Parmi les cancers du sein, 5 à 10% serait associé à une prédisposition génétique familiale. La prise en charge des patients prédisposés nécessite une bonne définition des risques de cancer. L’identification de l’altération moléculaire causale dans chacune de ces familles est donc un enjeu essentiel dans la prise en charge médicale. Deux gènes, BRCA1 et BRCA2, sont associés à une prédisposition majeure au cancer du sein et de l’ovaire depuis le milieu des années 1990, expliquant environ 15% des formes héréditaires. L’analyse moléculaire de ces deux gènes est désormais réalisée en routine pour la recherche de variations nucléotidiques et plus récemment de remaniements géniques ce qui a permis d’améliorer le taux de détection de mutations délétères. Cependant, pour près de 85% des familles avec une agrégation familiale ou un âge anormalement jeune de cancer du sein, aucune mutation délétère n’a pu être mise en évidence. Dans ce contexte, mon travail de thèse a eu pour objectif de tester plusieurs hypothèses permettant d’expliquer les risques de cancer du sein observés chez des familles montrant l’absence de mutation des gènes BRCA1 et BRCA2. Nous avons ainsi recherché des mécanismes d’altération rarement explorés pour les gènes BRCA1 et BRCA2, et enfin analysé d’autres gènes candidats dont le gène CDH1 et huit autres gènes impliqués dans la réparation de l’ADN. Nous avons pu mieux caractériser des remaniements sur les gènes BRCA1 et BRCA2. Enfin, nous avons pu évaluer l’impact de variants de signification inconnue et des réarrangements détectés par l’étude de leurs transcrits. Dans un premier temps, nous avons mis en place et validé de nouvelles approches techniques de détection et de caractérisation : la CGH-array dédiée, la qPCR-HRM et le peignage moléculaire. Ces techniques ont ensuite été utilisées pour étudier les remaniements géniques et leur fréquence pour onze gènes candidats à la prédisposition au cancer du sein à partir de 472 familles négatives aux mutations délétères BRCA1 et BRCA2. Parmi ces 11 gènes, nous pouvons conclure que les remaniements géniques détectés concernent principalement les gènes BRCA1 et BRCA2, et à un moindre degré le gène CHEK2. En appliquant ces techniques, nous avons pu décrire de nouveaux événements, deux larges délétions et une duplication intronique, pour les gènes CDH1 et BARD1, ouvrant de nouvelles perspectives sur l’étude des transcrits alternatifs. Nous avons en particulier pu décrire la grande diversité des réarrangements délétères en 5’ du gène BRCA1. L’enjeu est ensuite l’interprétation de ces événements. Notre étude des transcrits a permis de décrire un variant exonique d’épissage entraînant une délétion de l’exon 23 au niveau du transcrit BRCA1. Nous avons aussi validé la pathogénicité d’un réarrangement en phase de l’exon 3 de BRCA2 par une étude quantitative du transcrit et une évaluation de la coségrégation. Au final, moins de 1% de nouveaux remaniements ont été mis en évidence. Ce travail est riche d’enseignement pour les nouvelles investigations à mettre en place pour les familles prédisposées. En dehors de la technique d’identification, il est nécessaire de développer des stratégies de validation basées principalement sur la quantification des effets de ces altérations au niveau de l’ARN et des protéines. Cependant, il manque encore de nombreux chaînons pour expliquer l’héritabilité des cancers du sein. Les études sur les nouveaux gènes candidats et l’avènement des techniques de séquençage pangénome à haut débit, devraient permettre d’avoir une meilleure vision des phénomènes pathobiologiques liés à la prédisposition au cancer du sein. / Five to 10% of breast cancers are linked to a genetic predisposition. The management of patients at risk requires a good definition in the risk of cancer. The identification of causal molecular alterations in each of these families is a key issue in medical care. Two genes, BRCA1 and BRCA2, are related with the greatest susceptibility to breast cancer and ovarian cancer since the mid-1990s, accounting for about 15% of hereditary forms. Molecular analysis of these two genes is now routinely performed for the detection of nucleotide variations and more recently large rearrangements which have improved the detection