Vol 59, No 9 (2023)

The inevitability of pandemics creates an urgent requirement for emergency action to develop effective technologies to reduce harm to the human population in the period between the onset of an epidemic and the development and production of a vaccine. In this review we discuss the possibility of engineering universal vaccines. Such vaccines would exploit the nonspecific potential of innate immunity, would allow the population to be vaccinated when an unidentified pathogen appears, and would reduce disease severity until pathogen-specific vaccines become available. There are strong evidences that bacterial or viral vaccines such as BCG, measles and polio have heterologous protective effects against unrelated pathogens. This is attributed to the innate immune system’s ability to maintain the memory of past infections and use it to develop immune defenses against new ones. This effect has been called “trained” immunity. The use of trained immunity may also represent an important new approach to improving existing vaccines or to developing new vaccines that combine the induction of classical adaptive immune memory and innate immune memory. Such approaches can be boosted by genetic technology and prove extremely useful against future pandemics.

A review of data on B-chromosomes in populations of various systematic groups of plants and animals from their extreme habitats – the borders of the range and areas of the range exposed to unfavorable environmental factors is given. The analysis showed a rather similar picture of the distribution of B chromosomes in species from extreme habitats: there is a tendency to increase the number, occurrence and polymorphism of B chromosomes, which is accompanied by changes in the karyotype, genomic and chromosomal anomalies in their carriers. B chromosomes are often found in species with wide ranges. The possible adaptive role of B chromosomes in the vital activity of the organism and the evolution of genomes is discussed.

One of the main components of apomictic plant reproduction is the formation of unreduced embryo sacs (ESs). Heteroploid crosses, in which maternal diploid plants are pollinated by pollen of tetraploid paternal parent, can be used as an effective tool for identifying the ability to form unreduced ESs. In maize, in crosses 2n(♀) × 4n(♂), as a rule, shrunken kernels with a triploid embryo are formed, in which the development of the endosperm is impaired due to the deviation of the balance of the maternal (m) to paternal (p) genomes from the ratio of 2m : 1p. In our experiments, in several diploid maize lines, after their pollination with tetraploid pollen, the formation of large plump kernels was observed, from which diploid maternal-type plants developed, the maternal-type phenotype, as well as the hybrid endosperm phenotype, were confirmed by the expression of genetic markers. It has been suggested that the plump kernels in 2n × 4n crosses arise on the basis of unreduced embryo sacs (ESs) and pseudogamous apomixis, since the fusion of diploid sperms with diploid polar nuclei provides a 2 : 1 ratio of maternal to paternal genomes in the endosperm. In order to clarify the genetic nature of diploid plants phenotypically similar to maternal lines that developed from plump kernels in 2n × 4n crosses, we carried out their genotyping for all 10 chromosomes of the maize genome using polymorphic codominant SSR- and Indel-markers that differentiate the paternal line from maternal lines. As maternal lines, we used HPL AT, which has the ability to haploid parthenogenesis, KM, YuV-11, as well as the F₂ B47/HPL AT hybrid plants; and as a paternal line – Chernaya Tetra(4n). It was found that in all the plants studied, when markers of five chromosomes (1, 2, 3, 4, and 9) were used, amplification of only maternal alleles was observed. However, in each of the studied plant, when using markers of other chromosomes, cases of amplification of alleles characteristic of the paternal line were noted. A hypothesis is put forward on the formation of diploid plants in 2n × 4n crosses in maize as a result of fertilization of the unreduced ESs and the subsequent elimination of chromosomes, predominantly of the pollen parent.

166 horses of the russian riding breed were studied using 17 microsatellite loci recommended by ISAG. Microsatellite polymorphism data of thirty European breeds (7874 individuals) was used for comparative analysis of genetic diversity. According to the level of allelic richness, the Russian riding horse has high values – 5. 4 alleles per microsatellite locus. In total, 122 alleles were found in the breed, including private 14 allele at the HTG7 locus. The population genetic structure was revealed for the Russian riding, Arabian, Akhal-Teke, German riding and thoroughbred breeds. Clustering of horse breeds on a circular UPGMA dendrogram revealed six main clusters. the Russian ridinghorse forms a single group with German and thoroughbred horses in PCA. Breeds were divided into three populations in STRUCTURE program: 1) Arabian, 2) Russian Riding, Akhal-Teke, thoroughbred riding, 3) German half-breed. Analysis of differentiation between breeds using the F-st method showed the greatest values (differences) between all breeds with the Akhal-Tekehorses. The smallest value (F_st = 0.22) between the Russian riding and German riding breed. Differences for each pair of breeds were significant (p-value < 0.001).

