In PLOS Genetics, an international team led by investigators in the UK and Argentina describe population structure, ancestry profiles, and admixture patterns detected through SNP testing on more than 7,300 individuals from Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru. Using information at a few dozen informative SNPs, the researchers estimated relative proportions of African, European, and Native American ancestry in the genomes of those tested, looking at not only at population structure, but also at ancestry patterns associated with individuals' physical traits and self-reported ancestry. While individuals' perception of their own ancestry often correlated with genetic information, for instance, the study's authors found that "certain physical attributes have a strong impact on self-perception and bias self-perception of ancestry relative to genetically estimated ancestry."
A PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases study explores relationships amongst Burkholderia mallei bacteria behind a Bahrainian outbreak of a sometimes-deadly equine condition called glanders. A team from Germany, the US, the United Arab Emirates, and Austria combined multi-locus variable tandem repeat genotyping and comparative genome sequencing to assess nine B. mallei samples collected from horses or camels in Bahrain during that 2010 and 2011 outbreak. When they compared these to 15 samples collected in the UAE during a 2004 outbreak, the researchers found evidence for two genetically distinct B. mallei clusters in Bahrain, which appeared to share ancestral ties with isolates involved in the earlier outbreak in the UAE.
A dozen microRNAs expressed in cells with latent Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) infection contribute to the metabolic shifts found in Kaposi's sarcoma tumors, according to a PLOS One study. UK researchers examined the metabolic consequences of expressing a cluster of 12 KSHV miRNAs in endothelial cells, providing evidence that the miRNAs could dial down oxygen consumption by cells and bolster the uptake of glucose and release of lactate by targeting genes that regulate processes such as mitochondrial biogenesis and aerobic glycolysis. The results "implicate viral microRNAs in the regulation of the cellular metabolism," according to the study's authors, "and highlight new potential avenues to inhibit viral latency."