The human vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) gene is unusually polymorphic,and there is evidence for inheritance of conserved haplotypes. One haplotype, carrying polymorphisms at -460/+405, is associated with enhanced production of VEGF in vitro. The VEGF promoter is activated by phorbol esters and, in endometrial cells, by estrogen. We have analyzed the impact of the common -460/+405 po...

Homeotic (Hox) genes are usually clustered and arranged in the same order as they are expressed along the anteroposterior body axis of metazoans. The mechanistic explanation for this colinearity has been elusive, and it may well be that a single and universal cause does not exist. The Hox-gene complex (HOM-C) has been rearranged differently in several Drosophila species, producing a striking di...

BACKGROUND Endogenous phytase plays a crucial role in phytate degradation and is thus closely related to nutrient efficiency in barley products. The understanding of genetic information of phytase in barley can provide a useful tool for breeding new barley varieties with high phytase activity. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS Quantitative trait loci (QTL) analysis for phytase activity was condu...

Schrenkiella parvula (formerly Thellungiella parvula), a close relative of Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) and Brassica crop species, thrives on the shores of Lake Tuz, Turkey, where soils accumulate high concentrations of multiple-ion salts. Despite the stark differences in adaptations to extreme salt stresses, the genomes of S. parvula and Arabidopsis show extensive synteny. S. parvula com...

Physiological and psychophysical studies have demonstrated the importance of colinearity in visual processing. Motivated by these empirical findings we present a novel computational model of recurrent long-range processing in the primary visual cortex. Unlike other models we restrict the long-range interaction to cells of parallel orientation with colinear aligned receptive fields. We also empl...

The genomes of three Pyrococcus species, P.abyssi, P.furiosus and P.horikoshii, were compared at the DNA level, taking advantage of our identification of their replication origins. Three types of rearrangements have been identified: (i) inversion and translation across the replication axis (origin/terminus), (ii) inversion and translocation restricted to a replichore (the half chromosome divide...

Creatine kinase activity is associated with different isozyme species. We have examined two of these: the cytoplasmic brain (B) isozyme that is expressed in many tissues and is reported to be induced by estrogen and the developmentally regulated cytoplasmic muscle (M) isozyme that is found predominantly in differentiated muscle tissue. Recently, we cloned and sequenced the cDNA for the M isoenz...

We constructed a high-density Brassica rapa integrated linkage map by combining a reference genetic map of 78 doubled haploid lines derived from Chiifu-401-42 × Kenshin (CKDH) and a new map of 190 F2 lines derived from Chiifu-401-42 × rapid cycling B. rapa (CRF2). The integrated map contains 1017 markers and covers 1262.0 cM of the B. rapa genome, with an average interlocus distance of 1.24 cM....

During vertebrate embryogenesis, the expression of Hox genes that define anterior-posterior identity follows general rules: temporal colinearity and posterior prevalence. A mathematical measure for the quality or fitness of the embryonic pattern produced by a gene regulatory network is derived. Using this measure and in silico evolution we derive gene interaction networks for anterior-posterior...

The homeobox encodes a DNA-binding domain found in transcription factors regulating key developmental processes. The most notable examples of homeobox containing genes are the Hox genes, arranged on chromosomes in the same order as their expression domains along the body axis. The mechanisms responsible for the synchronous regulation of Hox genes and the molecular function of their colinearity ...