Aim Fungi make up a large, ecologically important group of eukaryotes that has been neglected in historical biogeography. In this study, molecular phylogenies and molecular clock dating were used to infer historical biogeography of the shiitake genus, Lentinula Earle, which occurs in both the Old World and New World. The major goals of this study were to determine if the Old World and New World...

An origin of DNA replication has been mapped within the 5' non-transcribed spacer region of the amplified macronuclear rRNA genes (rDNA) of Tetrahymena thermophila. Mutations in 33 nt conserved AT-rich Type I repeat sequences located in the origin region cause defects in the replication and/or maintenance of amplified rDNA in vivo. Fe(II)EDTA cleavage footprinting of restriction fragments conta...

Broad-range rDNA polymerase chain reaction (PCR) provides an alternative, cultivation-independent approach for identifying pathogens. In 1995, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention initiated population-based surveillance for unexplained life-threatening infections (Unexplained Death and Critical Illness Project [UNEX]). To address the causes of UNEX cases, we examined 59 specimens from...

Trypanosoma brucei survives in the mammalian blood-stream by regularly changing its variant surface glycoprotein (VSG) coat. The active VSG gene is located in a telomeric expression site, and coat switching occurs either by replacing the transcribed VSG gene or by changing the expression site that is active. To determine whether VSG expression site control requires promoter-specific sequences, ...

A 5'-terminal region of 1600-1800 base pairs was amplified, cloned, and sequenced in the large subunit rDNA (LSU rDNA) of four species of foraminifera. These sequences were compared with the homologous regions of 16 eukaryotic taxa in order to establish the phylogenetic position of foraminifera. Analysis of 610 unambiguously aligned bases shows that foraminifera branch closely to plasmodial and...

BACKGROUND The phylogenetic location of Chinese Spirometra sparganum isolates remains unclear. The aim of this study was to explore the phylogenetic location of the Spirometra sparganum isolates from China. METHODS The 28S ribosomal DNA (rDNA) D1 sequences of 14 Spirometra sparganum isolates collected from thirteen locations in China were analyzed by using Neighbor-Joining (NJ), maximum parsi...

Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rDNA sequences revealed that Pseudomonas elongata Humm 1946 is more closely related to the genus Microbulbifer than to authentic pseudomonads. The type strain of P. elongata (DSM 6810(T)) exhibited 16S rDNA similarity levels of 97.5 and 98.2 % to the type strains of Microbulbifer hydrolyticus and Microbulbifer salipaludis, respectively, but of less than approx...

Culturable bacterial biodiversity and industrial importance of the isolates indigenous to Khewra salt mine, Pakistan was assessed. PCR Amplification of 16S rDNA of isolates was carried out by using universal primers FD1 and rP1and products were sequenced commercially. These gene sequences were compared with other gene sequences in the GenBank databases to find the closely related sequences. The...

Xenarthra (Edentata) is an extremely diverse mammalian order whose modern representatives are the armadillos, anteaters, and sloths. The phylogeny of these groups is poorly resolved. This is particularly true for the sloths (phyllophagans), originally a large and diverse group now reduced to two genera in two different families. Both morphological analyses and molecular analyses of rDNA genes o...

      Uricase or Urate oxidase (urate:oxygen oxidoreductase, EC 1.7.3.3), a peroxisomal enzyme which is found in many bacteria, catalyzes the oxidative opening of the purine ring of urate to yield allantoin, carbon dioxide, and hydrogen peroxide. In this study, the phylogeny of urate oxidase (uricase) producing bacteria was studied based on gene sequences of 16S rRNA and uricase protein. Repres...