Our understanding of thermophile diversity is based predominantly on PCR studies of community DNA. "Universal" and domain-specific rRNA gene PCR primers have historically been used for the assessment of microbial diversity without adequate regard to the degree of specificity of primer pairs to different prokaryotic groups. In a reassessment of the published primers commonly used for "universal"...

A new method for DNA diagnostics based on template-directed primer extension and detection by fluorescence resonance energy transfer is described. In this method, amplified genomic DNA fragments containing polymorphic sites are incubated with a 5'-fluorescein-labeled primer (designed to hybridize to the DNA template adjacent to the polymorphic site) in the presence of allelic dye-labeled dideox...

self-incompatibility in almond and prunus species is an important genetic trait that prevents self-fertilization. self-incompatibility in almond is controlled gametophytically by the multiallelic s-locus. this study was done in order to identification and preliminary selection of self-compatible progenies resulted from controlled crosses in almond using specific primer sff-sfr.some important mo...

Although gene expression profiling by microarray analysis is a useful tool for assessing global levels of transcriptional activity, variability associated with the data sets usually requires that observed differences be validated by some other method, such as real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (real-time PCR). However, non-specific amplification of non-target genes is frequently o...

BACKGROUND MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small, non-coding RNAs capable of postranscriptionally regulating gene expression. Accurate expression profiling is crucial for understanding the biological roles of miRNAs, and exploring them as biomarkers of diseases. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS A novel, highly sensitive, and reliable miRNA quantification approach,termed S-Poly(T) miRNA assay, is designe...

UNLABELLED Conserved primers across multiple species and simultaneously specific for a certain isozyme can be rare and difficult to find. PrimerIdent was developed aiming to automate this primer design and selection process in a given nucleotide sequence alignment, providing an intuitive, easy to interpret graphical result, which offers a list of all possible primers that meet the user criteria...

In Japan, 8 lines of genetically modified (GM) potato (2 lines of NewLeaf potato; NL, 3 lines of NewLeaf Plus potato; NLP, and 3 lines of NewLeaf Y potato; NLY) have already been authorized as safe for use in foods and feeds. We have developed polymerase chain reaction (PCR) methods for the qualitative detection of the GM potatoes for the screening and the identification of NL, NLP and NLY. The...

The success of Agrobacterium mediated plant transformation depends to a certain extent on appropriate selection of the A. tumefaciens strain for a particular plant species. Many stages in a plant transformation procedure are prone to bacterial contamination with similar antibiotic resistance that may compromise the identity of the A. tumefaciens strain used, in turn adversely affecting success ...

During the cloning of a transcript of one member of a closely related gene family, the human 7-crystallin gene family (1), we encountered a novel artifact of the polymerase chain reaction: the formation of chimeric cDNA molecules. Our experimental strategy in cloning the human 7E-crystallin transcript was a common one (2): first strand cDNA synthesis on human lens RNA using AMV reverse transcri...

The Tf1 retrotransposon represents a group of long terminal repeat retroelements that use an RNA self-primer for initiating reverse transcription while synthesizing the minus-sense DNA strand. Tf1 reverse transcriptase (RT) was found earlier to generate the self-primer in vitro. Here, we show that this RT can remove from the synthesized cDNA the entire self-primer as well as the complete polypu...