Lower termites express a unique form of eusocial polyphenism in that totipotent workers can differentiate into either soldier or reproductive caste phenotypes. In this initial effort using RNA interference in termites, we found that two hexamerin genes, Hex-1 and Hex-2, participate in the regulation of caste polyphenism. Our methodology involved a dual gene-silencing approach that used a single...

Gene expression studies employing real-time PCR has become an intrinsic part of biomedical research. Appropriate normalization of target gene transcript(s) based on stably expressed housekeeping genes is crucial in individual experimental conditions to obtain accurate results. In multiple sclerosis (MS), several gene expression studies have been undertaken, however, the suitability of housekeep...

OBJECTIVE Sulfur mustard (SM) was used as a chemical weapon in Iraq-Iran war. Exposed people have major complications in important organs such as pulmonary system. Some studies have shown that SM could affect the expression of endogenous genes and non-housekeeping genes, time dependently. To understand the accurate molecular mechanism of the delayed effect of SM, the identification of the gene ...

Profiling studies using microarrays to measure messenger RNA (mRNA) expression frequently identify long lists of differentially expressed genes. Differential expression is often validated using real-time reverse transcription PCR (RT-PCR) assays. In conventional real-time RT-PCR assays, expression is normalized to a control, or housekeeping gene. However, no single housekeeping gene can be used...

Real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) is a routine and robust approach for measuring gene expression. The stability of reference genes in qPCR is crucial for the accurate quantification of gene expression. To provide reliable reference genes for studying the transcriptional responses of locust muscles to hypobaric hypoxia, we first examined the gene expression stability of the...

One of the challenging problems in the etiology of diseases is to explore the relationships between initiation and progression of diseases and abnormalities in local regions of metabolic pathways. To gain insight into such relationships, we applied the "k-clique" subpathway identification method to all disease-related gene sets. For each disease, the disease risk regions of metabolic pathways w...

BACKGROUND Housekeeping genes have been commonly used as reference to normalize gene expression and protein content data because of its presumed constitutive expression. In this paper, we challenge the consensual idea that housekeeping genes are reliable controls for expression studies in the retina through the investigation of a panel of reference genes potentially suitable for analysis of dif...

Reverse transcription quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) is a robust and widely applied technique used to investigate gene expression. However, for correct analysis and interpretation of results, the choice of a suitable gene to use as an internal control is a crucial factor. These genes, such as housekeeping genes, should have a constant expression level in different ti...