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Around 50% of the familial breast cancer (BC) cases are estimated to be caused by germline variants in known low-, moderate-, and high-risk susceptibility genes, while the other half is of unknown genetic origin. In the present study, we wanted to evaluate the role of the RECQ helicases, some of which have been studied in the past as candidates, with unclear results about their role in the disease. Using next-generation sequencing (NGS) technology, we analyzed the whole coding sequence of BLM, RECQL1, RECQL4, RECQL5, and WRN in almost 2000 index cases from BC Spanish families that had previously tested negative for the known BC susceptibility genes (BRCAX) and compared the results with the controls extracted from gnomAD. Our results suggest that BLM, RECQL1, RECQL4, and WRN do not play a major role in BC susceptibility. However, in the combined analysis, joining the present results with those previously reported in a series of 1334 BC Spanish patients and controls, we found a statistically significant association between Loss of Function (LoF) variants in RECQL5 and BC risk, with an OR of 2.56 (p = 0.009; 95% CI, 1.18–4.98). Our findings support our previous work and places the RECQL5 gene as a new moderate-risk BC gene.

Banana cultivars of agronomic interest have been genetically characterized using two different molecular markers. On the one hand, a panel of 14 trinucleotide single sequence repeats (SSRs or microsatellites) was optimized for homogeneous PCR conditions. It was tested with 50 individuals from seven cultivars, yielding 76 alleles and 5.4 ± 1.8 alleles per locus, while the presence of cultivar-exclusive alleles allowed the discrimination of all cultivars. On the other hand, a retrotransposon-based marker system named inter-primer binding site (iPBS) was implemented for the first time in the Musa genus. A total of 120 bands were detected in eight different Musa cultivars, from which 65.8% were polymorphic and 23.3% were cultivar exclusive. Both techniques allowed a cut-off identification of all cultivars studied, but overall, iPBS analysis was a more straightforward and economical choice. Despite the fact that we were unable to distinguish local banana varieties belonging to the same cultivar, new cultivar-specific molecular markers have been developed for the Musa genus, which could be used to guide new breeding programmes and maintain high quality of Plátano de Canarias.