Site-specific heritable mutations in maize genes were engineered by introducing chimeric RNA/DNA oligonucleotides. Two independent targets within the endogenous maize acetohydroxyacid synthase gene sequence were modified in a site-specific fashion, thereby conferring resistance to either imidazolinone or sulfonylurea herbicides. Similarly, an engineered green fluorescence protein transgene was ...

BACKGROUND Correct diagnosis of 21-hydroxylase deficiency (21OHD) requires the identification of CYP21A2 gene deletions and CYP21A1P/CYP21A2 chimeric genes, which are disease-causing alleles, and gene duplications, which can lead to false-positive 21OHD allele results. Because lack of suitable CYP21A2 dosage assessment methods hampers correct 21OHD diagnosis, we developed a new assay based on t...

 Abstract Background: Many disease susceptibility genes are large and consist of many exons in which point mutations are scattered throughout. Scanning each exon individually represents a tedious task which can be time consuming and expensive. There has been increasing demand for rapid and accurate methods for full scanning of unknown point mutations in large multi-exon genes. Gene Assembling i...

The NS3-NS4A serine protease of hepatitis C virus (HCV) mediates four specific cleavages of the viral polyprotein and its activity is considered essential for the biogenesis of the HCV replication machinery. Despite extensive biochemical and structural characterization, the analysis of natural variants of this enzyme has been limited by the lack of an efficient replication system for HCV in cul...

PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to evaluate a fiber knob replacement strategy to improve infectivity and efficacy of Ad5 fiber chimeric oncolytic viruses for treatment of melanoma and head and neck cancers (HNC). EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN Adenoviral receptors and transduction levels were used to determine the level of infectivity of fiber-modified, green fluorescent protein-expressing, replic...