We discuss the evolutionary significance of four aberrant 18S rDNA clones that were obtained from human, chimpanzee, and gorilla DNA libraries. We show that these clones carry representatives of a small 18S rDNA pseudogene family that arose in a common ancestor of these species. Aspects of their structure and phylogenetic distribution suggest that the 18S pseudogenes no longer interact genetica...

Studies on earthworms using molecular markers are rare in Africa except a handful from South Africa. Reports on Libyodrilus violaceous,an earthworm found in West Africaare available including their metal tolerance and bioaccumulation capacity but their molecular characterization and ecotoxicology studies are scarce. In this study, triplicate L. violaceous specimens were collec...

* Author for correspondence and reprint requests Z. Naturforsch. 64c, 418-420 (2009); received December 15, 2008 Cell suspension culture has rapidly become an alternative source of taxol, an anticancer compound. To investigate the role of DNA methylation in the cultural course of Taxus chinensis cells, analyses of 18S rRNA gene sequences of cultured T chinensis cells and related species were co...

The naturally occurring modified nucleoside 3-[3-amino-3-carboxypropyl]-1-methylpseudouridine (abbreviated am psi) is found in eukaryotic 18S rRNA. We localized am psi to sequence resolution in D. melanogaster 18S rRNA. This hypermodified base causes an absolute stop in cDNA elongation. The RNA sequence bearing am psi was determined by dideoxy-sequencing with reverse transcriptase. The rDNA cod...

We investigated the value of mitochondrial small subunit rRNA gene (mt SSU rDNA) PCR-RFLP as a taxonomic tool for Acanthamoeba isolates with close inter-relationships. Twenty-five isolates representing 20 species were included in the analysis. As in nuclear 18S rDNA analysis, two type strains (A. astronyxis and A. tubiashi) of morphological group 1 diverged earliest from the other strains, but ...

Aim: The aim of this study was to assess the biodiversity and community structure of Swedish meiofaunal eukaryotes using metabarcoding. To validate the reliability of the metabarcoding approach, we compare the taxonomic resolution obtained using the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase 1 (COI) ‘mini-barcode’ and nuclear 18S small ribosomal subunit (18S) V1-V2 region, with traditional morphology-bas...

We have investigated the molecular evolution of the nucleotide sequences of 18S ribosomal RNA genes (18S rDNA) from a set of nematodes in the family Rhabditidae (Nematoda: Secernentea). Our aim was to evaluate the usefulness of this gene for molecular systematics of this family, as well as to establish phylogenetic relationships within a group that has potential for comparative studies of the r...

The H/ACA RNAs represent an abundant, evolutionarily conserved and functionally diverse class of non-coding RNAs. Many H/ACA RNAs direct pseudouridylation of rRNAs and snRNAs, while members of the rapidly growing group of 'orphan' H/ACA RNAs participate in pre-rRNA processing, telomere synthesis and probably, in other nuclear processes. The yeast snR30 'orphan' H/ACA snoRNA has long been known ...

DNA microarray technology offers the possibility to analyze microbial communities without cultivation, thus benefiting biodiversity studies. We developed a DNA phylochip to assess phytoplankton diversity and transferred 18S rRNA probes from dot blot or fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) analyses to a microarray format. Similar studies with 16S rRNA probes have been done determined that in...