Disentangling the genetic and environmental influences of gambling is important for explaining the roots of individual differences in gambling behavior and providing guidance for precaution and intervention, but we are unaware of any comprehensive and systematic quantitative meta-analysis. We systematically identified 18 twin studies on gambling in the meta-analysis. The correlation coefficient...

BACKGROUND Plasmid-mediated quinolone resistance is an increasing clinical concern, globally. The major objective of the present study was to identify the qnr-encoding genes among the quinolone non-susceptible K. pneumoniae isolates obtained from two provinces in Iran. METHODS A total of 200 K. pneumoniae isolates were obtained from hospitals of Qazvin and Tehran, Iran. The identification of ...

The inheritance of spontaneous dizygotic (DZ) twinning was investigated in 1,422 three-generation pedigrees ascertained through mothers of spontaneous DZ proband twins. DZ twinning was modelled as a trait expressed only in women. The penetrance was modelled first as a parity independent and secondly as parity dependent. The observed frequencies of maternal and paternal grandmothers with DZ twin...

I N his mathematical analyses of evolutionary processes WRIGHT ( 193 1, 1937) has given particular attention to the interaction of population size with the factors of selection, mutation and migration. Here he introduced the powerful concept of the "gene frequency distribution" which may be thought of as referring either to similar loci in the same population or one locus in many populations. I...

Extensive aneuploid analyses had shown the existence of a few haplolethal (HL) regions and one triplolethal region in the genome of Drosophila melanogaster. Since then, only two haplolethals, 22F1-2 and 16F, have been directly linked to identified genes, dpp and wupA, respectively. However, with the possible exception of dpp, the actual bases for this dosage sensitivity remain unknown. We have ...

Serum response factor (SRF) is a key regulator of smooth muscle differentiation, proliferation, and migration. Myocardin-related transcription factor A (MRTFA) is a co-activator of SRF that can induce expression of SRF-dependent, smooth muscle-specific genes and actin/Rho-dependent genes, but not MAPK-regulated growth response genes. How MRTFA and SRF discriminate between these sets of target g...

The occurrence of early severe lupus nephritis in (NZB x NZW)F1 mice must depend on the action of at least two dominant or codominant genes (at least one gene from each parent) as neither of the inbred parental strains shows the disorder. Identifying affected animals by antemortem determinations of renal function, we have studied the incidence of the renal disease in 230 (NZB x NZW) x NZW backc...

There is evidence in Xenopus and zebrafish embryos that the neural crest/neural folds are specified at the border of the neural plate by a precise threshold concentration of a Bmp gradient. In order to understand the molecular mechanism by which a gradient of Bmp is able to specify the neural crest, we analyzed how the expression of Bmp targets, the Msx genes, is regulated and the role that Msx...