To understand the biologic role of self-DNA bound to Toll-like Receptor 9 (TLR9), we assayed its effect on gene and methyltransferase expressions and cell differentiation in HT29 cells. HT29 cells were incubated separately with type-1 (normally methylated/nonfragmented), type-2 (normally methylated/fragmented), type-3 (hypermethylated/nonfragmented), or type-4 (hypermethylated/fragmented) self-...

Purpose DNA barcoding generates a unique identification tag for individual species based on the sequence of a short stretch of DNA. For this study we evaluated the potential of DNA barcoding methods for identification of medicinal plants using examples from the Lower Rio Grande Valley border region in Texas. Many plants that enter the supply chain are not evaluated for correct identification an...

There is a strong preferential binding of histone I to lymphocyte DNA as compared to Escherichia coli DNA when large DNA fragments (2 times 10-6 daltons) are used. The binding of histone I to lymphocyte DNA and to E. coli DNA is cooperative. The distribution of preferential binding sites has been investigated on fragmented DNA. Most of the 2 times 10-6 dalton fragments were found to have at lea...

Digital PCR (dPCR) has been adapted to quantify the proportion of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) molecules without and with double-strand breaks (DSBs). This is based on a break-apart approach two differentially labeled target sequences distantly located in circular molecule. When targets amplify separated reaction partitions, original mtDNA molecule should be fragmented by DSBs at least, each diffe...

AIMS To develop a genome based DNA fingerprinting system for Aspergillus fumigatus mould. METHODS DNA was extracted from 21 isolates obtained from eight patients with an aspergilloma. This was with a freeze-dried mycelial extract fragmented in liquid nitrogen. DNA was subsequently purified by phenol-chloroform extraction followed by ultracentrifugation on a caesium chloride gradient. The DNA ...

Obtaining informative short tandem repeat (STR) profiles from degraded DNA samples is a challenging task usually undermined by locus or allele dropouts and peak-high imbalances observed in capillary electrophoresis (CE) electropherograms, especially for those markers with large amplicon sizes. We hereby show that the current STR assays may be greatly improved for the detection of genetic marker...

BACKGROUND It is known that repeated failure of assisted reproduction treatment (ART) can be due to a paternal effect. This study was undertaken to analyse the possible relationship between ART failure and sperm DNA fragmentation. METHODS Zygote morphology and the percentage of spermatozoa with fragmented DNA (assessed by TUNEL) were compared in two groups using donor oocytes for ICSI attempt...

Sex determination is important in archeology and anthropology for the study of past societies, cultures, and human activities. Sex determination is also one of the most important components of individual identification in criminal investigations. We developed a new method of sex determination by detecting a single-nucleotide polymorphism in the amelogenin gene using amplified product-length pol...