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Trabecular myocardium accounts for the majority of the ventricles during early cardiogenesis, but compact myocardium is the primary component at later developmental stages. Elucidation of the genes regulating compact myocardium development is essential to increase our understanding of left ventricular noncompaction (LVNC), a cardiomyopathy characterized by increased ratios of trabecular to compact myocardium. 14-3-3ε is an adapter protein expressed in the lateral plate mesoderm, but its in vivo cardiac functions remain to be defined. Here we show that 14-3-3ε is expressed in the developing mouse heart as well as in cardiomyocytes. 14-3-3ε deletion did not appear to induce compensation by other 14-3-3ε isoforms but led to ventricular noncompaction, with features similar to LVNC, resulting from a selective reduction in compact myocardium thickness. Abnormal compaction derived from a 50% decrease in cardiac proliferation as a result of a reduced number of cardiomyocytes in G2/M and the accumulation of cardiomyocytes in the G0/G1 phase of the cell cycle. These defects originated from downregulation of cyclin E1 and upregulation of p27kip1, possibly through both transcriptional and posttranslational mechanisms. Our work shows that 14-3-3ε regulates cardiogenesis and growth of the compact ventricular myocardium by modulating the cardiomyocyte cell cycle via both cyclin E1 and p27kip1. These data are consistent with the long-held view that human LVNC may result from compaction arrest, and they implicate 14-3-3ε as a new candidate gene in congenital human cardiomyopathies. © 2012, American Society for Microbiology.

Ion-exchange chromatography is the standard technique used for plasmid DNA purification, an essential molecular biology procedure. Non-ionic detergents (NIDs) have been used for plasmid DNA purification, but it is unclear whether Hofmeister series salts (HSS) change the solubility and phase separation properties of specific NIDs, enhancing plasmid DNA purification. After scaling-up NID-mediated plasmid DNA isolation, we established that NIDs in HSS solutions minimize plasmid DNA contamination with protein. In addition, large-scale NID/HSS solutions eliminated lipopolysaccharides (LPS) contamination of plasmid DNA more effectively than Qiagen ion-exchange columns. Large-scale NID isolation/NID purification generated increased yields of high-quality DNA compared to alkali isolation/column purification. This work characterizes how HSS enhance NID-mediated plasmid DNA purification, and demonstrates that NID phase transition is not necessary for LPS removal from plasmid DNA. Specific NIDs such as IGEPAL CA-520 can be utilized for rapid, inexpensive, and efficient laboratory-based large-scale plasmid DNA purification, outperforming Qiagen-based column procedures.