rate of deleterious mutations. However, for more than 85% of families, no mutation explains familial aggregation or unusual young age of breast cancer onset. In this context, my thesis aimed at testing several hypotheses to explain the risks of breast cancer observed in families without any identified mutations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes. We investigated some mechanisms of genic rearrangements rarely explored for BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, and finally investigated other candidate genes, especially CDH1 gene and eight other genes involved in double-strand DNA repair. We have better characterized some rearrangements in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes. Finally, we applied RNA quantitative approaches to better assess the impact from variants of unknown significance and detected rearrangements. Initially, we developed and validated new technical approaches for detection and characterization such as dedicated CGH-array, qPCR-HRM and molecular combing. Rare large germline rearrangements and their frequency in eleven candidate genes for susceptibility to breast cancer were studied among 472 families negative by routine testing for BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes. Of these 11 genes, we conclude that genic rearrangements are found then mainly in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, and to a lesser extent in the CHEK2 gene. We were able to describe two large intronic deletions and one duplication for the CDH1 and BARD1 genes, opening new perspectives on the regulation of their alternative transcript. In particular, we described the wide diversity of new rearrangements involving the 5' region of the BRCA1 gene. Then, it is necessary to validate and interpret those new events. Our transcript analysis described a new exonic variant causing the splice deletion of exon 23 in BRCA1 gene. We have developed tools to validate an in-frame large rearrangement of BRCA2 exon 3 with some transcript quantitative approaches and disease cosegregation.Finally, less than 1% of new rearrangements have been identified. This work is instructive for further investigations to establish molecular etiology in those families with breast cancer predisposition. Not only by applying new technologies, it is necessary to develop other strategies based primarily on quantifying effects of these alterations on transcription and traduction. However, it still lacks many links to explain the heritability of breast cancer. The combination of new candidate genes studies and the advent of high-throughput sequencing are expected to give a better vision of pathobiological phenomena related to the breast cancer predisposition.

The claim to successfully have eliminated racism and xenophobia in socialist Germany was crucial for the GDR’s demarcation against the Federal Republic and for GDR’s political self-conception. According to the state party SED, both the GDR’s government and its people met with all members of the working class, regardless their ethnicity or culture, in the spirit of Völkerfreundschaft – the peoples’ friendship. In the early 1960s, suffering from a lack of work power, the GDR began to recruit foreign workers, and continued to do so up until German reunification. When workers arrived from Eastern Europe, Latin America, Africa and Asia, the propositions of antiracism and peoples’ friendship were tested in practice. Following a discourse-analytical approach this study analyzes how the ideal of Völkerfreundschaft was reproduced, exploited and altered both by citizens communicating with the state and within party-loyal circles. It examines when, why and by whom ethnicity was downplayed in favor of common class affiliation, and under which circumstances it regained importance. While latest research on foreigners in the GDR has focused on diagnosing the discrepancy between ideological claims and reality this study goes beyond such an approach and analyzes how this discrepancy was dealt with – both by state authorities, the state-owned factories and ordinary people – in everyday life.   This study is a contribution to migration research, as well as to everyday-life-history and history of mentality in the GDR.

