The formation of chimeric gene structures provides important routes by which novel proteins and functions are introduced into genomes. Signatures of these events have been identified in organisms from wide phylogenic distributions. However, the ability to characterize the early phases of these evolutionary processes has been difficult due to the ancient age of the genes or to the limitations of...

The Philadelphia (Ph1) chromosome in chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) involves reciprocal translocation of the bcr gene and the c-abl oncogene. The fused bcr/abl gene is transcribed into two types of chimeric mRNA. By means of a combined method of S1 nuclease protection and polymerase chain reaction, we amplified sequences representative of the chimeric bcr/abl transcripts. Only 5 micrograms ...

Background: Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) strains are the major causes of diarrheal disease in humans and animals. Colonization factors and enterotoxins are the major virulence factors in ETEC pathogenesis. For the broad-spectrum protection against ETEC, one could focus on colonization factors and non-toxic heat labile as a vaccine candidate. Methods: A fusion protein is composed of a...

Chromosomal translocations in hematological malignancies often result in novel fusion chimeric genes. We report a case of acute myeloid leukemia with a clonal translocation t(11;12)(p15;q13) displaying morphologic and immunophenotypic features resembling the classical hypergranular subtype of acute promyelocytic leukemia. The gene fused to NUP98 (nucleoporin 98) was detected by comparative geno...

We describe a system for gene expression in plants based on the regulation mechanism of the yeast metallothionein (MT) gene. The system consists of two elements: (i) the yeast ace1 (activating copper-MT expression) gene encoding a transcription factor under control of the cauliflower mosaic virus (CaMV) 35S RNA promoter, and (ii) a gene of interest under control of a chimeric promoter consistin...

Three of the five alpha (immediate early) gene products of herpes simplex virus, infected cell proteins (ICPs) 4, 0, and 27 play a role in the control of expression of viral beta (delayed-early) and gamma (late) genes. We report here that ICP27 can inhibit or augment the individual or combined abilities of ICP4 and ICP0 to stimulate expression of chimeric genes containing viral gene promoters i...

Porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2) is the primary causative agent of postweaning multisystemic wasting syndrome (PMWS), whereas the ubiquitous porcine circovirus type 1 (PCV1) is nonpathogenic for pigs. We report here the construction and characterization of two chimeric infectious DNA clones of PCV1 and PCV2. The chimeric PCV1-2 clone contains the PCV2 capsid gene cloned in the backbone of the n...

A chimeric oligonucleotide was constructed using DNA sequences from two distal regions of a cDNA which encodes a major surface antigen (TSA-1) of Trypanosoma cruzi. Conditions were found that allowed the chimeric oligonucleotide to hybridize only to a 5.4 kb EcoRI fragment in a Southern blot of total genomic DNA. The 5.4 kb EcoRI genomic DNA fragment has previously been shown to be located at a...

The Ewing sarcoma breakpoint region 1 (EWSR1) gene is known to fuse with various partner genes to promote the development of the Ewing sarcoma family of tumors and other sarcomas. In contrast, the association of EWSR1 chimeric fusion genes with leukemia has rarely been reported. We identified a novel EWSR1-associated chimeric fusion gene in a patient with acute myeloid leukemia harboring 46, XY...