Variation in Akt protein kinases in human populations

Targeting Akt/PKB in pediatric tumors: A review from preclinical to clinical trials

The serine/threonine kinase Akt is a major player in the phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K)/Akt/mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling pathway, and its modulation impacts multiple cellular processes such as growth, proliferation, and survival. Several abnormalities in this pathway have been documented over the years, and these alterations were shown to have great implications in tumorigenesis and resistance to chemotherapy. Thus, multiple Akt inhibitors have been developed and tested in adult tumors, and some of them are currently undergoing phase I, II, and III clinical trials for distinct cancers that arise during adulthood. Despite that, the impact of these inhibitors is still not fully understood in pediatric tumors, and Akt-specific targeting seems to be a promising approach to treat children affected by cancers. This review summarizes recent available evidence of Akt inhibitors in pediatric cancers, from both preclinical and clinical studies. In short, we demonstrate the impact that Akt inhibition provides in tumorigenesis, and we suggest targeting the PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling pathway, alone or in combination with other inhibitors, is a feasible tool to achieve better outcomes in pediatric tumors.

ZMAT2 in Humans and Other Primates: A Highly Conserved and Understudied Gene

Recent advances in genetics present unique opportunities for enhancing our understanding of human physiology and disease predisposition through detailed analysis of gene structure, expression, and population variation via examination of data in publicly accessible genome and gene expression repositories. Yet, the vast majority of human genes remain understudied. Here, we show the scope of these genomic and genetic resources by evaluating ZMAT2, a member of a 5-gene family that through May 2020 had been the focus of only 4 peer-reviewed scientific publications. Using analysis of information extracted from public databases, we show that human ZMAT2 is a 6-exon gene and find that it exhibits minimal genetic variation in human populations and in disease states, including cancer. We further demonstrate that the gene and its encoded protein are highly conserved among nonhuman primates and define a cohort of ZMAT2 pseudogenes in the marmoset genome. Collectively, our investigations illustrate how complementary use of genomic, gene expression, and population genetic resources can lead to new insights about human and mammalian biology and evolution, and when coupled with data supporting key roles for ZMAT2 in keratinocyte differentiation and pre-RNA splicing argue that this gene is worthy of further study.

Zmat2 in mammals: conservation and diversification among genes and Pseudogenes

BACKGROUND

Recent advances in genetics and genomics present unique opportunities for enhancing our understanding of mammalian biology and evolution through detailed multi-species comparative analysis of gene organization and expression. Yet, of the more than 20,000 protein coding genes found in mammalian genomes, fewer than 10% have been examined in any detail. Here we elucidate the power of data available in publicly-accessible genomic and genetic resources by querying them to evaluate Zmat2, a minimally studied gene whose human ortholog has been implicated in spliceosome function and in keratinocyte differentiation.

RESULTS

We find extensive conservation in coding regions and overall structure of Zmat2 in 18 mammals representing 13 orders and spanning ~ 165 million years of evolutionary development, and in their encoded proteins. We identify a tandem duplication in the Zmat2 gene and locus in opossum, but not in other monotremes, marsupials, or other mammals, indicating that this event occurred subsequent to the divergence of these species from one another. We also define a collection of Zmat2 pseudogenes in half of the mammals studied, and suggest based on phylogenetic analysis that they each arose independently in the recent evolutionary past.

CONCLUSIONS

Mammalian Zmat2 genes and ZMAT2 proteins illustrate conservation of structure and sequence, along with the development and diversification of pseudogenes in a large fraction of species. Collectively, these observations also illustrate how the focused identification and interpretation of data found in public genomic and gene expression resources can be leveraged to reveal new insights of potentially high biological significance.