BACKGROUND Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) is one of the major mechanisms contributing to microbial genome diversification. A number of computational methods for finding horizontally transferred genes have been proposed in the past decades; however none of them has provided a reliable detector yet. In existing parametric approaches, only one single compositional property can participate in the d...

BACKGROUND Nuclear mitotic apparatus protein 1 (NuMA1) had been reported to produce three groups of isoforms categorized as long, middle, and short groups, of which short NuMA displayed distinct localization patterns compared to long and middle isoforms. However, the function of short NuMA was not clear in the progress of cancer formation. This study aimed to unveil the role of short NuMA in ca...

This monograph presents a historical perspective of cornerstone developments on the biochemistry and physiology of mammalian membrane guanylate cyclases (MGCs), highlighting contributions made by the authors and their collaborators. Upon resolution of early contentious studies, cyclic GMP emerged alongside cyclic AMP, as an important intracellular second messenger for hormonal signaling. Howeve...

The marine dinoflagellate Gymnodinium catenatum has been associated with paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) outbreaks in Portuguese waters for many years. PSP syndrome is caused by consumption of seafood contaminated with paralytic shellfish toxins (PSTs), a suite of potent neurotoxins. Gymnodinium catenatum was frequently reported along the Portuguese coast throughout the late 1980s and early...

The wide spectrum of vitamin D activity has focused attention on its potential role in the elevated burden of disease in a northern Canadian First Nations (Dené) cohort. Vitamin D insufficiency, and gene polymorphisms in the vitamin D receptor (VDR) and vitamin D binding protein (VDBP) have been implicated in susceptibility to infectious and chronic diseases. The objectives of this study were t...

BACKGROUND The number of diagnostic assays for the detection of herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) antibodies has increased over the years. However, their performance characteristics could vary among global populations. OBJECTIVE To investigate performance of two commercial ELISA kits, HerpeSelect® 1 ELISA and Euroimmun Anti-HSV-1 (gC1) ELISA (IgG); and two commercial immunoblot (IB)/Western...

Staphylococcus epidermidis is a ubiquitous colonizer of human skin and a common cause of medical device-associated infections. The extent to which the population genetic structure of S. epidermidis distinguishes commensal from pathogenic isolates is unclear. Previously, Bayesian clustering of 437 multilocus sequence types (STs) in the international database revealed a population structure of si...

The repressive role of p53 on the human mitotic centromere-associated kinesin (MCAK) core promoter from ‒266 to +54, relative to the transcription start site, has been determined. The MCAK mRNA and protein levels were 2.1- and 3.0-fold higher, respectively, in HCT116 (p53‒/‒) than in HCT116 (p53+/+) cells. Enforced down-regulation of p53 levels either in HCT116 (p53+/+) cells by p53 RNAi treatm...

BACKGROUND expressive communication in the child with Down syndrome (DS). AIM this study had as a purpose the qualitative and quantitative analyses of the different forms of communication in children with DS; the emergence of oral expression and its relationship with the use of gestures; the development of gestures and their qualification; the effectiveness of the dialectic-didactic method, b...