BACKGROUND Genetic variants of proteins involved in lipid metabolism may play an important role in determining the susceptibility for complications associated with type II diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Goal of the present study was to determine the association of cholesteryl ester transfer protein TaqI B, D442G, and APOE Hha I polymorphisms with T2DM and its complications. METHODS Study subjects ...

Tumor clonality, an important issue in tumor biology, has been analyzed using X-chromosome inactivation studies based on the differential methylation patterns of active and inactive alleles. Recently, a PCR-based androgen receptor gene (AR) analysis method was developed that takes advantage of highly polymorphic CAG repeats and nearby HpaII and HhaI sites in exon 1 of AR at the Xq13 region. How...

When the HhaI (cytosine-5) methyltransferase (M.HhaI) binds DNA it causes the target cytosine to be flipped 180 degrees out of the helix. The space becomes occupied by two amino acids, Ser-87 and Gln-237, which enter the helix from opposite sides and form a hydrogen bond to each other. Gln-237 may be involved in specific sequence recognition since it forms three hydrogen bonds to the orphan gua...

Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of HhaI DNA methyltransferase and statistical coupling analysis (SCA) data on the DNA cytosine methyltransferase family were combined to identify residues that are coupled by coevolution and motion. The highest ranking correlated pairs from the data matrix product (SCA.MD) are colocalized and form stabilizing interactions; the anticorrelated pairs are separat...

Congenic mouse strains VM/Dk and VM-Sincs7/Dk differ at the Sinc gene, which controls the incubation period of scrapie in mice; VM/Dk mice are Sincp7p7 and VM-Sincs7/Dk mice are Sincs7s7. Restriction fragment length polymorphism and DNA sequencing analysis demonstrated that the PrP genes also differ in these strains, confirming the close genetic linkage of Sinc and PrP. Using the restriction en...

The results of normal-mode analyses are in accord with the proposal that a low-frequency motion of the HhaI methyltransferase enzyme is responsible for base flipping in bound DNA. The vectors of the low-frequency normal mode of residues Ser-85 and Ile-86 point directly to the phosphate and ribose moieties of the DNA backbone near the target base in position to rotate the dihedral angles and fli...