The main objective of the present study was to develop an efficient and reliable probe to be routinely used for detection of chromosome 13 copy numbers by interphase FISH. To achieve this, a Yeast Artificial Chromosome (YAC) containing sequences specific for human 13q12 (744D11), was cultured and the whole yeast genomic DNA was extracted. The human insert within the isolated DNA was amplified b...

Cancer is a disease of the genome and the epigenome. Previous studies have shown that genomic changes such as mutations, copy number variation, and genomic rearrangements drive cancer evolution. In this issue of Cancer Cell, Landau and colleagues add epigenomic changes, specifically locally disordered DNA methylation, to cancer's evolutionary trajectory.

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...

BACKGROUND DNA copy number alteration is common in many cancers. Studies have shown that insertion or deletion of DNA sequences can directly alter gene expression, and significant correlation exists between DNA copy number and gene expression. Data normalization is a critical step in the analysis of gene expression generated by RNA-seq technology. Successful normalization reduces/removes unwant...

In the past fifteen years, an emerging group of genetic diseases have been described that result from DNA rearrangements rather than from single nucleotide changes. Such conditions have been referred to as genomic disorders. The predominant molecular mechanism underlying the rearrangements that cause this group of diseases and traits is nonallelic homologous recombination (NAHR) (unequal crossi...

In-vitro-fertilized human embryos often acquire large structural and numerical chromosomal abnormalities. Liu et al. now show that multiple smaller copy number variations may also arise in in-vivo-conceived embryos. Analysis of these variations provides insight into the DNA mutational processes occurring in early embryos and the mechanisms underlying them.

Copy Number Variations (CNVs) of regions of the human genome have been associated with multiple diseases. We present an algorithm which is mathematically sound and computationally efficient to accurately analyze CNV in a DNA sample utilizing a nanofluidic device, known as the digital array. This numerical algorithm is utilized to compute copy number variation and the associated statistical conf...

Abstract Motivation Optical genome mapping (OGM) is a technique that extracts partial genomic information from optically imaged and linearized DNA fragments containing fluorescently labeled short sequence patterns. This can be used for various analyses applications, such as the detection of structural variations copy-number variations, epigenomic profiling, microbial species identification. Cur...