Current data management approaches can easily handle the relatively simple requirements for molecular biology research but not the more varied and sophisticated microscopy imaging data in neuroscience research. We developed a project-oriented experimental imaging data management system through integration of the object-relational Oracle DBMS and a distributed file management system, the storage...

In recent years, serial analysis of gene expression (SAGE) has been widely employed to examine mRNA transcription profiles of various cell lines and tissues (6,8,10–12). SAGE is based on the generation of a unique 10–11-bp tag following the most 3′CATG of each mRNA transcript in the tissue or cell sample. The tags are then linked together to form long concatemers and amplified in bacteria. A ra...

Transposon-based technologies have many applications in molecular biology and can be used for gene delivery into prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells. Common transpositional activity measurement assays suitable for many types of transposons would be beneficial, as diverse transposon systems could be compared for their performance attributes. Therefore, we developed a general-purpose assay to enable...

When incorporated into a polypeptide chain, proline (Pro) differs from all other naturally occurring amino acid residues in two important respects. The phi dihedral angle of Pro is constrained to values close to -65 degrees and Pro lacks an amide hydrogen. Consequently, mutations which result in introduction of Pro can significantly affect protein stability. In the present work, we describe a p...

Xanthomonas albilineans produces a family of polyketide-peptide compounds called albicidins which are highly potent antibiotics and phytotoxins as a result of their inhibition of prokaryotic DNA replication. Here we show that albicidin is a potent inhibitor of the supercoiling activity of bacterial and plant DNA gyrases, with 50% inhibitory concentrations (40 to 50 nM) less than those of most c...

High-copy plasmids are useful for producing large quantities of plasmid DNA, but are generally inadequate for tightly regulating gene expression. Attempts to suppress expression of genes on high-copy plasmids often results in residual or ‘‘leaky” production of protein. For stringent regulation of gene expression, it is often necessary to excise the gene of interest and subclone it into a low-co...