Human complex diseases, like Diabetes and Cancer, affect many people worldwide today. Despite existing knowledge, many of these diseases are still not preventable. Complex diseases are known to be caused by a combination of genetic factors, as well as environmental and life style factors. The scope of this investigation covered the genomics of Type 1 Diabetes (T1D). There are 49 human genomic regions that are known to carry markers (disease-associated single nucleotide mutations) for T1D, and these were extensively studied in this research. The aim was to find out in how far this disease may be caused by problems in gene regulation rather than in gene coding. For this, the genetic factors associated with T1D, including the single point mutations and susceptibility regions, were characterised on the basis of their genomic attributes. Furthermore, mutations that occur in binding sites for transcription factors were analysed for change in the conspicuousness of their binding region, caused by allele substitution. This is called SNP (Single nucleotide polymorphism) sensitivity. From this study, it was found that the markers for T1D are mostly non-coding SNPs that occur in introns and non-coding gene transcripts, these are structures known to be involved in gene regulatory activity. It was also discovered that the T1D susceptibility regions contain an abundance of intronic, non-coding transcript and regulatory nucleotides, and that they can be split into three distinct groups on the basis of their structural and functional genomic contents. Finally, using an algorithm designed for this study, thirty-seven SNPs that change the representation of their surrounding region were identified. These regulatory mutations are non-associated T1D-SNPs that are mostly characterised by Cytosine to Thymine (C-T) transition mutations. They were found to be closer in average distance to the disease-associated SNPs than other SNPs in binding sites, and also to occur frequently in the binding motifs for the USF (Upstream stimulatory factor) protein family which is linked to problems in Type 2 diabetes.

Niemann-Pick disease type C (NPC) is a rare, severe disease with autosomal recessive inheritance. Disease is caused by pathogenic mutations located in genes NPC1/NPC2. These genes encode lysosomal non enzymatic NPC1/NPC2 proteins that are part of lipid transport. As a result of malfunction of these proteins intracellular accumulation of lipids occurs, in particular free cholesterol and glycolipids. Causal therapy is currently still unsatisfactory therefore new therapies are evolved. However these therapies depend on whether the patient cells contain at least residual amount of transcript NPC1 gene. In a group of patiens, for which a fibroblast culture was available, I analyzed the effect of pathogenic mutations on the expression level of the transcript. Results showed that for all pathogenic mutations transcript level is low, but detectable. Moreover, I characterized the structure of the NPC1 gene promoter. By sequence analysis I found polymorphisms rs8099071, rs28403610, rs2981422, rs1652354, rs1788774, rs1788772 in promoter. On the basis of the composition of polymorphisms in individual patiens, I estimate six different haplotypes. I performed mutation analysis in DNA of recently diagnosed patient. I found only one pathogenic mutation p.I1061T (c.3182T> C) in the NPC1 gene. Therefore I tested...

Die Technologie der Oligonukleotid-Arrays erlaubt es, tausende von Genen parallel auf ihre Expression hin zu untersuchen. Die Firma metaGen, bei der diese Doktorarbeit entstand, setzt die Genexpressionsanalyse zur Identifikation von Targetmolekülen für die Therapie solider Tumoren ein. Im Zuge dieser Arbeit gelang die Entwicklung eines robusten Verfahrens zur Datenanalyse für Oligonukleotid-Arrays. Gerade für die Untersuchung humaner Proben ist die Robustheit von großem Interesse, da das Gewebematerial oft nur in sehr begrenzten Mengen und mit Qualitätsschwankungen behaftet vorliegt. Anhand eines eingeschränkten Sets an Kontrollversuchen konnte gezeigt werden, dass die vorgeschlagene Methode besser die Erwartungen an das System erfüllt als herkömmliche Verfahren. Ein weiterer Teil der Arbeit bestand im Aufbau einer relationalen Datenbank und in der schrittweisen Automatisierung der Auswertung. Stellvertretend für andere Krebserkrankungen wurde eine detaillierte Analyse zweier publizierter Expressionsdatensätze zum Bronchialkarzinom vorgenommen. Es konnten zwar in beiden Datensätzen zwischen Tumor- und Normalgewebe differenziell exprimierte Gene identifiziert werden, aber die Gegenüberstellung der Ergebnisse zeigte auch einen deutlichen Einfluss der unterschiedlichen Array-Technologien auf die gemessenen Intensitäten. Der spezielle Aufbau des verwendeten Oligonukleotid-Arrays gestattete die Entdeckung putativer Antisense-Transkripte. Die Koexpression einiger Sense- und Antisense-Sonden ließen sich durch Northern-Blot-Experimente