BACKGROUND Traditional approaches for generating goat pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) suffer from complexity and low preparation efficiency. Therefore, we tried to derive goat iPSCs with a new method by transfecting exogenous Oct4, Sox2, Klf4 and c-Myc mRNAs into goat embryonic fibroblasts (GEFs), and explore the mechanisms regarding the transcription regulation of the reprogramming factors in g...

Odorant perception is initiated when odorants activate unique combinations of odorant receptors (ORs) expressed in the cilia of olfactory sensory neurons in the nose (Buck and Axel 1991; Malnic et al. 1999). One of the greatest challenges in the olfactory science is to correlate ORs with their ligands (to deorphanize the ORs). The determination of OR– ligand pairs should reveal how the OR famil...

Angiogenesis, the process by which new blood vessels are formed from preexisting vasculature, is critical for vascular remodeling during development and contributes to the pathogenesis of diseases such as cancer. Prior studies from our laboratory demonstrate that the EphA2 receptor tyrosine kinase is a key regulator of angiogenesis in vivo. The EphA receptor-mediated angiogenic response is depe...

The clinical and genetic relationships of febrile seizures and the generalized epilepsies are poorly understood. We ascertained a family with genealogical information in 2000 individuals where there was an unusual concentration of individuals with febrile seizures and generalized epilepsy in one part of the pedigree. We first clarified complex consanguineous relationships in earlier generations...

At the Golgi complex, the biosynthetic sorting center of the cell, the Arf GTPases are responsible for coordinating vesicle formation. The Arf-GEFs activate Arf GTPases and are therefore the key molecular decision-makers for trafficking from the Golgi. In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, three conserved Arf-GEFs function at the Golgi: Sec7, Gea1, and Gea2. Our group has described the regulation of Sec...

Genetic epilepsy with febrile seizures plus (GEFS(+)) is an inherited epilepsy that can result from mutations in at least four ion channel subunits. The majority of the known GEFS(+) mutations have been identified in SCN1A, the gene encoding Nav1.1 α-subunit. Protein kinases as critical modulators of sodium channels have been closely related to the genesis of epilepsy. However, little is known ...

Mutations in the gene encoding the gamma2 subunit of the gamma-aminobutyric acid type A receptor (GABRG2) have been reported to cause childhood absence epilepsy (CAE), febrile seizures (FS), and generalized epilepsy with FS plus (GEFS+). The authors analyzed GABRG2 in 47 unrelated patients with CAE, FS, and GEFS+ and identified a novel mutation that cosegregated with FS. Electrophysiologic stud...