The determination of metals in clinical samples is an important challenge since their levels are relevant to ensure personal exposure safe environments, as well assist the prevention and treatment disease. low concentrations metal ions coexistence with other and/or molecules diverse nature implies need for sensitive selective analytical methodologies, which can be provided by conventional techn...

Exo1 is a member of the Rad2 protein family and possesses both 5'-3' exonuclease and 5' flap endonuclease activities. In addition to performing a variety of functions during mitotic growth, Exo1 is also important for the production of crossovers during meiosis. However, its precise molecular role has remained ambiguous and several models have been proposed to account for the crossover deficit o...

Most DNA polymerases are multifunctional proteins that possess both polymerizing and exonucleolytic activities. For Escherichia coli DNA polymerase I and its relatives, polymerase and exonuclease activities reside on distinct, separable domains of the same polypeptide. The catalytic subunits of the alpha-like DNA polymerase family share regions of sequence homology with the 3'-5' exonuclease ac...

The MATa1 gene encodes a transcriptional repressor that is an important modulator of sex-specific gene expression in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. MATa1 contains two small introns, both of which need to be accurately excised for proper expression of a functional MATa1 product and to avoid production of aberrant forms of the repressor. Here, we show that unspliced and partially spliced forms of the ...

RNAi is a conserved mechanism in which small RNAs induce silencing of complementary targets. How Argonaute-bound small RNAs are targeted for degradation is not well understood. We show that the adenyl-transferase Cid14, a member of the TRAMP complex, and the uridyl-transferase Cid16 add non-templated nucleotides to Argonaute-bound small RNAs in fission yeast. The tailing of Argonaute-bound smal...

Chromatin distribution is not uniform along the human genome. In most genes there is a promoter-associated nucleosome free region (NFR) followed by an array of nucleosomes towards the gene body in which the first (+1) nucleosome is strongly positioned. The function of this characteristic chromatin distribution in transcription is not fully understood. Here we show in vivo that the +1 nucleosome...

λ Exonuclease (λexo) is a highly processive 5'-3' exonuclease that binds double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) ends and digests the 5'-strand into mononucleotides. The enzyme forms a toroidal homotrimer with a central tapered channel for tracking along the DNA. During catalysis, dsDNA enters the open end of the channel, and the 5'-strand is digested at one of the three active sites. It is currently not k...

Importin-beta family members, which shuttle between the nucleus and the cytoplasm, are essential for nucleocytoplasmic transport of macromolecules. We attempted to explore whether importin-beta family proteins change their cellular localization in response to environmental change. In this report, we show that transportin (TRN) was minimally detected in cytoplasmic processing bodies (P-bodies) u...