PrimerStation (http://ps.cb.k.u-tokyo.ac.jp) is a web service that calculates primer sets guaranteeing high specificity against the entire human genome. To achieve high accuracy, we used the hybridization ratio of primers in liquid solution. Calculating the status of sequence hybridization in terms of the stringent hybridization ratio is computationally costly, and no web service checks the ent...

Amplification of a particular DNA fragment from a mixture of organisms by PCR is a common first step in methods of examining microbial community structure. The use of group-specific primers in community DNA profiling applications can provide enhanced sensitivity and phylogenetic detail compared to domain-specific primers. Other uses for group-specific primers include quantitative PCR and librar...

A cytosolic sialic acid-specific O-acetyl-esterase was previously described that can remove O-acetyl esters from the 9-position of sialic acids. We show that rat liver Golgi vesicles contain a distinct sialic acid-esterase located within the lumen of the same vesicles that add O-acetyl esters to sialic acids. Studies of a retinoblastoma cell line genetically deficient in the cytosolic enzyme al...

The Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) has facilitated the detection of unculturable microorganisms in virtually any environmental source and has thus been used extensively in the assessment of environmental microbial diversity. This technique relies on the assumption that the gene sequences present in the environment are complementary to the "universal" primers used in their amplification. The re...

Clones containing the pbpB gene which encodes penicillin-binding protein (PBP) 3 of Pseudomonas aeruginosa were detected by hybridization by PCR amplification with primers based on the conserved sequences of high-molecular-weight PBPs. The translated amino acid sequence demonstrated 45% identity and had a total of 66% conserved amino acids relative to the Escherichia coli PBP3. The pbpB gene wa...