns by the induction of G2/M arrest both in vitro and in vivo. Thus, the combination of a tissue-clearing method with the Fucci reporter is useful for analyzing the mechanisms of cancer metastasis and drug resistance.

Visualization of the cancer cell cycle by tissue-clearing technology using the Fucci reporter system

Next-generation human genetics for organism-level systems biology.

Understanding design principles of complex cellular organization is one of the major challenges in biology. Recent analysis of the large-scale cellular organization has revealed the scale-free nature and robustness of metabolic and protein networks. However, the underlying evolutional process that creates such a cellular organization is not fully elucidated. To approach this problem, we analyzed the metabolic networks of 126 organisms, whose draft or complete genome sequences have been published. This analysis has revealed that the evolutional process of metabolic networks follows the same and surprisingly simple principles in Archaea, Bacteria and Eukaryotes; where highly linked metabolites change their chemical links more dynamically than less linked metabolites. Here we demonstrate that this rich-travel-more mechanism rather than the previously proposed rich-get-richer mechanism can generate the observed scale-free organization of metabolic networks. These findings illustrate universal principles in evolution of metabolic networks and suggest marked flexibility of metabolic network throughout evolution.

Principles in the Evolution of Metabolic Networks

Analysis and Synthetis of Biological Systems(Analysis and Synthetis of Biological Systems, The 71st Annual Scientific Meeting of the Japanese Circulation Society)

The timing and duration of sleep is an evolutionarily conserved process. Sleep timing is regulated by the circadian clock, and genetic and physiological studies in humans and animal models reveal that sleep timing is regulated by molecular networks of clock genes and cellular circuits of clock neurons. Although sleep duration seems to be regulated by networks of neural circuits, recent reverse and forward genetics have revealed several genes that regulate sleep duration and homeostasis, which suggests that sleep duration is also regulated by both cellular circuits and molecular networks. In this chapter, we discuss how timing of sleep is regulated by circadian clocks and how homeostatic regulation of sleep amount occurs.

Hiroki R. Ueda

Papers

Visualization of the cancer cell cycle by tissue-clearing technology using the Fucci reporter system

Next-generation human genetics for organism-level systems biology.

Principles in the Evolution of Metabolic Networks

Analysis and Synthetis of Biological Systems(Analysis and Synthetis of Biological Systems, The 71st Annual Scientific Meeting of the Japanese Circulation Society)

Genes and Ion Channels in the Circadian and Homeostatic Regulation of Sleep