DNA origami is an emerging technology that assembles hundreds of staple strands and one single-strand DNA into certain nanopattern. It has been widely used in various fields including detection of biological molecules such as DNA, RNA and proteins. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play important roles in post-transcriptional gene repression as well as many other biological processes such as cell growth and d...

In countries containing a mega diversity of wildlife, such as Brazil, identifying and characterizing biological diversity is a continuous process for the scientific community, even in face of technological and scientific advances. This activity demands initiatives for the taxonomic identification of highly diverse groups, such as stingless bees, including molecular analysis strategies. This typ...

We have recently described three group I introns inserted into a single gene, orf142, of the staphylococcal bacteriophage Twort and suggested the presence of at least two additional self-splicing introns in this phage genome. Here we report that two previously uncharacterized introns, 429 and 1087 nt in length, interrupt the Twort gene coding for the large subunit of ribonucleotide reductase (n...

In spite of its essential role as the carrier of genetic information, DNA is not an inert structure. The genome is susceptible to potentially mutagenic threats of both endogenous and environmental origin. A dramatic threat to the covalent structure of DNA is posed by breaks in the phosphate backbone affecting one or both strands of the Watson–Crick double helix. Ionizing radiation and certain c...

DNA strand displacement technique is widely used in DNA programming, DNA biosensors, and gene analysis. In DNA strand displacement, leaky reactions can cause DNA signals decay and detecting DNA signals fails. The mostly used method to avoid leakage is cleaning up after upstream leaky reactions, and it remains a challenge to develop reliable DNA strand displacement technique with low leakage. In...

DNA polymerase is essential for replication and repair. As it only performs the 5?-3? polymerization, there are two kinds of replication. One them called strand-displacement synthesis: opens double-strand (ds) to attain 3?-5?strand (leading strand) copy this template in a continuous way, other extension copies newly separated strand (lagging discontinuous manner. The complex T7 phage an optimal...

To efficiently regulate the catalytic activity of the peroxidase mimic hemin, this work designs a double-stranded DNA probe containing an intermolecular dimer of hemin, whose peroxidase activity can be activated by a DNA strand displacement reaction. The double-stranded probe is prepared by annealing two strands of hemin labelled DNA oligonucleotides. Using the fluorescent oxidation product of ...

ATP hydrolysis (by RecA protein) fundamentally alters the properties of RecA protein-mediated DNA strand exchange reactions. ATP hydrolysis renders DNA strand exchange unidirectional, greatly increases the lengths of hybrid DNA created, permits the bypass of heterologous DNA insertions in one or both DNA substrates, and is absolutely required for exchange reactions involving four DNA strands. T...

Background: KDM3A is a key epigenetic regulator that is expressed in the testis and is required for packaging and condensation of sperm chromatin. To this point, the association of the KDM3A gene and infertility has not been studied in human. The aim of this study was to screen any new mutation in KDM3A gene to explore more details of human male infertility. Methods: In this work, 150 infertile...

BACKGROUND Previous studies dealing with the detection of enteroviral RNA in human endomyocardial biopsies have not differentiated between latent persistence of the enteroviral genome and active viral replication. Enteroviruses that are considered important factors for the development of myocarditis have a single-strand RNA genome of positive polarity that is transcribed by a virus-encoded RNA ...