Y chromosome haplotyping based on microsatellites or single nucleotide polymorphisms has recently proven to be a powerful approach for evolutionary studies of human populations, and also holds great promise for the studies of wild species. However, the use of the approach is hampered in most natural populations by the lack of Y chromosome markers and sequence information. Here, we report the la...

Fragile sites are loci of recurrent chromosome breakage in the genome. They are found in organisms ranging from bacteria to humans and are implicated in genome instability, evolution, and cancer. In budding yeast, inactivation of Mec1, a homolog of mammalian ATR, leads to chromosome breakage at fragile sites referred to as replication slow zones (RSZs). RSZs are proposed to be homologous to mam...

Chimpanzees and humans are genetically very similar, with the striking exception of their Y chromosomes, which have diverged tremendously. The male-specific region (MSY), representing the greater part of the Y chromosome, is inherited from father to son in a clonal fashion, with natural selection acting on the MSY as a unit. Positive selection might involve the performance of the MSY in spermat...

Chromosome painting in placental mammalians illustrates that genome evolution is marked by chromosomal synteny conservation and that the association of chromosomes 3 and 21 may be the largest widely conserved syntenic block known for mammals. We studied intrachromosomal rearrangements of the syntenic block 3/21 by using probes derived from chromosomal subregions with a resolution of up to 10-15...

Most studies on preconception diagnosis published so far have used polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis to identify single gene defects. Although fluorescent DNA probes have been used to obtain a partial cytogenetic diagnosis of aneuploidies in first polar bodies without defined chromosome structures, the analysis of structural chromosome anomalies in the interphase nucleus is not adequate....

Turner syndrome (TS) is one of the most common types of aneuploidy among humans, and is present in 1:2000 newborns with female phenotype. Cytogenetically, the syndrome is characterized by sex chromosome monosomy (45,X), which is present in 50-60% of the cases. The other cases present mosaicism, with a 45,X cell line accompanied by one or more other cell lines with a complete or structurally abn...

Caryological studies were carried out on ten species of the genus Suaeda belonging to 27 samples of different populations in Iran. Important chromosome features including numbers, lengths, centromere locations and caryotypes were studied. All the species have basic chromosome numbers of x=9. Chromosome counts of S. acuminata (C.A.Mey.) Moq. (2n=18), S. aegyptiaca (Hasselq.) Zoh., (2n=l8)...

This paper reports on the karyotyping of mullet fish species, Liza klunzingeri, endemic of the Persian Gulf. The metaphase chromosome spreads, obtained from kidney cells of 13 specimens were examined. The diploid chromosome number was found to be 2n=48. The karyotype was discovered to be consisted of 48 acrocentric chromosome pairs. The arm number was determined to be NF=48. The chromosome numb...

Erodium (Geranaiceae) species are distributed in different habitats of Iran. Some species are of medicinal importance while some are well known weeds. There are no chromosome counts for Erdoium species of Iran. Chromosome numbers are given for six taxa of Erodium (Geraniaceae) from Iran: E. cicutarium (2n=36), E. ciconium(2n=18), E. malacoides (2n=20), E. moschatum (2n=20), E. neuradifolium (2n...

A hundred years ago in July, thanks to the advancement of medical technology, first human received vaccine Bacille Calmette-Guérin—or BCG—to prevent tuberculosis (TB), a disease that killed at least 20% European population during 19th century. Since then, hundreds millions lives have been saved by BCG, as well other vaccinations for dangerous diseases. However, although TB is quite preventable ...