bims-cytox1 2017-04-02 papers

Issue of 2017‒04‒02
two papers selected by
Gavin McStay
New York Institute of Technology

Mutat Res. 2017 Mar 07. pii: S0027-5107(16)30193-2. [Epub ahead of print]797-799 7-14

Mitochondrial DNA damage and oxidative damage in HL-60 cells exposed to 900MHz radiofrequency fields.

Yulong Sun, Lin Zong, Zhen Gao, Shunxing Zhu, Jian Tong, Yi Cao.

HL-60 cells, derived from human promyelocytic leukemia, were exposed to continuous wave 900MHz radiofrequency fields (RF) at 120μW/cm2 power intensity for 4h/day for 5 consecutive days to examine whether such exposure is capable damaging the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) mediated through the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS). In addition, the effect of RF exposure was examined on 8-hydroxy-2'-dexoyguanosine (8-OHdG) which is a biomarker for oxidative damage and on the mitochondrial synthesis of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) which is the energy required for cellular functions. The results indicated a significant increase in ROS and significant decreases in mitochondrial transcription factor A, mtDNA polymerase gamma, mtDNA transcripts and mtDNA copy number in RF-exposed cells compared with those in sham-exposed control cells. In addition, there was a significant increase in 8-OHdG and a significant decrease in ATP in RF-exposed cells. The response in positive control cells exposed to gamma radiation (GR, which is also known to induce ROS) was similar to those in RF-exposed cells. Thus, the overall data indicated that RF exposure was capable of inducing mtDNA damage mediated through ROS pathway which also induced oxidative damage. Prior-treatment of RF- and GR-exposed the cells with melatonin, a well-known free radical scavenger, reversed the effects observed in RF-exposed cells.

Keywords: 8-Hydroxy-2′-deoxyguanosisne; Mitochondrial DNA damage; Oxidative damage; Radiofrequency fields; Reactive oxygen species

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mrfmmm.2017.03.001

Genome. 2017 Mar 24.

Ten years of barcoding at the African Centre for DNA barcoding.

Simeon Bezeng Bezeng, T Jonathan Davies, Barnabas H Daru, Ronny Mukala Kabongo, Olivier Maurin, Kowiyou Yessoufou, Herman van der Bank, Michelle Van der Bank.

The African Centre for DNA Barcoding (ACDB) was established in 2005 as part of a global initiative to accurately and rapidly survey biodiversity using short DNA sequences. The mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase 1 gene (CO1) was rapidly adopted as the de facto barcode for animals. Following the evaluation of several candidate loci for plants, the Plant Working Group of the Consortium for the Barcoding of Life in 2009 recommended that the two plastid genes, rbcLa and matK, be adopted as core DNA barcodes for terrestrial plants. To date, numerous studies continue to test the discriminatory power of these markers across various plant lineages. Over the past decade, we at the African Centre for DNA Barcoding, have used these core DNA barcodes to generate a barcode library for southern Africa. To date, the ACDB has contributed more than 21 000 plant barcodes and over 3 000 CO1 barcodes for animals to the Barcode of Life Database (BOLD). Building upon this effort, we at the ACDB have addressed questions related to community assembly, biogeography, phylogenetic diversification, and invasion biology. Collectively, our work demonstrates the diverse applications of DNA barcoding in ecology, systematics, evolutionary biology, and conservation.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1139/gen-2016-0198