bestätigen. Das unterstreicht das Anwendungspotenzial dieser Technologie für die Genomannotation. In einer Untersuchung der Transkriptome der Bäckerhefe und der Fruchtfliege konnte darüber hinaus ein Zusammenhang zwischen den Längen von Introns und Exons und der mittleren Expression von Genen hergestellt werden. Die Vielfalt der Anwendungen und die Ausbaumöglichkeiten verdeutlichen die Bedeutung und das Potenzial der Array-Technologie für die Genexpressionsanalyse. Eine wichtige Aufgabe bleibt deshalb die weitere Verbesserung der Qualitätskontrolle der Experimente und der Datenanalyse. / Oligonucleotide arrays represent a modern technology for the investigation of the expression of thounsands of genes in parallel. The theses were worked out at the company metaGen that uses gene expression analysis for the identification of target molecules for the therapy of solid tumors. One major achievement was the developement of a robust method for oligonucleotide array data analysis. It turned out that for the investigation of human tissue samples the robustness is crutial because the material is often very limited and of variing quality. Using a restricted set of control experiments the superiority of the method over standard procedures could be demonstrated. A further important part of the work was the construction of a relational database and the automation of the analysis process. To demonstrate the applicability of the methods in cancer research two publicly available lung cancer data sets were analysed. A list of differentially expressed genes was identified. But the comparison also revealed that the expression signals are strongly distorted by technical factors. The special array used at metaGen allowed the discorvery of putative antisense transcripts. Three of the candidates had been validated by Northern-blot analysis. This clearly shows the applicability of the array technology to genome annotations. An analysis of the transcriptoms of the bakers yeast and the fruit fly revealed a relationship between the average gene expression and the lengths of introns and exons. The manifold applications and extentions illustrate the inportance and the potential of the array technology. So that the improvement of the technology and of the data analysis will remain a major concern.

Les protéines régulatrices de la transcription de type LysR (LTTR) appartient à la plus grande famille de facteur de transcription chez les procaryotes. Malgré l'importance de cette famille, les informations structurelles sur les protéines pleine-longueur sont très limitées car elles sont souvent insolubles et très difficiles à cristalliser. Les quelques structures existantes, couplés à d'autres analyses biophysiques ont pu montrer que ces protéines s'associent principalement sous forme d'homotétramère comprenant un dimère de dimères. Les dimères s'associent par un large domaine C-terminal dans une position " tête-bêche " et sont reliés en " tête-à-tête " par leurs domaines N-terminal et sont activées par la liaison de molécules inductrices. Le domaine dimèrique C-terminal qui contient la poche de liaison inductrice (Inducer Binding Cavity : IBC) est appelé domaine de liaison inductrice (Inducer Binding Domain : IBD), tandis que les dimères N-terminaux se lient chacun à une région de l'ADN par un motif hélice-tour-hélice ‘winged' (wHTH). Contrairement à d'autres facteurs de transcription, les protéines LTTR ne régulent pas l'expression par association/dissociation avec l'ADN. Ils se lient à l'ADN dans leur état actif et inactif. Le consensus actuel est qu'elles régulent l'expression des gènes par d'importants changements conformationnels qui relâchent la liaison avec l'ADN. À ce jour, aucune structure de LTTR pleine longueur homotétramérique dans une conformation active ou inactive n'a été résolu par cristallographie, et leur mécanisme d'action sur le gène reste structurellement non caractérisé.Le travail décrit dans cette thèse a utilisé DntR de la famille des LTTR. La première structure cristalline de l'apo-DntRis est présentée ici, ainsi que la structure du mutant H169TDntR, qui présente une activité en l'absence d'inducteur. L'analyse par fluorimétrie de différentiel thermique (TSA) montre que la température de dénaturation du mutant H169TDntR est similaire à DntR IBDs lié à une molécule inductrice. La comparaison de ces deux structures avec celle de DntR lié au salicylate révèle que la protéine dans son état apo adopte une conformation compacte de l'IBC, ce qui empêche la liaison d'une molécule inductrice. Dans l'IBC, les mouvements des résidus H169 et H206 permettent la liaison à l'inducteur. Pour éviter les limitations dues à l'empaquetage du cristal nous avons étudié la structure DntR en solution par diffusion des rayons X aux petits angles (SAXS).L'étude SAXS de DntR révèle que dans son état inactif, la conformation apo adopte un repliement plus compact par rapport à celle de la structure cristalline. Tout