B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia (B-CLL) and autoimmune disease are a related event, and genetic factors are linked to both diseases. As B-CLL is mainly of B-1 cell type that participates in autoantibody production, genetically-determined regulatory abnormalities in proliferation and/or differentiation of B-1 cells may determine their fate. We earlier found that, in H-2-congenic (NZB x NZW) ...

Significant advances have been made in understanding the genetic basis of systemic sclerosis (scleroderma) in recent years. Can these discoveries lead to individualized monitoring and treatment? Besides robustly replicated genetic susceptibility loci, several genes have been recently linked to various systemic sclerosis disease manifestations. Furthermore, inclusion of genetic studies in design...

New Zealand Black (NZB) and New Zealand White (NZW) mice are genetically predisposed to a lupus-like autoimmune syndrome. To further define the loci linked to disease traits in NZB and NZW mice in the context of the BALB/c genetic background, linkage analyses were conducted in two crosses: (NZW x BALB/c.H2(z))F(1) x NZB and (NZB x BALB/c)F(2). Novel loci linked to autoantibody production and gl...

Background: Downy mildew caused by Plasmopara halstedii is one of the most devastating diseases of sunflower worldwide. So far several dominant resistance genes designated as Pl have been identified and their molecular markers linked to these genes are available. However, no information on the resistance genes is available in Iranian lines. Objective: In this study, the presence of three map-b...

Parkinson's disease (PD), the second most prevalent neurodegenerative disease after Alzheimer's disease, is linked to the gradual loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra. Disease loci causing hereditary forms of PD are known, but most cases are attributable to a combination of genetic and environmental risk factors. Increased incidence of PD is associated with rural living and pest...

A case of a child with chronic granulomatous disease (CGD) presenting with recurrent mycobacterial infections and invasive Aspergillus fumigatus disease is described. Genetic analysis confirmed X-linked CGD with a novel mutation in exon 10 of the CYBB gene - the first South African report of genetically confirmed CGD.

BACKGROUND Genome-wide association studies (gwas) are invaluable in revealing the common variants predisposing to complex human diseases. Yet, until now, the large volumes of data generated from such analyses have not been explored extensively enough to identify the molecular and functional framework hosting the susceptibility genes. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS We investigated the relation...

Of 107 consecutive patients with genetically-determined retinitis pigmentosa, 23 were provisionally diagnosed as having inherited the disease in an X-linked fashion. 42 affected males and 61 females were examined, and from the data obtained the following conclusions were drawn: (1) X-linked retinitis pigmentosa exists and is distinct from choroideremia. (2) In contrast to the results of previou...

Sarcoidosis is by definition a disease of "unknown causes," but recent epidemiologic advances suggest that the long-standing definition of sarcoidosis may soon need to be amended. The recently completed ACCESS (A Case-Control Etiologic Study of Sarcoidosis) study was not able to definitively identify the "cause" of sarcoidosis, but yielded important findings regarding familial and environmental...

Background Methods for haplotyping and DNA copynumber typing of single cells are paramount for studying genomic heterogeneity and enabling genetic diagnosis. Before analyzing the DNA of a single cell by microarray or next-generation sequencing, a whole-genome amplification (WGA) process is required, but it substantially distorts the frequency and composition of the cell’s alleles. As a conseque...