Preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) of single gene disorders, combined with HLA matching (PGD-HLA), has emerged as a tool for couples at risk of transmitting a genetic disease to select unaffected embryos of an HLA tissue type compatible with that of an existing affected child. Here, we present a novel one-step multiplex PCR to genotype a spectrum of STRs to simultaneously perform HLA typin...

An immunohistochemical procedure for the detection of immunoglobulin G adherent to platelets is described. The peroxidase anti-peroxidase method is used to detect antibody activity directed against platelets from normal donors in the sera from 305 individuals. These subjects were divided into three groups: group 1, patients referred for tissue typing; group 2, healthy normal females; group 3, h...

Stable isotope biogeochemistry has been used to investigate foraging ecology in non-human primates for nearly 30 years. Whereas early studies focused on diet, more recently, isotopic analysis has been used to address a diversity of ecological questions ranging from niche partitioning to nutritional status to variability in life history traits. With this increasing array of applications, stable ...

Fruit flies of the genus Drosophila have been an attractive and effective genetic model organism since Thomas Hunt Morgan and colleagues made seminal discoveries with them a century ago. Work with Drosophila has enabled dramatic advances in cell and developmental biology, neurobiology and behavior, molecular biology, evolutionary and population genetics, and other fields. With more tissue types...

We present an a priori theoretical framework for the interspecific allometric relationship between stand mass and plant population density. Our model predicts a slope of -1/3 between the logarithm of stand mass and the logarithm of stand density, thus conflicting with a previously assumed slope of -1/2. Our model rests on a heuristic separation of resource-limited living mass and structural mas...

Stable carbon and nitrogen isotope signals in plant tissues integrate plant-environment interactions over long periods. In this study, we hypothesized that humid alpine life conditions are narrowing the scope for significant deviations from common carbon, water and nitrogen relations as captured by stable isotope signals. We explored the variation in δ(13)C and δ(15)N in 32 plant species from t...

BACKGROUND Expression profiling, the measurement of all transcripts of a cell or tissue type, is currently the most comprehensive method to describe their physiological states. Given that accurate profiling methods currently available require RNA amounts found in thousands to millions of cells, many fields of biology working with specialized cell types cannot use these techniques because availa...

I n a developing embryo, seemingly identical cells are directed to different fates by the combination of signals they receive. When the signals come from morphogens—extracellular molecules that spread from a localized source—the effect on a cell depends on the amount of morpho-gen it receives, with cells closer to the source receiving a higher dose. The change in morphogen concentration across ...

High, unabated glucocorticoid (GC) levels are thought to selectively damage certain tissue types. The hippocampus is thought to be particularly susceptible to such effects, and though findings from animal models and human patients provide some support for this hypothesis, evidence for associations between elevated GCs and lower hippocampal volumes in older age (when GC levels are at greater ris...

Mammalian ceramides constitute a family of at least a few hundred closely related molecules distinguished by small structural differences, giving rise to individual molecular species that are expressed in distinct cellular compartments, or tissue types, in which they are believed to execute distinct functions. We have examined how specific structural details influence the bilayer properties of ...