en maintenant un noyau compact de C-terminal, le repliement du dimère de wHTH est beaucoup plus fermé que dans la structure cristalline et adopte une conformation qui entrainerait une flexion beaucoup plus importante de l'ADN lié que postulé précédemment. Les études du mutant H169TDntR constitué actif ont confirmé comme l'analyse par TSA l'a suggéré que, la structure de cette protéine est nettement différente en solution que sous forme cristalline.En effet, la structure en solution de H169TDntR est très semblable à la forme ouverte de l'homotétramères observés dans la structure cristalline de TsaR. L'hypothèse de départ était que, lors de l'activation de LTTR, cet homotétramère subirait un changement de conformation d'une forme compact vers une forme ouverte, qui se traduirait par un relâchement de l'ADN lié. Cette hypothèse a été confirmée par des études de diffusion en solution de DntR activée par un inducteur.Le travail présenté dans cette thèse valide l'hypothèse précédemment, que lors de l'activation de DntR, et probablement tous les LTTRs homotétramériques, entraine un changement de conformation d'une forme compacte vers une forme beaucoup plus ouverte et permet l'accès aux régions promotrices par l'ARN polymerase et ainsi initier la transcription. / LysR type transcriptional regulatory (LTTR) proteins are the largest family of transcription factors amongst prokaryotes. In spite of the size of the family, structural information on full-length constructs of these proteins is very limited as they are often insoluble and very difficult to crystallize. From the few existing crystal structures, coupled with other biophysical evidence, it is known that the proteins mainly associate as homotetramers comprising a dimer of dimers. The dimers associate through large C-terminal domains in a “head-to-tail” fashion and are connected “head-to-head” through their N-terminal domains and the resulting homotetramers are activated by the binding of inducer molecules. Each C-terminal domain contain an inducer binding cavity (IBC) and is denoted an inducer binding domain (IBD), while the N-terminal dimers each bind a region of DNA via a winged helix-turn-helix (wHTH) motif.Unlike other transcription factors, LTTR proteins do not regulate expression by associating or disassociating with DNA. They bind to DNA in both their active and inactive states and the current consensus is that they regulate gene expression through large conformational changes that relax the bending of bound DNA. However, to this date, no crystal structures of a full length homotetrameric LTTR in both an active and inactive conformation exists, and thus their mechanism of transcriptional regulation remains structurally uncharacterized.The work described in this thesis has used the LTTR DntR as a model protein to futher structurally characterizes the activation mechanism of LTTR proteins. The first crystal structure of apo-DntR is presented as is the crystal structure of H169TDntR, a mutant which shows activity in the absence of an inducer molecule. Thermofluor assays performed on this mutant, show that it has a melting temperature similar to that of inducer bound DntR. Comparison of these crystal structures with the crystal structure of salicylate-bound DntR reveals that the protein in its apo-state adopts a compact IBC, which precludes the binding of an inducer molecule. Despite the evidence of thermofluor assays, the crystal structure of H169TDntR is very similar to that of apo-DntR suggesting that crystal packing effects impose strong limitations on the use of crystallography to elucidate the active and inactive conformations of DntR. Small Angle X-ray Scattering (SAXS) was thus used to study the structure of DntR in solution.SAXS study reveals that in solution DntR in its inactive apo-state is found in a slightly different conformation compared to that seen in its crystal structure. While maintaining a compact tetrameric C-terminal core the DNA binding wHTH dimers pack much closer to this than seen in the crystal structure and adopt a conformation that would result in much higher bending of bound DNA than previously postulated.SAXS studies of the constitutively active H169TDntR mutant confirm, as thermofluor assays had suggested, that in solution the structure of this protein is markedly different from its crystal structure. Indeed the solution structure of H169TDntR appears very like that of open-form homotetramers seen in the crystal structure of TsaR. This same effect was observed in solution scattering studies of inducer bound-and thus activated, DntR.The work presented in this thesis thus appears to confirm, as previously hypothesized, that upon activation DntR, and presumably all homotetrameric LTTRs, undergo a conformational change from a compact, to a much more open form that allows the relaxation of the bound DNA promoter region, exposing it to solvent and allows RNA polymerase access and thus initiate transcription.

