Seasonal epidemics of influenza and respiratory syncytial virus are responsible for significant morbidity and mortality worldwide. Infrequently, novel or reemergent strains of influenza A virus have caused rapid, severe global pandemics resulting in millions of fatalities. The ability to efficiently and accurately detect and differentiate respiratory viruses is paramount for effective treatment...

The last decade has seen many changes in molecular biology at the bench, as we have moved away from a primary goal of cataloguing genes andmRNA towards techniques that detect and quantify nucleic acid molecules even within single cells. With the invention of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), a nucleic acid sequence could now be amplified to generate a large number of identical copies, and th...

Molecular evolution allows chemists and biologists to generate nucleic acids with tailor-made binding or catalytic activities. Recent examples of nucleic acid evolution in vitro provide insights into natural ribozyme evolution and also demonstrate potential applications of evolved DNA and RNA molecules. Efforts to expand the scope of nucleic acid evolution are also underway, including the devel...

Nuclease activity was dissociated from proteolytic activity when Sachs confirmed the observations of Milroy that an agent which attacked nucleic acid to liberate inorganic phosphoric acid could not liquefy gelatin and that proteolytic enzymes liquefied gelatin but could not attack nucleic acid (1). Henceforth the rate of separation of inorganic phosphoric acid from nucleic acid became the exclu...

This study applied a case-control approach to investigate the association between low-grade inflammation, defined by high values within the normal range of C-reactive protein (CRP) and interleukin-6 (IL-6), and urinary markers of nucleic acid oxidation. No differences in excretion of urinary markers of nucleic acid oxidation between cases and controls were found and multivariable linear regress...

The N terminal region of hepatitis delta antigen (HDAg), referred to here as NdAg, has a nucleic acid chaperone activity that modulates the ribozyme activity of hepatitis delta virus (HDV) RNA and stimulates hammerhead ribozyme catalysis. We characterized the nucleic acid binding properties of NdAg, identified the structural and sequence domains important for nucleic acid binding, and studied t...

High-throughput sequencing (HTS) technologies have become indispensable tools assisting plant virus diagnostics and research thanks to their ability detect any in a sample without prior knowledge. As HTS are heavily relying on bioinformatics analysis of the huge amount generated sequences, it is utmost importance that researchers can rely efficient reliable bioinformatic understand principles, ...