The binding of proteins to specific DNA sequences frequently results in localized bending of the DNA, which may play important roles in regulating transcription of a variety of genes (1,3). The pBend family of plasmids (2,4) allow generation of permuted fragments containing cloned DNA-binding sites and provide a convenient and widely used method for analyzing DNA bending. In most popular clonin...

The control of gene transcription by antigene oligonucleotides rests upon the specific recognition of doublehelical DNA by triplex-forming oligonucleotides. The development of the antigene strategy requires access to the targeted DNA sequence within the chromatin structure of the cell nucleus. In this sudy we have used HIV-1 chronically infected cells containing the HIV provirus as endogenous g...

Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) and tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum) are members of the Solanaceae (nightshade family) and have the same basic chromosome number (x = 12). However, they cannot be cross-hybridized and, until now, it was unknown how conserved the gene order might be between these two species. We report herein the construction of a genetic linkage map of potato chromosomes based on g...

From 123 clinical and environmental Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates, 24 strains were selected for their similar antibioresistance, virulence and biofilm formation profiles, to examine their diversity and occurrence of clones within two hospitals and different natural sites in Meknes (Morocco). Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis, using DraI enzyme, didn’t reveal a close relationship between clinic...

The link between Ca influx through the L-type calcium channels Cav1.2 or Cav1.3 and glucoseor KCl-induced [Ca 2 ]i mobilization in INS-1 cells was assessed using the calcium indicator indo-1. Cells responded to 18 mM glucose or 50 mM KCl stimulation with different patterns in [Ca ]i increases, although both were inhibited by 10 M nifedipine. Although KCl elicited a prolonged elevation in [Ca ]i...

Aflatoxin BI has been suggested as a causative agent for a G to T mutation at codon 249 in the p53 gene in human hepatocellular carcinomas (HCC) from southern Africa and Qidong in China. The objective of the present work was to test the hypothesis that exposure to aflatoxin B1 either alone or coincident with other environmental carcinogens might be associated with allelic losses occurring durin...

The heterologous regulation of the a2C-adrenergic receptor (a2C-AR) was investigated in the HepG2 cell line. Binding of [H]MK912 (a2-antagonist) to membranes from cells submitted to various treatments showed that exposure to insulin, phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate, or dexamethasone did not affect receptor density. On the other hand, treatment with forskolin resulted in a large reduction of a2C...