Population-based genetic association studies have proven to be a powerful tool in identifying genes implicated in many complex human diseases that have a huge impact on public health. An essential quality control step in such studies is to undertake Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium (HWE) calculations. Deviations from HWE in the control group may reflect important problems including selection bias, po...

Mendelian randomization (MR) permits causal inference between exposures and a disease. It can be compared with randomized controlled trials. Whereas in a randomized controlled trial the randomization occurs at entry into the trial, in MR the randomization occurs during gamete formation and conception. Several factors, including time since conception and sampling variation, are relevant to the i...

We provide evidence that, in certain circumstances, a root-mean-square test of goodness of fit can be significantly more powerful than state-of-the-art tests in detecting deviations from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. Unlike Pearson's $\chi ^2$ test, the log-likelihood-ratio test, and Fisher's exact test, which are sensitive to relative discrepancies between genotypic frequencies, the root-mean-sq...

Recently, it has been shown that human B lymphocytes possess a polymorphic antigen system distinct from the HLA system present on both T and B lymphocytes (1-4). These B-cell antigens are also present on cultured lymphoblastoid lines (1, 3, 5, 6), acute lymphoblastic leukemia cells (7), and chronic lymphoblastic leukemia cells (1 and footnote 1). Earlier we described four distinct B-lymphocyte ...

Twenty-three microsatellites were isolated from the yellow tang (Zebrasoma flavescens), an ecologically and commercially important reef fish. Genetic diversity was assessed in 90 adults collected from Honokohau, Hawaii. The number of alleles per locus varied from four to 29 (mean = 13.8) and observed and expected heterozygosities ranged from 0.15 to 0.94 (mean = 0.70) and from 0.29 to 0.93 (mea...

OBJECTIVE To describe the angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) genotype frequencies among Omani Arabs. METHOD A polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test, based on separation of different size DNA fragments, was developed to test the presence or absence (polymorphism) of a small DNA deletion in the ACE gene. The subjects were 124 Omani Arab students of Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat. RESULTS Th...

We have characterized 11 polymorphic microsatellite loci in the invasive ant Solenopsis invicta. Primer pairs were evaluated on fire ants collected from monogyne mounds in Lauderdale County, Mississippi. The observed and effective number of alleles ranged from two to six and from 1.31 to 2.64, respectively. The observed and expected heterozygosity values ranged from 0.1613 to 0.7826 and from 0....

The insulin -23Hph and IGF2 Apa polymorphisms were genotyped in Romanian patients with T1DM (n = 204), T2DM (n = 215) or obesity (n = 200) and normoponderal healthy subjects (n = 750). The genotypes of both polymorphisms were distributed in concordance with Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium in all groups. The -23Hph AA genotype increased the risk for T1DM (OR: 3.22, 95%CI: 2.09-4.98, p < 0,0001), espe...

To investigate the population structure of the obligate plant-ant Pseudomyrmex ferrugineus, we developed primers for 12 microsatellite loci. We tested the variability of the markers on 11 individuals from each of two populations (totalling 22 individuals) and found two to 12 alleles per locus and population. No deviations from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium were detected. Observed and expected hete...

We isolated 16 polymorphic microsatellite loci in the mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae Hopkins) and developed conditions for amplifying these markers in four multiplex reactions. Three to 14 alleles were detected per locus across two sampled populations. Observed and expected heterozygosities ranged from 0.000 to 0.902 and from 0.100 to 0.830, respectively. Three loci deviated from...