Caloric restriction (CR) is the most potent intervention known to both protect against carcinogenesis and extend lifespan in laboratory animals. A variety of anticarcinogens and CR mimetics induce and activate the NF-E2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) pathway. Nrf2, in turn, induces a number of antioxidative and carcinogen-detoxifying enzymes. Thus, Nrf2 offers a promising target for anticarcinogenesis...

Human isolates of Mycobacterium collected in 16 different states of Brazil were submitted to PCR-restriction analysis (PRA) of a 439-bp fragment of the hsp65 gene with HaeIII and BstEII. Fourteen allelic variants not described in clinical isolates so far were observed among 36 (10%) of 356 Brazilian strains, including a new pattern for Mycobacterium scrofulaceum, M. intracellulare, and M. flave...

Prenatal diagnosis of homozygous alpha thalassaemia was performed in eight successive patients at risk using DNA from uncultured amniotic fluid cells. The presence of alpha gene was determined by restriction endonuclease mapping and hybridisation with cloned alpha and beta globin probes. This method is reliable and may be performed at 16 weeks of gestation.

Clostridium difficile is the most common cause of antibiotic-associated diarrhoea worldwide. Over the past 10 years, the incidence and severity of disease have increased in North America and Europe due to the emergence of a hypervirulent clone designated PCR ribotype 027. In this study, we sought to identify phenotypic differences among a collection of 26 presumed PCR ribotype 027 strains from ...

To our knowledge, although comparison of chromosomic macrorestriction patterns has become one of the most feasible molecular tools of the current microbial taxonomy, a mathematical approach to optimize the choice of a restriction enzyme among the endonucleases tested for such comparison has not been previously described. The coincidence of restriction patterns for two tested bacterial strains w...

The evolution of sequencing technology has lead to an enormous increase in the number of genomes that have been sequenced. This is especially true in the field of virus genomics. In order to extract meaningful biological information from these genomes, whole genome data mining software tools must be utilized. Hundreds of tools have been developed to analyze biological sequence data. However, on...

This paper describes a Microsoft Word 97 macro designed for restriction endonuclease analysis. Selected DNA fragments in the active Word document can be analyzed through a dynamic dialog box that formats the enzyme restriction lists for further analysis. The results can be obtained in a new Word document with the name of the enzymes, number of cuts and positions. This macro has several advantag...

More than 70 species of mycobacteria have been defined, and some can cause disease in humans, especially in immunocompromised patients. Species identification in most clinical laboratories is based on phenotypic characteristics and biochemical tests and final results are obtained only after two to four weeks. Quick identification methods, by reducing time for diagnosis, could expedite instituti...

A recent explosion in the amount of genomic data has revealed a large genetic diversity in the bacteriophages that infect Mycobacterium smegmatis. In an effort to assess the novelty of newly described mycobacteriophage isolates and provide a preliminary determination of their probable cluster assignment prior to full genome sequencing, we have developed a systematic approach that relies on rest...

A set of 147 Dictyostelium discoideum strains was constructed by random integration of a vector containing rare restriction sites. The strains were generated by transformation using restriction enzyme-mediated integration (REMI) which results in the integration of linear DNA fragments into randomly distributed genomic restriction sites. Restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) was genera...