Activation of the MET protooncogene by a rearrangement involving the fusion of TPR and MET specific gene sequences has been observed in a human osteosarcoma cell line (HOS) treated in vitro with N-methyl-N'-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine (MNNG). No information has been available about the possible occurrence of this rearrangement in human tumors. To facilitate rapid screening of human cell lines and ...

We study the problem of transforming a multichromosomal genome into another using Double-Cut-and-Join (DCJ) operations. We introduce the notion of DCJ scenario that does not break families of common intervals (groups of genes co-localized in both genomes). Such scenarios are called perfect, and generalize the notion of perfect reversal scenarios. While perfect sorting by reversals is NP-hard if...

We infer post-hybridization rearrangements in a hybrid genome, given the gene orders on its chromosomes and some knowledge of the two parent genomes. We study this in two biologically and computationally different contexts, genome fusion and interspecific fertilization. Exact algorithms are furnished for some cases, and a heuristic based on the Hannenhalli-Pevzner theory for another.

The genome rearrangement problem is to find the most economical explanation for observed differences between the gene orders of two genomes. Such an explanation is provided in terms of events that change the order of genes in a genome. We present a new approach to the genome rearrangement problem, according to which this problem is viewed as the problem of planning rearrangement events that tra...

The chronic graft-versus-host (cGVH) reaction results in a syndrome that closely resembles systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). It is induced in nonautoimmune mice by the transfer of alloreactive T cells. The availability of anti-DNA transgenes allows us to study the genetic origins of autoantibodies in this model. We induced cGVH in two anti-DNA H chain site-directed transgenic mouse strains. T...

Multiple alignment of macromolecular sequences, an important topic of algorithmic research for at least 25 years [13, 10], generalizes the comparison of just two sequences which have diverged through the local processes of insertion, deletion and substitution. Recently there has been much interest in gene-order sequences which diverge through non-local genome rearrangement processes such as inv...

is absolutely convergent and has the sum s . Then, as is well known, every rearrangement, S' a ;, of (1) also converges and has the same sum s . If, however, (1) n=1 converges, but not absolutely, then, according to Riemann's classical rearrangement theorem [3, p . 235, or 2, p . 318j, for every real number s', there exists a rearrangement of (1) whose sum is s' . Assume, now, that (1) is C 1-s...

AIMS Small cell prostatic cancer is a rare but aggressive disease. Currently, its histogenetic origin is unclear and its distinction from metastatic small cell lung cancer is challenging. The aim of our study was to determine whether the ERG rearrangement commonly observed in acinar prostatic cancer can distinguish small cell prostatic cancer from small cell lung cancer samples. METHODS AND R...

This series of papers addresses the effects of continuous Ag receptor gene rearrangement in lymphocytes on allelic exclusion. The previous paper discussed light chain gene rearrangement and receptor editing in B cells, and showed that these processes are ordered on three different levels. This order, combined with the constraints imposed by a strong negative selection, was shown to lead to effe...

Chromosomal rearrangements between sympatric species often contain multiple loci contributing to assortative mating, local adaptation and hybrid sterility. When and how these associations arise during the process of speciation remains a subject of debate. Here, we address the relative roles of local adaptation and assortative mating on the dynamics of rearrangement evolution by studying how a r...