Quantification of circulating nucleic acids in plasma and serum could be used as a non-invasive diagnostic tool for monitoring a wide variety of diseases and conditions. We describe here a rapid, simple and accurate multiplex real-time PCR method for direct synchronized analysis of circulating cell-free (ccf) mitochondrial (mtDNA) and nuclear (nDNA) DNA in plasma and serum samples. The method i...

Friedreich ataxia (FRDA) is the most frequent progressive autosomal recessive disorder associated with unstable expansion of GAA trinucleotide repeats in the first intron of the FXN gene, which encodes for the mitochondrial frataxin protein. The number of repeats correlates with disease severity, where impaired transcription of the FXN gene results in reduced expression of the frataxin protein....

Two major inconsistencies exist in the current neo-Darwinian evolutionary theory that random chromosomal mutations acted on by natural selection generate new species. First, natural selection does not require the evolution of ever increasing complexity, yet this is the hallmark of biology. Second, human chromosomal DNA sequence variation is predominantly either neutral or deleterious and is ins...

Relatively few large-scale faecal DNA studies have been initiated due to difficulties in amplifying low quality and quantity DNA template. To improve brown bear faecal DNA PCR amplification success rates and to determine post collection sample longevity, five preservation methods were evaluated: 90% ethanol, DETs buffer, silica-dried, oven-dried stored at room temperature, and oven-dried stored...

The giant anteater (Myrmecophaga tridactyla) is a strictly myrmecophagous xenarthran species that ranges from Honduras to northern Argentina, occupying various habitats, grassland and floodplains forests. According the IUCN, it vulnerable mainly threatened by poaching, habitat loss fragmentation, road kills. Here, we investigate phylogeography, distribution, ecology, historical demography of Br...

Programmed cell death (pcd) is activated during the hypersensitive response (HR) of plants to avirulent pathogens. We have recently shown that, similar to pcd in animal cells, nuclei of cells undergoing HR cell death contain fragmented nuclear DNA (nDNA). Here, we report that cell death occurring during the HR is accompanied by an increase in the activity of several deoxyribonucleases. lnductio...

To assess effects of historical climate change on northern species, we quantified the population history of the arctic ground squirrel (Spermophilus parryii), an arctic-adapted rodent that evolved in Beringia and was strongly influenced by climatic oscillations of the Quaternary. Competing hypotheses for the species' population history were derived from patterns of mitochondrial (mtDNA) structu...

The depauperate marine ecosystems of the Hawaiian Archipelago share a high proportion of species with the southern and western Pacific, indicating historical and/or ongoing connections across the large oceanic expanse separating Hawaii from its nearest neighbors. The rate and direction of these interactions are, however, unknown. While previous biogeographic studies have consistently described ...

Programmed cell death (pcd) is activated during the hypersensitive response (HR) of plants to avirulent pathogens. We have recently shown that, similar to pcd in animal cells, nuclei of cells undergoing HR cell death contain fragmented nuclear DNA (nDNA). Here, we report that cell death occurring during the HR is accompanied by an increase in the activity of several deoxyribonucleases. Inductio...

With the introduction of the ammonium sulphate precipitation (Farr) technique, a sensitive procedure for the detection of antibodies to either native deoxyribonucleic acid (nDNA) or heat-denatured singlestranded deoxyribonucleic acid (sDNA) has become available (Wold, Young, Tan, and Farr, 1968). Furthermore, quantitation of the amount of antibody present in the test serum can be expressed with...