👤 Tugce Bozkurt

Body size and carcass traits are economically significant in livestock, contributing to productivity and meat quality improvement in breeding programs. Understanding the genetic basis of these traits can enhance selection strategies for livestock improvement. This research was carried out to identify genomic regions associated with body size and ultrasound carcass traits using the single-step genome-wide association study (ssGWAS) in Anatolian water buffaloes. Data consisted of wither height (WH), hip height (HH), body length (BL), chest width (CW), hip width (HW), chest circumference (CC), cannon-bone circumference (CBC), Musculus longissimus dorsi depth (MLDD), and subcutaneous fat thickness (SFT) records of 313 yearling buffaloes were used in the association analyses. Genotyping was carried out by using the 90 K Axiom Buffalo Genotyping array. Association analyses using genomic relationship matrix (GRM) were performed by WOMBAT software. Twenty SNPs were found to be genome-wide significant according to the FDR thresholds controlled at p < 0.01. Genes previously associated with body size and fat-related traits, including TRPC7, CEP290, KITLG, TMTC3, NELL2, DBX2, GLI2, BRINP1, TLR4, NYAP2, SORCS3, PIK3C3, LEP, RSPO2, and GTPBP4, were identified in this study. The identification of novel and previously associated genes could enhance genetic improvement, contributing to the understanding of the genetic basis of body morphology in buffaloes. Show less

An impaired epithelial barrier integrity in the gastrointestinal tract is important to the pathogenesis of many inflammatory diseases. Accordingly, we assessed the potential of biomarkers of epithelial barrier dysfunction as predictive of severe COVID-19. Levels of bacterial DNA and zonulin family peptides (ZFP) as markers of bacterial translocation and intestinal permeability and a total of 180 immune and inflammatory proteins were analyzed from the sera of 328 COVID-19 patients and 49 healthy controls. Significantly high levels of circulating bacterial DNA were detected in severe COVID-19 cases. In mild COVID-19 cases, serum bacterial DNA levels were significantly lower than in healthy controls suggesting epithelial barrier tightness as a predictor of a mild disease course. COVID-19 patients were characterized by significantly elevated levels of circulating ZFP. We identified 36 proteins as potential early biomarkers of COVID-19, and six of them (AREG, AXIN1, CLEC4C, CXCL10, CXCL11, and TRANCE) correlated strongly with bacterial translocation and can be used to predict and discriminate severe cases from healthy controls and mild cases (area under the curve (AUC): 1 and 0.88, respectively). Proteomic analysis of the serum of 21 patients with moderate disease at admission which progressed to severe disease revealed 10 proteins associated with disease progression and mortality (AUC: 0.88), including CLEC7A, EIF4EBP1, TRANCE, CXCL10, HGF, KRT19, LAMP3, CKAP4, CXADR, and ITGB6. Our results demonstrate that biomarkers of intact or defective epithelial barriers are associated with disease severity and can provide early information on the prediction at the time of hospital admission. Show less