Persistent high-risk human papillomavirus (HPV) infection is known to play an important role in the genesis of cervical cancer. Since new screening and prevention strategies, namely improved HPV testing and HPV vaccination have been aggressively promoted recently, it is crucial to investigate the HPV distribution in Malaysia in order to maximize their cost-effectiveness. This study was therefor...

This communication reports an analysis of Tn5yIS50 target site selection by using an extensive collection of Tn5 and IS50 insertions in two relatively small regions of DNA (less than 1 kb each). For both regions data were collected resulting from in vitro and in vivo transposition events. Since the data sets are consistent and transposase was the only protein present in vitro, this demonstrates...

Tn5 transposase (Tnp) binds to Tn5 and IS50 end inverted repeats, the outside end (OE) and the inside end (IE), to initiate transposition. We report the isolation of four Tnp mutants (YH41, TP47, EK54 and EV54) that increase the OE-mediated transposition frequency and enhance the binding affinity of Tnp for OE DNA. In addition, two of the Tnp mutants (TP47 and EK54) appear to be change-of-speci...

Transposition of Tn5 and IS50 requires the specific binding of transposase (Tnp) to the end inverted repeats, the outside end (OE) and the inside end (IE). OE and IE have 12 identical base-pairs and seven non-identical base-pairs. Previously we described the isolation of a Tnp mutant, EK54, that shows an altered preference for OE versus IE compared to wild-type (wt) Tnp. EK54 enhances OE recogn...

An efficient, PCR based method for the selective amplification of DNA target sequences that differs by a single base pair is described. The method utilises the high affinity and specificity of PNA for their complementary nucleic acids and that PNA cannot function as primers for DNA polymerases.