Pune varsity scientists claim success in decoding secrets of human genome

This work will be helpful to design better antiviral therapeutic strategies to treat retroviral diseases like AIDS and cancers

A group of scientists from Pune and Kolkata have claimed success in preparing the whole genome map of human ‘Scaffold/Matrix Attachment Regions (S/MARs)’ that are instrumental in three dimensional packaging of human DNA.

Dr Abhijeet Kulkarni (HT PHOTO)

They have also established its link with retrovirus stable infections in human which are responsible for diseases like AIDS and some type of cancers, the Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) said in a release on Thursday.

The research was undertaken by Dr Abhijeet Kulkarni of Bioinformatics centre at SPPU along with Dr Smriti Mittal from the university’s department of Biotechnology, Dr Samit Chattopadhyay from National Centre for Cell Science (NCCS), Pune Indian Institute of Chemical Biology (IICB), Kolkata and their students Nitin Narwade, Sonal Patel, Aftab Alam as investigators. Their research was published in the June, 2019 edition of ‘Nucleic Acids Research Journal’.

The press release said that through biological data mining, the investigators first prepared the whole-genome map of human S/MARs. Later they studied data of around 12 lakh samples that were infected with HIV and HTLV retroviruses. Their analysis reveals preferential integration of these viruses around S/MAR elements in human genome.

This work will be helpful to design better antiviral therapeutic strategies to treat retroviral diseases like AIDS and cancers and also help in understanding human genome functioning, the release said.