Polymicrobial biofilms in the human oral cavity exhibit marked diversity. PCR-based denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (PCR-DGGE) surveys microbial diversity by displaying PCR-generated 16S rDNA fragments that migrate at different distances, reflecting the differences in the base-pair (i.e., % G+C) composition of the fragment. This study examined DGGE-generated diversity profiles of cultiv...

The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) has been used to detect Y. pestis in infected fleas, soil samples, and clinical samples for rapid diagnosis of plague. PCR-gradient density electrophoresis (PCR-GDE) has allowed the distinction between the three pathogenic Yersinia species utilizing the rpoB gene. The application of the PCR to dental samples has allowed the confirmation of Y. pestis as the ca...

Four sourdoughs (A to D) were produced under practical conditions, using a starter obtained from a mixture of three commercially available sourdough starters and baker's yeast. The doughs were continuously propagated until the composition of the microbiota remained stable. A fungi-specific PCR-denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) system was established to monitor the development of th...

Source and Description of Primers. Primers GHRE102′Fgc and GHRE102′R were designed based on the cDNA sequence of the bovine growth hormone receptor (GHR) gene (Hauser et al., 1990) and the genomic DNA sequence of the human GHR gene (Godowski et al., 1989). Primers GHRE10F and GHRE10R were designed based on our own sequence of the fragment amplified using the first pair of primers. Primer Sequen...

Native mitochondria1 (mt) DNA in higher animals exists as a closed-circular molecule typically 1&20 kilobase pairs (kb) in length. For nearly two decades, this cytoplasmically housed genetic system has been employed to estimate matrilineal phylogeny within and among species (Avise 1994). Beginning in the late-lWOs, a primary assay method involved restriction analyses of whole mtDNA molecules th...

objectives lipid components of spermatozoa have an important role in its functional activity. in this study the concentration of cholesterol, phospholipid, triacylglycerol and total lipid in different subsets of human spermatozoa, isolated as three fractions by a discontinuous puresperm gradient, was determined. methods aliquots of the liquefied semen samples (n=107) were layered on top of the ...

The molecular bases of sperm thermotaxis, the temperature-oriented cell motility, are currently under investigation. Thermal perception relies on a subclass of the transient receptor potential [TRP] channels, whose member TRPV1 is acknowledged as the heat sensing receptor. Here we investigated the involvement of TRPV1 in human sperm thermotaxis. We obtained semen samples from 16 normozoospermic...