Disruption of the guanylyl cyclase-A/natriuretic peptide receptor-A (GC-A/NPRA) gene leads to elevated arterial blood pressure and congestive heart failure in mice lacking NPRA. This study was aimed at determining whether Npr1 (coding for GC-A/NPRA) gene copy number affects adrenal ANG II and aldosterone (Aldo) levels in a gene-dose-dependent manner in Npr1 gene-targeted mice. Adrenal ANG II an...

Summary Mitotic errors lead to aneuploidy, a condition of karyotype imbalance, frequently found in cancer cells. Alterations chromosome copy number induce wide variety cellular stresses, including genome instability. Here, we show that cells might exploit aneuploidy-induced instability and the resulting gene copy-number changes survive under conditions selective pressure, such as chemo...

A series of plasmids has been constructed that can be used to fuse the beta-galactosidase gene (lacZ) of Escherichia coli to chromosomal genes of Bacillus subtilis. Insertion of the lacZ gene is facilitated by the use of a selectable chloramphenicol acetyl-transferase (cat) gene. The latter is included, along with the lacZ gene, in a single DNA fragment or 'cartridge' that can be removed from t...

The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of the characteristic elements of matrix attachment region (MAR) on transgene expression. Human β‑globin MAR was obtained by PCR amplification. A splicing MAR fragment containing all the characteristic elements of β‑globin MAR was artificially synthesized and then cloned into the eukaryotic expression vector. Following digestion and seq...

The capsule polysaccharide of Neisseria meningitidis serogroup B is composed of a homopolymer of alpha-2-->8 linked N-acetyl-neuraminic acid (sialic acid). The enzymes required for sialic acid biosynthesis and polymerization are encoded in region A of the capsule gene complex. We here describe the enzymatic activity of the siaA gene product as determined by biochemical analysis. siaA was overex...

Acetyl-CoA produced in mitochondria from carbohydrate or amino acid catabolism needs to reach the cytosol to initiate de novo synthesis of fatty acids. All eukaryotes analyzed so far use a citrate/malate shuttle to transfer acetyl group equivalents from the mitochondrial matrix to the cytosol. Here we investigate how this acetyl group transfer occurs in the procyclic life cycle stage of Trypano...

Genomic DNA copy number alterations are key genetic events in the development and progression of human cancers. Here we report a genome-wide microarray comparative genomic hybridization (array CGH) analysis of DNA copy number variation in a series of primary human breast tumors. We have profiled DNA copy number alteration across 6,691 mapped human genes, in 44 predominantly advanced, primary br...

We previously reported that disruption of the yjbI gene reduced virulence Staphylococcus aureus. In this study, we found in both silkworms and mice was restored by introducing yjbH but not to genes-disrupted mutants, suggesting yjbH, downstream a two-gene operon-yjbIH, is responsible for phenomenon. further observed decrease various surface-associated proteins changes cell envelope glycostructu...

Identification of genes with invariant levels of gene expression is a prerequisite for validating transcriptomic changes accompanying development. Ideally expression of these genes should be independent of the morphogenetic process or environmental condition.We report here the validation of internal control gene i.e.TPS (trehalose 6-phosphate-synthase) in cotton (Gossypium spp), using TaqMan sy...