The double-stranded RNA killer plasmid gives yeast strains carrying it both the ability to secret a protein toxin and immunity to that toxin. This report describes a new series of mutants in chromsomal genes needed for killer plasmid maintenance (mak genes). These mutants comprise 12 complementation groups. There are a total of at least 26 mak genes. Each mak gene product is needed for plasmid ...

parD and chpA are homologous conditional killer systems of plasmid and chromosomal origin, respectively, encoding a killer protein (Kid and ChpAK) and an antidote (Kis and ChpAI). Here it is shown that these systems can functionally interact. A multicopy chpA recombinant partially complements two mutations in the antidote of the parD system. These mutations affect either autoregulation or neutr...

Natural Killer cell functions are regulated by combinations of activating and inhibitory receptors, derived from a number of different gene families. This review focuses on receptors for MHC class I, which include the killer cell immunoglobulin-like receptors (KIR) and the CD94:NKG2 family of receptors. In particular the KIR are diverse and rapidly co-evolving with their classical MHC class I l...

Background The extreme variability at the Killer cell Immunoglobulin like Receptor (KIR) expressed on the surface of natural killer cells interacts with Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) Class I appear to play a crucial role in the outcome against viral infection. The combination of HLA/KIR gene products either individually or collectively have been implicated in the control of HIV-1 in various pop...

Ex vivo manipulations of autologous patient's cells or gene-engineered cell therapeutics have allowed the development of cell and gene therapy approaches to treat otherwise incurable diseases. These modalities of personalized medicine have already shown great promises including product commercialization for some rare diseases. The transfer of a chimeric antigen receptor or T cell receptor genes...

Introduction: Tuberculosis (TB), caused by Mycobacterium Tuberculosis (Mtb), with more than nine million new cases and almost two million deaths in each year is a worldwide important public health problem. Generally, human immune responses prevent Mtb spread, and the infection remains in a latent state. Both, innate and adaptive immune responses are involved against TB. However, the role of the...

Background: The SRY gene (SRY) provides instructions for making a transcription factor called the sex-determining region Y protein. The sex-determining region Y protein causes a fetus to develop as a male. In this study, SRY of 15 spices included of human, chimpanzee, dog, pig, rat, cattle, buffalo, goat, sheep, horse, zebra, frog, urial, dolphin and killer whale were used for determine of bioi...

Fusarium verticillioides is an agriculturally important fungus because of its association with maize and its propensity to contaminate grain with toxic compounds. Some isolates of the fungus harbor a meiotic drive element known as Spore killer (Sk(K)) that causes nearly all surviving meiotic progeny from an Sk(K) × Spore killer-susceptible (Sk(S)) cross to inherit the Sk(K) allele. Sk(K) has be...