Background Deletion and the reciprocal duplication in 16p11.2 were recently associated with autism and developmental delay. Method We indentified 27 deletions and 18 duplications of 16p11.2 were identified in 0.6% of all samples submitted for clinical array-CGH (comparative genomic hybridisation) analysis. Detailed molecular and phenotypic characterisations were performed on 17 deletion subjects and ten subjects with the duplication. Results The most common clinical manifestations in 17 deletion and 10 duplication subjects were speech/language delay and cognitive impairment. Other phenotypes in the deletion patients included motor delay (50%), seizures (~40%), behavioural problems (~40%), congenital anomalies (~30%), and autism (~20%). The phenotypes among duplication patients included motor delay (6/10), behavioural problems (especially attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)) (6/10), congenital anomalies (5/10), and seizures (3/10). Patients with the 16p11.2 deletion had statistically significant macrocephaly (p<0.0017) and 6 of the 10 patients with the duplication had microcephaly. One subject with the deletion was asymptomatic and another with the duplication had a normal cognitive and behavioural phenotype. Genomic analyses revealed additional complexity to the 16p11.2 region with mechanistic implications. The chromosomal rearrangement was de novo in all but 2 of the 10 deletion cases in which parental studies were available. Additionally, 2 de novo cases were apparently mosaic for the deletion in the analysed blood sample. Three de novo and 2 inherited cases were observed in the 5 of 10 duplication patients where data were available. Conclusions Recurrent reciprocal 16p11.2 deletion and duplication are characterised by a spectrum of primarily neurocognitive phenotypes that are subject to incomplete penetrance and variable expressivity. The autism and macrocephaly observed with deletion and ADHD and microcephaly seen in duplication patients support a diametric model of autism spectrum and psychotic spectrum behavioural phenotypes in genomic sister disorders.

Candida albicans is a normal member of the human microbiota that asymptomatically colonizes healthy individuals, however it is also an opportunistic pathogen that can cause severe infections, especially in immunocompromised individuals. The medical impact of C. albicans depends, in part, on its ability to form biofilms, communities of adhered cells encased in an extracellular matrix. Biofilms can form on both biotic and abiotic surfaces, such as tissues and implanted medical devices. Once formed, biofilms are highly resistant to antifungal agents and the host immune system, and can act as a protected reservoir to seed disseminated infections. Here, we present several in vitro biofilm protocols, including protocols that are optimized for high-throughput screening of mutant libraries and antifungal compounds. We also present protocols to examine specific stages of biofilm development and protocols to evaluate interspecies biofilms that C. albicans forms with interacting microbial partners. © 2018 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

We report 26 individuals from ten unrelated families who exhibit variable expression and/or incomplete penetrance of epilepsy, learning difficulties, intellectual disabilities, and/or neurobehavioral abnormalities as a result of a heterozygous microdeletion distally adjacent to the Williams-Beuren syndrome region on chromosome 7q11.23. In six families with a common recurrent ∼1.2 Mb deletion that includes the Huntingtin-interacting protein 1 (HIP1) and tyrosine 3-monooxygenase/tryptophan 5-monooxygenase activation protein gamma (YWHAG) genes and that is flanked by large complex low-copy repeats, we identified sites for nonallelic homologous recombination in two patients. There were no cases of this ∼1.2 Mb distal 7q11.23 deletion copy number variant identified in over 20,000 control samples surveyed. Three individuals with smaller, nonrecurrent deletions (∼180-500 kb) that include HIP1 but not YWHAG suggest that deletion of HIP1 is sufficient to cause neurological disease. Mice with targeted mutation in the Hip1 gene (Hip1⁻(/)⁻) develop a neurological phenotype characterized by failure to thrive, tremor, and gait ataxia. Overall, our data characterize a neurodevelopmental and epilepsy syndrome that is likely caused by recurrent and nonrecurrent deletions, including HIP1. These data do not exclude the possibility that YWHAG loss of function is also sufficient to cause neurological phenotypes. Based on the current knowledge of Hip1 protein function and its proposed role in AMPA and NMDA ionotropic glutamate receptor trafficking, we believe that HIP1 haploinsufficiency in humans will be amenable to rational drug design for improved seizure control and cognitive and behavioral function.

Candida albicans is a commensal member of the human microbiota that colonizes multiple niches in the body including the skin, oral cavity, and gastrointestinal and genitourinary tracts of healthy individuals. It is also the most common human fungal pathogen isolated from patients in clinical settings. C. albicans can cause a number of superficial and invasive infections, especially in immunocompromised individuals. The ability of C. albicans to succeed as both a commensal and a pathogen, and to thrive in a wide range of environmental niches within the host, requires sophisticated transcriptional regulatory programs that can integrate and respond to host specific environmental signals. Identifying and characterizing the transcriptional regulatory networks that control important developmental processes in C. albicans will shed new light on the strategies used by C. albicans to colonize and infect its host. Here, we discuss the transcriptional regulatory circuits controlling three major developmental processes in C. albicans: biofilm formation, the white-opaque phenotypic switch, and the commensal-pathogen transition. Each of these three circuits are tightly knit and, through our analyses, we show that they are integrated together by extensive regulatory crosstalk between the core regulators that comprise each circuit.