We determined the frequency of DNA recombination between Bombyx mori nucleopolyhedroviruses (BmNPVs) and between BmNPV and the closely related Autographa californica NPV (AcMNPV) in BmN cells, Sf-21 cells, and larvae of Heliothis virescens. The BmN cells were coinfected with two BmNPVs, one with a mutation at the polyhedrin gene (polh) locus and a second carrying a lacZ gene marker cassette. El...

Retrovirus-mediated sFlt-1 gene modification was performed to examine the influence of VEGF in controlling the growth of an experimental osteosarcoma in mice. Human osteosarcoma G-292 cells were in vitro infected with retroviral vectors encoding soluble Flt-1 or LacZ gene before transplanted into proximal tibiae of immune deficient SCID mice to establish experimental orthotopic osteosarcoma. Da...

Proper development of vertebrate embryos depends not only on the crucial funtions of key evolutionarily conserved transcriptional regulators, but also on the precisely spatiotemporal expression of these transcriptional regulators. The mouse Nolz-1/Znf503/Zfp503 gene is a mammalian member of the conserved zinc-finger containing NET family. The expression pattern of Nolz-1 in mouse embryos is hig...

Tooth and bone specimen require extensive demineralization for careful analysis of cell morphology, as well as gene and protein expression levels. The LacZ gene, which encodes the ß-galactosidase enzyme, is often used as a reporter gene to study gene-structure function, tissue-specific expression by a promoter, cell lineage and fate. This reporter gene is particularly useful for analyzing the s...

To characterize cis-acting regulatory elements of the murine homeobox gene, Hox-2.2, transgenic mouse lines were generated that contained the LacZ reporter gene under the control of different fragments from the presumptive Hox-2.2 promoter. A promoter region of 3600 base pairs (bp) was identified, which reproducibly directed reporter gene expression into specific regions of developing mouse emb...

The rap gene of bacteriophage was placed in the chromosome of an Escherichia coli K-12 strain in which the recBCD gene cluster had previously been replaced by the red genes and in which the recG gene had been deleted. Recombination between linear double-stranded DNA molecules and the chromosome was tested in variants of the recG red rap strain bearing mutations in genes known to affect recombin...

Excision of transposable genetic elements from host DNA is different from the classical prophage lambda type of excision in that it occurs at low frequency and is mostly imprecise; only a minority of excision events restores the wild-type host sequences. In bacteriophage Mu, a highly efficient transposon, imprecise excision is 10-100 times more frequent than precise excision. We have examined a...

A series of plasmids has been constructed that can be used to fuse the beta-galactosidase gene (lacZ) of Escherichia coli to chromosomal genes of Bacillus subtilis. Insertion of the lacZ gene is facilitated by the use of a selectable chloramphenicol acetyl-transferase (cat) gene. The latter is included, along with the lacZ gene, in a single DNA fragment or 'cartridge' that can be removed from t...

OBJECTIVES Nonviral vector can be an attractive alternative to gene delivery in experimental study. In spite of some advantages in comparison with the viral vectors, there are still some limitations for efficiency of gene delivery in nonviral vectors. To determine the effective expression, the recombinant Escherichia coli lacZ genes were cloned into the different variants of pcDNA3.1 and then t...

PURPOSE To develop a system for inducible photoreceptor-specific gene expression in transgenic mice. The tetracycline regulatory system was chosen because it possesses the useful property of direct control of gene expression through use of an exogenous agent, doxycycline, a tetracycline derivative. METHODS Transgenic mice were generated that carried the reverse tetracycline-controlled transac...