In neurons, the establishment and maintenance of distinct somatic, dendritic, and axonal domains has long been known to rely on regulated traffic of organelles and proteins. More recently, the local targeting of specific mRNAs has also been demonstrated, at least in dendrites, to provide a local supply of specific proteins. Here we set out to test directly for the presence of mRNA in axons of c...

In Drosophila and other Dipterans, homologous chromosomes are in close contact in virtually all nuclei, a phenomenon known as somatic homolog pairing. Although homolog pairing has been recognized for over a century, relatively little is known about its regulation. We performed a genome-wide RNAi-based screen that monitored the X-specific localization of the male-specific lethal (MSL) complex, a...

Four somatic hybrids derived from a diploid wild species Solanum etuberosum and a diploid tuber-bearing Solanum clone 463-4, together with five BC1 and three BC2 plants, were analyzed by genomic in situ hybridization (GISH). None of the four somatic hybrids had the expected chromosome constitutions, i.e., 24 chromosomes from each fusion parent. Either one chromosome from S. etuberosum or one fr...

Plants lack a germ line; consequently, during reproduction adult somatic cells within flowers must switch from mitotic proliferation to meiosis. In maize (Zea mays L.) anthers, hypoxic conditions in the developing tassel trigger pre-meiotic competence in the column of pluripotent progenitor cells in the center of anther lobes, and within 24 hr these newly specified germinal cells have patterned...

Several female malignancies including breast, ovarian, and endometrial cancers can be characterized based on known somatic and germline mutations. Initiation and propagation of tumors reflect underlying genomic alterations such as mutations, polymorphisms, and copy number variations found in genes of multiple cellular pathways. The contributions of any single genetic variation or mutation in a ...

PURPOSE To determine whether patients with isolated primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) have evidence of chromosomal copy number alterations. METHODS Twenty-seven Caucasian and African-American POAG patients and 12 ethnically matched controls were carefully screened for possible glaucoma and tested for chromosomal copy number alterations using high resolution array comparative genomic hybridiz...

A small family of DNA sequences is rearranged during the development of the somatic nucleus in Tetrahymena. The family is defined by 266 bp of highly conserved sequence which restriction mapping, hybridization and sequence analysis have shown is shared by a cloned micronuclear fragment and three sequences which constitute the macronuclear family. Genomic Southern hybridization experiments indic...

Dynamic RNA nanotechnology based on programmable hybridization cascades with small conditional RNAs (scRNAs) offers a promising conceptual framework for engineering programmable conditional regulation in vivo. While single-base substitution (SBS) somatic mutations and single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are important markers and drivers of disease, it is unclear whether synthetic RNA signal ...

Myotonic dystrophy type 2 (DM2) is a dominantly inherited disorder caused by a CCTG repeat expansion in intron 1 of ZNF9 gene. The size and the somatic instability of DM2 expansion complicate the molecular diagnosis of DM2. In situ hybridization represents a rapid and sensitive method to obtain a definitive diagnosis in few hours, since it allows the direct visualization of the mutant mRNA foci...

The European dogroses (Rosa sect. Caninae (DC.) Ser.) are characterized by a unique meiosis system ("canina-meiosis"), which controls the heterogamous development of tetraploid egg cells and haploid pollen grains resulting in a pentaploid somatic status. This permanent anorthoploidy is supposed to have originated by a hybridization event in the postglacial period. In this study we present molec...