Do recent US Supreme Court rulings on patenting of genes and genetic diagnostics affect the practice of genetic screening and diagnosis in prenatal and reproductive care?

Thousands of patents have been awarded that claim human gene sequences and their uses, and some have been challenged in court. In a recent high-profile case, Association for Molecular Pathology, et al. v. Myriad Genetics, Inc., et al., the US Supreme Court ruled that genes are natural occurring substances and therefore not patentable through ‘composition of matter’ claims. The consequences of this ruling will extend well beyond ending Myriad's monopoly over BRCA testing and may affect similar monopolies of other commercial laboratories for tests involving other genes. It could also simplify intellectual property issues surrounding genome-wide clinical sequencing, which can generate results for genes covered by intellectual property. Non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) for common aneuploidies using cell-free fetal (cff) DNA in maternal blood is currently offered through commercial laboratories and is also the subject of ongoing patent litigation. The recent Supreme Court decision in the Myriad case has already been invoked by a lower district court in NIPT litigation and resulted in invalidation of primary claims in a patent on currently marketed cffDNA-based testing for chromosomal aneuploidies. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Optimisation of adjusted barrier management to improve glass eel migration at an estuarine barrier

Estuarine barriers may significantly reduce the upstream migration of diadromous fish species like the European eel (Anguilla anguilla L.). Previous research showed that limited barrier opening during tidal rise was a cost-efficient and effective mitigation option to improve upstream glass eel migration, without significant intrusion of sea water. This paper aims to optimise this adjusted barrier management to improve eel passage at a tidal barrier complex at the mouth of the River Yser, Flanders, Belgium, one of the most important migration routes for glass eel in Flanders. Specifically, three hypotheses were tested. The first hypothesis analysed the impact of the number of barriers opened on the upstream glass eel migration. The second hypothesis evaluated the relation between the size of the barrier opening and glass eel migration. Finally, we tested whether the suggested adjusted barrier management may lead to a significant increase in conductivity in the River Yser. Increased opening of one barrier appeared more efficient than opening several barriers slightly. Conductivity increased during periods of extreme drought and at base flow, but decreased within 24 h after the first peak flow. This indicates that adjusted barrier management does not entail salt intrusion in the Yser basin, as long as this management is not applied in extremely dry periods. Since the adjusted barrier management is easily implemented and could be applied on numerous tidal barriers, the presented results may contribute to restoration of eel populations worldwide and be of interest to a wide range of river managers and stakeholders.     

Crimson-breasted Shrike females with extra pair offspring contributed more to duets

Many socially monogamous bird species follow a genetically promiscuous reproductive strategy. Duetting birds may be an exception, as they appear to exhibit very low levels of extra pair paternity—which is thought to be connected to duetting. Duets are predicted to function either in paternity guarding or as signals of commitment to the pair bond, reciprocally reducing extra pair mating in both sexes. In this study, we used four microsatellites to document paternity loss in the Crimson-breasted Shrike (Laniarius atrococcineus), a socially monogamous subtropical duetting species. Extra pair paternity was surprisingly high, with extra pair males siring 20 % of young in 30 % of broods. Furthermore, we compared the levels of extra pair paternity of each pair to certain characteristics of their duets to test the paternity guard and the commitment hypotheses. Our results offered no support that duets function in paternity guarding, although the fact that males which had been cuckolded answered more of their female’s calls could represent an adaptation to avoid future cuckoldry. We also found no evidence for duets functioning as signal of commitment. Female vocal behaviour was in fact the reverse of that predicted: Levels of infidelity amongst social females were positively related to female answer rate of their mates’ songs. These results indicate that females may use increased answer rates as a form of manipulation, in an attempt to avoid potential costs associated with their extra pair matings.     

Retention of PCDDS and PCDFS in the liver of the rat and hamster after oral administration of a municipal incinerator fly ash extract

A single dose of an extract from 16 and 5 grams fly ash was administered orally to male rats and hamsters. In the rat 1,2,3,7,8‐PnCDD had the highest retention (41%) in the liver. The congener with the highest retention in the liver of the hamster was 2,3,4,7,8‐PnCDF (70.9%). In two oral multiple dose experiments with rats, highest liver retentions were found for 1,2,3,7,8‐PnCDD (51.7%) and 1,2,3,6,7,8‐HxCDD (59.8%). With the exception of 2,3,4,6,7‐PnCDF, all PCDDs and PCDFs retained in the liver of rat and hamster had a 2,3,7,8 chlorine substitution pattern. In both types of experiments with rats the retention of 2,3,7,8‐TCDF in the liver was very low, 1.1–2.8% of the total dose. In the liver of the hamster retention of 2,3,7,8‐TCDF was almost equal to that of 2,3,7,8‐TCDD, indicating that the hamster is probably metabolizing 2,3,7,8‐TCDF Jess efficiently than the rat. In all experiments 1,2,3,7,8‐PnCDD and 2,3,4,7,8‐PnCDF were retained in the liver more efficiently than 2,3,7,8‐TCDD. Based on first order pharmacokinetic calculations, it was found that the earlier published k_e value of 0.55 for 2,3,7,8‐TCDF in the liver of the rat was also applicable. Using the same calculations for 2,3,7,8‐TCDD (k_e = 0.029) a 30% difference was found between calculated and actual measurements, but calculated results were still within the 95% confidence limits of the actual measurements.