Neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson’s disease, motor neuron disease and Alzheimer’s disease is characterized by loss of specific cells within certain regions of the brain. One of the most compelling questions is to determine why specific cell populations are vulnerable to neurodegeneration. We addressed this question by studying global gene expression changes using an animal model of ...

Neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson’s disease, motor neuron disease and Alzheimer’s disease is characterized by loss of specific cells within certain regions of the brain. One of the most compelling questions is to determine why specific cell populations are vulnerable to neurodegeneration. We addressed this question by studying global gene expression changes using an animal model of ...

Haploinsufficiency of LIS1 results in lissencephaly, a human neuronal migration disorder. LIS1 is a microtubule- (MT) and centrosome- [microtubule organizing center (MTOC)] associated protein that regulates nucleokinesis via the regulation of dynein motor function and localization. NDEL1 (NudE isoform, NudE like) interacts with LIS1/dynein complex, and is phosphorylated by CDK5/P35. Previous re...

The myogenic basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) genes - MyoD, Myf5, myogenin and MRF4 - exhibit distinct, but overlapping expression patterns during development of the skeletal muscle lineage and loss-of-function mutations in these genes result in different effects on muscle development. MyoD and Myf5 have been shown to act early in the myogenic lineage to establish myoblast identity, whereas myogen...

herpes simplex virus 1 (hsv-1) unspliced 8.3 latency associated transcript (lat), which located in the long repeat sequences, has been shown to contain at least 16 open reading frames (orf: a-p). one of these orf, orf p, maps almost entirely antisense to hsv-1 neurovirulence gene, icp34.5. both orf p and icp34.5 are located in the long repeat and are antisense overlapping genes. therefore, in o...

BACKGROUND The circadian clock regulates biological processes including cardiovascular function and metabolism. In the present study, we investigated the role of the circadian clock gene Period2 (Per2) in endothelial function in a mouse model. METHODS AND RESULTS Compared with the wild-type littermates, mice with Per2 mutation exhibited impaired endothelium-dependent relaxations to acetylchol...

The Werner and Bloom syndromes are caused by loss-of-function mutations in WRN and BLM, respectively, which encode the RecQ family DNA helicases WRN and BLM, respectively. Persons with Werner syndrome displays premature aging of the skin, vasculature, reproductive system, and bone, and those with Bloom syndrome display more limited features of aging, including premature menopause; both syndrome...

The aristaless-related homeobox genes Prx1 and Prx2 are required for correct skeletogenesis in many structures. Mice that lack both Prx1 and Prx2 functions display reduction or absence of skeletal elements in the skull, face, limbs and vertebral column. A striking phenotype is found in the lower jaw, which shows loss of midline structures, and the presence of a single, medially located incisor....