Low complexity and homopolymer sequences within coding regions are known to evolve rapidly. While their expansion may be deleterious, there is increasing evidence for a functional role associated with these amino acid sequences. Homopolymer sequences are thought to evolve mostly through replication slippage and, therefore, they may be expected to be longer in regions with relaxed selective cons...

HIV-1 utilises -1 programmed ribosomal frameshifting to translate structural and enzymatic domains in a defined proportion required for replication. A slippery sequence, U UUU UUA, and a stem-loop are well-defined RNA features modulating -1 frameshifting in HIV-1. The GGG glycine codon immediately following the slippery sequence (the 'intercodon') contributes structurally to the start of the st...

The mechanism of disease-associated trinucleotide repeat length variation may involve slippage of the triplet-containing strand at the replication fork, generating a slipped-strand DNA structure. We recently reported formation in vitro of slipped-strand DNA (S-DNA) structures when DNAs containing triplet repeat blocks of myotonic dystrophy or fragile X diseases were melted and allowed to reanne...

Microsatellites are DNA sequences consisting of repeated, short (1-6 bp) sequence motifs that are highly mutable by enzymatic slippage during replication. Due to their high intrinsic variability, microsatellites have important applications in population genetics, forensics, genome mapping, as well as cancer diagnostics and prognosis. The current analytical standard for microsatellites is based ...

Previous analysis of germline mutation at highly unstable GC-rich minisatellites with continuous allele size distributions revealed similar meiotic recombinational mechanisms operating at all loci investigated. The insulin minisatellite has been studied intensively due to its associations with diabetes, polycystic ovary syndrome, obesity and birth size. Its bimodal allele size distribution in C...

Giardiavirus is a small, nonenveloped virus comprising a monopartite double-stranded RNA genome, a major protein of 100 kDa, and a less abundant polypeptide of 190 kDa. It can be isolated from the culture supernatant of Giardia lamblia, a parasitic flagellate in human and other mammals, and efficiently infects other virus-free G. lamblia. A single-stranded copy of the viral RNA can be electropo...

We have investigated the in vitro fidelity of Escherichia coli DNA polymerase III holoenzyme from a wild-type and a proofreading-impaired mutD5 strain. Exonuclease assays showed the mutD5 holoenzyme to have a 30-50-fold reduced 3'-->5'-exonuclease activity. Fidelity was assayed during gap-filling synthesis across the lacId forward mutational target. The error rate for both enzymes was lowest at...

BACKGROUND The increase in anterior laxity and slippage is greater with metal interference screw fixation of a hamstring anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) graft than a bone-patellar tendon-bone graft. HYPOTHESIS When slippage-resistant fixation is used with a soft tissue graft, early recovery of function does not result in a clinically important increase in anterior laxity and slippage STUDY...