Neither the molecular basis for common fragile site DNA instability nor the contribution of this form of chromosomal instability to cancer is clearly understood. Fragile site FRA16D (16q23.2) is within regions of frequent loss-of-heterozygosity (LOH) in breast and prostate cancers, is associated with homozygous deletions in various adenocarcinomas and t(14;16) chromosomal translocations in mult...

A1AT deficiency has a complex pathophysiology, is highly variable in clinical course, and is under diagnosed. The association with chronic lung disease was first described by Eriksson and Laurell in 1963, and later, Sharp and colleagues recognized A1AT deficiency as a cause of liver disease. In 2013 an international meeting was held to review the intervening 50 years of basic and clinical scien...

SERPINS comprise a large and functionally diverse family of serine protease inhibitors. Here, we report three unrelated families with loss-of-function mutations in SERPINB8 in association with an autosomal-recessive form of exfoliative ichthyosis. Whole-exome sequencing of affected individuals from a consanguineous Tunisian family and a large Israeli family revealed a homozygous frameshift muta...

We have identified a novel form of cardiac myocyte enlargement in nonmuscle myosin heavy chain II-B (NMHC II-B) ablated mice, based on a partial failure in cytokinesis. In contrast to most cells, cardiac myocytes lack NMHC II-A, and ablation of NMHC II-B results in a heart with 70% fewer myocytes at embryonic day 14.5 (E14.5) than control mice (B+/B- and B+/B+). In addition, B-/B- cardiac myocy...

To test for epistasis and allele-specific environmental responses among quantitative trait loci (QTL) involved in the evolution of maize from its ancestor (teosinte), teosinte alleles of two QTL previously shown to control much of the morphological difference between these plants were introgressed into an isogenic maize background. Plants of each of the four two-locus homozygous classes for the...

outputs in the normal child were 11.5 and 3.3 mg/kg per d, respectively. Thus, in comparison with the normal child, the patient with homozygous familial hypercholesterolemia had a marked increase in synthesis of cholesterol and bile acids. Although synthesis ofbile acids was high in this patient, the fraction of newly synthesized cholesterol converted into bile acids (4056%) was in the normal r...