RNA viruses evolve rapidly. One source of this ability to rapidly change is the apparently high mutation frequency in RNA virus populations. A high mutation frequency is a central tenet of the quasispecies theory. A corollary of the quasispecies theory postulates that, given their high mutation frequency, animal RNA viruses may be susceptible to error catastrophe, where they undergo a sharp dro...

AD-2-1 is an antitumor fungal mutant obtained by diethyl sulfate mutagenesis of a marine-derived Penicillium purpurogenum G59. The G59 strain originally did not produce any metabolites with antitumor activities in MTT assays using K562 cells. Tracing newly produced metabolites under guidance of MTT assay and TLC analysis by direct comparison with control G59 extract, seven new (1-7) and two kno...

The combined availability of whole genome sequences and genome editing tools is set to revolutionize the field of fruit biotechnology by enabling the introduction of targeted genetic changes with unprecedented control and accuracy, both to explore emergent phenotypes and to introduce new functionalities. Although plasmid-mediated delivery of genome editing components to plant cells is very effi...

Nitrofurazone is reduced by cellular nitroreductases to form N(2)-deoxyguanine (N(2)-dG) adducts that are associated with mutagenesis and lethality. Much attention recently has been given to the role that the highly conserved polymerase IV (Pol IV) family of polymerases plays in tolerating adducts induced by nitrofurazone and other N(2)-dG-generating agents, yet little is known about how nitrof...

During the transition from vegetative to reproductive growth, the shoot meristem of flowering plants acquires the inflorescence identity to generate flowers rather than vegetative tissues. An important regulator that promotes the inflorescence identity in Arabidopsis is AGAMOUS-LIKE 24 (AGL24), a MADS-box transcription factor. Using a functional estradiol-inducible system in combination with mi...

Vaccinia virus expression systems allow efficient expression of genes and facilitate functional studies of expressed proteins in cultured mammalian cells. We designed and tested a rapid method to introduce defined mutations in genes inserted and expressed in vaccinia virus. PCR mutagenesis is used to construct a recombination cassette that contains: (i) the mutated exogenous gene, (ii) recombin...