Genetically tractable model organisms from phages to mice have taught us invaluable lessons about fundamental biological processes and disease-causing mutations. Owing to technological and computational advances, human biology and the causes of human diseases have become accessible as never before. Progress in identifying genetic determinants for human diseases has been most remarkable for Mend...

AIM To align predicted and measured CYP2C19 phenotype in a South African cohort. MATERIALS & METHODS Genotyping of CYP2C19*2, *3, *9, *15, *17, *27 and *28 was performed using PCR-RFLP, and an activity score (AS) system was used to predict phenotype. True phenotype was measured using plasma concentrations of omeprazole and its metabolite 5'-hydroxyomperazole. RESULTS Partial genotype-phenot...

1. In environmental sex determination (ESD) gender is decided after conception, depending on the environment, rather than being genetically fixed. ESD in plants has been mainly studied in angiosperms, where the dominant form of ESD is sexual lability. Surprisingly, ESD has rarely been studied in homosporous ferns, the only plants in which ESD is the rule, rather than the exception. 2. Here, we ...

We have developed a new method for sex determination based on simultaneous detection of the SRY (sex-determining region Y), STS (steroid sulfatase) and amelogenin (AMELX and AMELY) gene regions and their homologous sequences. The sex of 246 blood samples was correctly determined by this method. An AMELY-deleted male sample, which would have been erroneously considered female based solely on ana...

Anew, highly sensitive and selective catalytic kinetic method (CKM) for determination of osmium (VIII) has been established based on its catalytic effect on the oxidation of thionine dye by hydrogen peroxide in alkaline medium. The reaction has been followed spectrophotometrically by measuring the decrease in the absorbance band of thionine at 600 nm. Under the optimum conditions, the proposed ...

Sex determination is an intriguing system in trioecious papaya. Over the past seven decades various hypotheses, based on the knowledge and information available at the time, have been proposed to explain the genetics of the papaya's sex determination. These include a single gene with three alleles, a group of closely linked genes, a genic balance of sex chromosome over autosomes, classical XY c...

Sex Combs Reduced (SCR) activity is proposed to be required cell nonautonomously for determination of tarsus identity, and Extradenticle (EXD) activity is required cell autonomously for determination of arista identity. Using the ability of Proboscipedia to inhibit the SCR activity required for determination of tarsus identity, we found that loss-of-EXD activity is epistatic to loss-of-SCR acti...

The use of probiotic products, especially for humans, requires an unequivocal taxonomical definition of their microbial content, in order to assign the probiotic effects to well identified and characterized microbial strains. In the absence of this, the labeling of some marketed probiotics may be misleading, both in terms of microbiological contents and possible beneficial effects. Currently, t...