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Physical shearing imparts biological activity to DNA and ability to transmit itself horizontally across species and kingdom boundaries

Overview of attention for article published in BMC Molecular and Cell Biology, August 2017
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Title
Physical shearing imparts biological activity to DNA and ability to transmit itself horizontally across species and kingdom boundaries
Published in
BMC Molecular and Cell Biology, August 2017
DOI 10.1186/s12867-017-0098-8
Pubmed ID
Authors

Gorantla Venkata Raghuram, Deepika Gupta, Siddharth Subramaniam, Ashwini Gaikwad, Naveen Kumar Khare, Malcolm Nobre, Naveen Kumar Nair, Indraneel Mittra

Abstract

We have recently reported that cell-free DNA (cfDNA) fragments derived from dying cells that circulate in blood are biologically active molecules and can readily enter into healthy cells to activate DNA damage and apoptotic responses in the recipients. However, DNA is not conventionally known to spontaneously enter into cells or to have any intrinsic biological activity. We hypothesized that cellular entry and acquisition of biological properties are functions of the size of DNA. To test this hypothesis, we generated small DNA fragments by sonicating high molecular weight DNA (HMW DNA) to mimic circulating cfDNA. Sonication of HMW DNA isolated from cancerous and non-cancerous human cells, bacteria and plant generated fragments 300-3000 bp in size which are similar to that reported for circulating cfDNA. We show here that while HMW DNAs were incapable of entering into cells, sonicated DNA (sDNA) from different sources could do so indiscriminately without heed to species or kingdom boundaries. Thus, sDNA from human cells and those from bacteria and plant could enter into nuclei of mouse cells and sDNA from human, bacterial and plant sources could spontaneously enter into bacteria. The intracellular sDNA associated themselves with host cell chromosomes and integrated into their genomes. Furthermore, sDNA, but not HMW DNA, from all four sources could phosphorylate H2AX and activate the pro-inflammatory transcription factor NFκB in mouse cells, indicating that sDNAs had acquired biological activities. Our results show that small fragments of DNA from different sources can indiscriminately enter into other cells across species and kingdom boundaries to integrate into their genomes and activate biological processes. This raises the possibility that fragmented DNA that are generated following organismal cell-death may have evolutionary implications by acting as mobile genetic elements that are involved in horizontal gene transfer.

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Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 24 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Unknown 24 100%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Ph. D. Student 5 21%
Researcher 3 13%
Student > Bachelor 2 8%
Student > Master 2 8%
Professor 2 8%
Other 3 13%
Unknown 7 29%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology 7 29%
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 3 13%
Immunology and Microbiology 2 8%
Medicine and Dentistry 2 8%
Chemistry 1 4%
Other 0 0%
Unknown 9 38%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 1. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 10 August 2017.
All research outputs
#22,764,772
of 25,382,440 outputs
Outputs from BMC Molecular and Cell Biology
#1,054
of 1,233 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#287,140
of 327,653 outputs
Outputs of similar age from BMC Molecular and Cell Biology
#13
of 15 outputs
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So far Altmetric has tracked 1,233 research outputs from this source. They receive a mean Attention Score of 4.0. This one is in the 1st percentile – i.e., 1% of its peers scored the same or lower than it.
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We're also able to compare this research output to 15 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one is in the 1st percentile – i.e., 1% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.