Most new mutations are observed to arise in fathers, and increasing paternal age positively correlates with the risk of new variants. Interestingly, new mutations in X-linked recessive disease show elevated familial recurrence rates. In male offspring, these mutations must be inherited from mothers. We previously developed a simulation model to consider parental mosaicism as a source of transmi...

The population structure of Bordetella pertussis in The Netherlands in 5 successive periods, encompassing 1949-1996, was analyzed by DNA typing ("fingerprinting"). In 10 years following the introduction of wide-scale vaccination in 1953, a decrease in genotypic diversity (GD) was observed, suggesting clonal expansion of strains that were adapted to vaccine-induced immunity. In subsequent period...

We have used a B cell cloning system in which the response of a single isolated B cell to lipopolysaccharide and dextran sulfide can be followed. We have shown that culture supernatants from the Dennert long-term alloreactive T cell line C.C3.11.75 increase the frequency of B cells stimulated to clonal expansion by mitogens. These culture supernatants are devoid of interleukin 1 and 2 but conta...

As global changes reorganize plant communities, invasive plants may benefit. We hypothesized that elevated CO2 and warming would strongly influence invasive species success in a semi-arid grassland, as a result of both direct and water-mediated indirect effects. To test this hypothesis, we transplanted the invasive forb Linaria dalmatica into mixed-grass prairie treated with free-air CO2 enrich...

Mitotic homologous recombination (HR) is critical for the repair of double-strand breaks, and conditions that stimulate HR are associated with an increased risk of deleterious sequence rearrangements that can promote cancer. Because of the difficulty of assessing HR in mammals, little is known about HR activity in mammalian tissues or about the effects of cancer risk factors on HR in vivo. To s...