To date, a large number of genome-wide association analyses (GWAS) of cognitive abilities (i.e. intelligence, educational level, executive functions, etc.) have been conducted in European populations. A replication analysis of GWAS-associated variants of the general factor of intelligence in the development of spatial (3D) abilities in the individuals from Russia is relevant. In order to estimate the main effect of the most significant GWAS loci on spatial abilities in the Russian cohort (N = 1011, 18–25 years old) a set of seven “top” SNPs (p < 10^–13) was formed: TUFM rs7187776, SH2B1 rs7198606, ZNF638 rs2287326, NEGR1 rs12128707, ATP2A1 rs8055138, EXOC4 rs1362739, and CSE1L rs6063353. Statistically significant differences (р < 0.05) in genotype frequencies distribution of ATP2A1 rs8055138, NEGR1 rs12128707, and ZNF638 rs2287326 between Russians, Tatars, and Udmurts have been observed. As a result of analysis of genotype-by-environment interactions we revealed ethnicity-specific character of associations: in Russians maternal age at delivery (β_ST = 0.84, p = 0.005) and in Tatars bilingual/unilingual rearing (β_ST = 0.44, р = 0.020) modulated association of ZNF638 rs2287326 with spatial abilities. Moreover, urban/rural residency in childhood modulated association of TUFM rs7187776 with 3D abilities (β_ST = 0.41, р = 0.009). The data obtained indicate the involvement of the ZNF638, TUFM, SH2B1, and EXOC4 genes, which are responsible for adipogenesis, in the manifestation of cognitive abilities, and, therefore, confirms the relationship between cognitive and metabolic disorders. Nevertheless, ethnicity-specific character of demonstrated associations and differences in genotype frequencies of analyzed GWAS-SNPs point to the specific pattern of associated genetic loci characteristic for the Russian cohort and to the complexity of replication of data reported for the combined samples of Europeans.

Based on the analysis of the materials of the 2010 All-Russia’s Population Census and the demographic statistics of Rosstat Agency, the genetic-demographic parameters of temporal and interethnic variability of natural reproduction parameters and selection parameters (Crow indices) were calculated for the most numerous ethnic groups of Moscow and St. Petersburg. A decrease in the selection component due to differential prereproductive mortality was shown to decrease to the minimum possible values (index I_m < 0.01). In both megacities, interethnic differences were revealed in the parameters of natural reproduction and the selection component due to differential fertility, while the birth rate in both capitals for all ethnic groups, except for Uzbeks in St. Petersburg, is lower than required even for simple reproduction of the population, and hence stable reproduction of the gene pool. This indicates the unfavorable nature of the genetic and demographic processes in all the represented nationalities of the megacities. The I_f index ranges from 0.2 to 0.5. The temporal dynamics of the average number of offspring and its variance, as well as the I_f index, traced according to the data on the age cohorts of women born in the 1940s–1960s, is weakly expressed – the tendency to selection relaxation is not observed for all the studied ethnic groups. It is shown that the intensity of intergroup selection, due to interethnic differences in fertility, in the population of St. Petersburg increases from older age cohorts to younger ones, while in the population of Moscow it does not change significantly, while the temporal dynamics of this indicator, calculated on the base of the materials of the 2002 All-Russia’s Population Census for cohorts born in 1930s–1950s has the opposite direction. The genetic-demographic consequences of the revealed tendencies are discussed.

The gynogenesis and parthenogenesis genes in Saratov maize lines was evaluated. In particular, the (Zm_Gex2, Zm_Gcs1, Zm_Pla1, Zm_CenH3, Zm_Dmp7) genes in haploid-inducing (ZMS-8, ZMSP) and (Zm_Chr106, Zm_Hdt104 and Zm_Fie1) genes in parthenogenetic (AT-1, AT-3, AT-4) and ordinary (KM, GPL-1) maize lines were sequenced. Using bioinformatic methods, gene sequences were compared in different maize lines and changes in nucleotide sequences were revealed. We suppose that it is possible to use Zm_Pla1, Zm_Gex2, and Zm_Fie1 genes for maize line genotyping.