Inactivation of tumor suppressor gene p16 may play an important role in the progression from Barrett's esophagus (BE) to esophageal adenocarcinoma (EA). Hypermethylation of p16 gene promoter is an important mechanism inactivating p16. However, the mechanisms of p16 hypermethylation in EA are not known. Therefore, we examined whether acid increases methylation of p16 gene promoter and whether NA...

Stem borer resistant transgenic parental lines, involved in hybrid rice, were produced by Agrobacterium-mediated gene transfer method. Two pSB111 super-binary vectors containing modified cry1Ab/cry1Ac genes driven by maize ubiquitin promoter, and herbicide resistance gene bar driven by cauliflower mosaic virus 35S promoter were, used in this study. Embryogenic calli after co-cultivation with Ag...

High stability of transgene expression is essential for functional genomics studies using transformation approaches and for application of genetic engineering to commercial forestry. We quantified expression of two reporter genes, green fluorescent protein (GFP) and the herbicide bialaphos resistance gene (BAR), in 2256 transgenic poplar trees derived from 404 primary events, and in 106 in vitr...

The bialaphos resistance gene, bar, was used as a selectable marker to isolate the bialaphos production genes (bap) from the Streptomyces viridochromogenes genome. The S. viridochromogenes bar gene was cloned on overlapping restriction fragments using pIJ680 and pIJ702 in the bialaphos-sensitive host, S. lividans. Although the restriction endonuclease cleavage map of these fragments was not sim...

We have cloned the B breakpoint in Drosophila melanogaster using DNA from a P-M-induced revertant of B, which has a P element inserted at the B breakpoint. The analysis of the B DNA reveals that there is a transposable element, B104, right at the breakpoint. This suggests that this element may have been involved in the generation of the B breakpoint and the associated tandem duplication. One po...

Cellular DNA/RNA tags (barcodes) allow for multiplexed cell lineage tracing and neuronal projection mapping with cellular resolution. Conventional approaches to reading out cellular barcodes trade off spatial resolution with throughput. Bulk sequencing achieves high throughput but sacrifices spatial resolution, whereas manual cell picking has low throughput. In situ sequencing could potentially...

DNA barcoding is a molecular tool that exploits a unique DNA sequence of a standardized gene or non-coding region for the species identification of unknown individuals. The investigation into a suitable barcode for diatoms is ongoing and there are several promising candidates including mitochondrial, plastidial and nuclear markers. We analyzed 272 sequences from 76 diatoms species in the orders...

Large-scale DNA barcoding projects are now moving toward activation while the creation of a comprehensive barcode library for eukaryotes will ultimately require the acquisition of some 100 million barcodes. To satisfy this need, analytical facilities must adopt protocols that can support the rapid, cost-effective assembly of barcodes. In this paper we discuss the prospects for establishing high...

Three cases of hepatitis A virus (HAV) infection were successively reported to the Niigata City Public Health and Sanitation Center (the Niigata City Public Health) by clinics in Niigata City, Japan on May 15 and 16, 2006. Another case of HAV infection was reported to the Niigata Prefectural Nagaoka Public Health Center on May 10, 2006. The Niigata City Public Health suspected a mass outbreak o...

The specification of body pattern along the anteroposterior (A/P) body axis is achieved largely by the actions of conserved clusters of Hox genes. Limiting expression of these genes to localized regional domains and controlling the precise patterns of expression within those domains is critically important for normal patterning. Here we report that egl-20, a C. elegans gene required to activate...