As an example of the optimization of an evolutionary system design, a string rewriting system is studied. A set of rewriting rules that defines the growth of a string is experimentarily optimized in terms of maximizing the 'replicative capacity', that is the occurrence ratio of self-replicating strings. It is shown that the most optimized rule set allows many strings to self-replicate by using ...

T elomeres are unique protein–DNA structures that comprise the termini of eukaryotic linear chromosomes (for review see references 1, 2). Telomeric DNA does not contain protein-encoding genes but rather consists of G-rich hexanu-cleotide repeats that in vertebrate cells are (TTAGGG) n sequences. Based on studies initially carried out in yeast and other single cell organisms, it appears that tel...

T elomeres are unique protein–DNA structures that comprise the termini of eukaryotic linear chromosomes (for review see references 1, 2). Telomeric DNA does not contain protein-encoding genes but rather consists of G-rich hexanu-cleotide repeats that in vertebrate cells are (TTAGGG) n sequences. Based on studies initially carried out in yeast and other single cell organisms, it appears that tel...

T elomeres are unique protein–DNA structures that comprise the termini of eukaryotic linear chromosomes (for review see references 1, 2). Telomeric DNA does not contain protein-encoding genes but rather consists of G-rich hexanu-cleotide repeats that in vertebrate cells are (TTAGGG) n sequences. Based on studies initially carried out in yeast and other single cell organisms, it appears that tel...

The direct intramuscular delivery of naked plasmid DNA has been demonstrated to allow expression of encoded heterologous genes in the target myocytes. The method has been employed to elicit immunization based upon delivery of antigen encoding plasmid DNA. For application in the context of achieving anti-tumor immunization against antigenic transforming oncoproteins, delivery of plasmid DNAs enc...

Originally developed to elucidate the mechanisms of natural selection in bacteria, the Luria-Delbrück model assumed that cells are intrinsically capable of dividing an unlimited number of times. This assumption however, is not true for human somatic cells which undergo replicative senescence. Replicative senescence is thought to act as a mechanism to protect against cancer and the escape from i...

Introduction: Endothelial progenitor colony forming unit-endothelial cells (CFU-EC) were first believed to be the progenitors of endothelial cells, named endothelial progenitor cells. Further studies revealed that they are monocytes regulating vasculogenesis. The main hindrance of these cells for therapeutic purposes is their low frequency and limited replicative potentials. This study was unde...

The relative replicative fitness of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) mutants selected by different protease inhibitors (PIs) in vivo was determined. Each mutant was compared to wild type (WT), NL4-3, in the absence of drugs by several methods, including clonal genotyping of cultures infected with two competing viral variants, kinetics of viral antigen production, and viral infectivit...

introduction: endothelial progenitor colony forming unit-endothelial cells (cfu-ec) were first believed to be the progenitors of endothelial cells, named endothelial progenitor cells. further studies revealed that they are monocytes regulating vasculogenesis. the main hindrance of these cells for therapeutic purposes is their low frequency and limited replicative potentials. this study was unde...

Yeast MET18, a subunit of the cytosolic iron-sulfur (Fe/S) protein assembly (CIA) machinery which is responsible for the maturation of Fe/S proteins, has been reported to participate in the oxidative stress response. However, the underlying molecular mechanisms remain unclear. In this study, we constructed a MET18/met18Δ heterozygous mutant yeast strain and found that MET18 deficiency in yeast ...