Active protein synthesis during early oogenesis requires accelerated transcription of ribosomal RNA genes (rDNAs). In response to this demand, rDNAs are amplified more than 1000-fold early in Xenopus oogenesis. Here, we report evidence that rDNA is not amplified in mouse oocytes, but these cells may instead employ the zinc-finger protein basonuclin, a putative rDNA transcription factor, to enha...

Identification of species members of the Hyrcanus Group of Anopheles is difficult because of intraspecific variation in and interspecific similarity among key characters. Hibernating female Anopheles pullus were collected and 6 adults were individually reared. All F1 progeny of wild-caught An. pullus were morphologically identical to An. yatsushiroensis. The 5.8S rDNA-ITS2-28S rDNA region from ...

Placing amoeboid lineages on the eukaryotic tree of life is difficult due to the paucity of comparable morphological characters and the limited molecular data available for many groups. This situation has led to the lumping of distantly related lineages into large inclusive groups, such as Sarcodina, that do not reflect evolutionary relationships. Previous analyses of molecular markers with lim...

To examine relationships among spirotrich ciliates using multi-locus sequence analyses and to provide preliminary insights into molecular diversity within species, we sequenced the small subunit rDNA (SSU rDNA), 5.8S rDNA, alpha-tubulin and the internally transcribed spacer regions (ITS1 and ITS2) of the rDNA genes from seven choreotrich (Class: Spirotrichea) and three oligotrich (Class: Spirot...

R2 retrotransposable elements exclusively insert into the tandemly repeated rRNA genes, the rDNA loci, of their animal hosts. R2 elements form stable long-term associations with their host, in which all individuals in a population contain many potentially active copies, but only a fraction of these individuals show active R2 retrotransposition. Previous studies have found that R2 RNA transcript...

The SNF2h-containing chromatin-remodeling complex NoRC is responsible for silencing a fraction of mammalian rRNA genes (rDNA). NoRC silences transcription by establishing heterochromatic features-including DNA methylation, hypoacetylation of histone H4, and methylation of H3K9-at the rDNA promoter []. We have investigated the mechanism of NoRC-mediated rDNA silencing and show that binding of th...

objective(s): candidiasis infection caused by candida albicans has been known as a major problem in patients with immune disorders. the objective of this study was to genotype the c. albicans isolates obtained from oral cavity of patients with positive human immunodeficiency virus (hiv+) with or/and without oropharyngeal candidiasis (opc). materials and methods:a total of 100 c. albicans isolat...

Recent molecular phylogenetic analyses of 18S rDNA have indicated that parasitic lice (order Phthiraptera) are possibly polyphyletic. These analyses recovered one of the parasitic louse suborders, Amblycera, as the sister group to the free-living booklouse family Liposcelididae. We further tested this hypothesis using DNA sequences from five genes: nuclear 18S rDNA, Histone 3, and wingless and ...

Leishmania infantum is the etiological agent of visceral (VL) and a cutaneous form (CL) of leishmaniasis around the Mediterranean Basin. In order to document the parasite genetic background corresponding to this clinical diversity, chromosome size polymorphism was analysed in 32 French isolates (18 CL and 14 VL) originating from the Cévennes and the Pyrénées Orientales (PO), and corresponding t...

The genomic stability of the rDNA tandem array is tightly controlled to allow sequence homogenization and to prevent deleterious rearrangements. In this report, we show that the absence of the yeast CTD kinase I (CTDK-I) complex in null mutant strains leads to a decrease in the number of tandem rDNA repeats. Reintroduction of the missing gene induces an increase of rDNA repeats to reach a copy ...