No description available.

This thesis handles the construction and technology project for the construction of the Hall in a former cold storage complex. In the work is handled by the implementation of a comprehensive study, including schedule, financial planning, technological regulation for the supporting structure of the Hall. Further deals with the design of the main building mechanism, design, construction site facilities, inspection and test plan.

Longitudinal monitoring of BCR-ABL transcript levels in peripheral blood of CML patients treated with tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI) revealed a typical biphasic response. Although second generation TKIs like dasatinib proved more efficient in achieving molecular remission compared to first generation TKI imatinib, it is unclear how individual responses differ between the drugs and whether mechanisms of drug action can be deduced from the dynamic data. We use time courses from the DASISION trial to address statistical differences in the dynamic response between first line imatinib vs. dasatinib treatment cohorts and we analyze differences between the cohorts by fitting an established mathematical model of functional CML treatment to individual time courses. On average, dasatinib-treated patients show a steeper initial response, while the long-term response only marginally differed between the treatments. Supplementing each patient time course with a corresponding confidence region, we illustrate the consequences of the uncertainty estimate for the underlying mechanisms of CML remission. Our model suggests that the observed BCR-ABL dynamics may result from different, underlying stem cell dynamics. These results illustrate that the perception and description of CML treatment response as a dynamic process on the level of individual patients is a prerequisite for reliable patient-specific response predictions and treatment optimizations.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / My thesis comprises of two individual projects: 1) we have developed a database for operon prediction using high-throughput sequencing datasets for bacterial genomes. 2) Genomics and mechanistic insights of convergent transcription in bacterial genomes. In the first project we developed a database for the prediction of operons for bacterial genomes using RNA-seq datasets, we predicted operons for bacterial genomes. RNA-seq datasets with different condition for each bacterial genome were taken into account and predicted operons using Rockhopper. We took RNA-seq datasets from NCBI with distinct experimental conditions for each bacterial genome into account and analyzed using tool for operon prediction. Currently our database contains 9 bacterial organisms for which we predicted operons. User interface is simple and easy to use, in terms of visualization, downloading and querying of data. In our database user can browse through reference genome, genes present in that genome and operons predicted from different RNA-seq datasets. Further in the second project, we studied the genomic and mechanistic insights of convergent transcription in bacterial genomes. We know that convergent gene pairs with overlapping head-to-head configuration are widely spread across both eukaryotic and prokaryotic genomes. They are believed to contribute to the regulation of genes at both transcriptional and post-transcriptional levels, although factors contributing to their abundance across genomes and mechanistic basis for their prevalence are poorly understood. In this study, we explore the role of various factors contributing to convergent overlapping transcription in bacterial genomes. Our analysis shows that the proportion of convergent overlapping gene pairs (COGPs) in a genome is affected due to endospore formation, bacterial habitat, oxygen requirement, GC content and the temperature range. In particular, we show that bacterial genomes thriving in specialized habitats, such as thermophiles, exhibit a high proportion of COGPs. Our results also conclude that the density distribution of COGPs across the genomes is high for shorter overlaps with increased conservation of distances for decreasing overlaps. Our study further reveals that COGPs frequently contain stop codon overlaps with the middle base position exhibiting mismatches between complementary strands. Further, for the functional analysis using cluster of orthologous groups (COGs) annotations suggested that cell motility, cell metabolism, storage and cell signaling are enriched among COGPs, suggesting their role in processes beyond regulation. Our analysis provides genomic insights into this unappreciated regulatory phenomenon, allowing a refined understanding of their contribution to bacterial phenotypes.