The NMDA receptor plays an important role in mediating sensory input to the spinal cord. Domains within the C-terminus of the NMDA receptor bind to cytoskeletal proteins and facilitate membrane targeting and synaptic clustering, and may participate in regulation of receptor function. One strategy to manipulate NMDA receptor function is to express C-terminal constructs in neurons to disrupt syna...

AMPD1 is an adenosine monophosphate deaminase that catalyzes the deamination of AMP to IMP. To understand the physiological function of AMPD1, we obtained a strain of Ampd1 mutant mice from KOMP repository, which was generated by a knockout-first strategy. An elevated AMP level and almost complete lack of IMP was detected in the skeletal muscle of E18.5 Ampd1tm1a/tm1a mice. However, Ampd1tm1a/t...

The unintended consequences of gene targeting in mouse models have not been thoroughly studied and a more systematic analysis is needed to understand the frequency and characteristics of off-target effects. Using RNA-seq, we evaluated targeted and neighboring gene expression in tissues from 44 homozygous mutants compared with C57BL/6N control mice. Two allele types were evaluated: 15 targeted t...

Integrons are natural expression vectors in which gene cassettes are integrated downstream of a promoter region by a site-specific recombinase. Gene cassettes usually consist of a single gene followed by a recombination site designated attC. A major unanswered question is how a gene becomes associated with an attC site. Here, we investigate the potential role of a specific lineage of group IIC ...

Drug resistance remains an obstacle hindering the success of chemotherapy. Cancer stem cells (CSCs) have been recently found to confer resistance to chemotherapy. Therefore functional markers of CSCs should be discovered and specific therapies targeting these cells should be developed. In our investigation, a small population of B16F10 cells which was positive for ATP-binding cassette sub-famil...

conclusions it is concluded that cryptosporidium spp. should be considered in immunocompromised diarrheal patients and elisa must be chosen for detection of this parasite. modified acid fast staining and cassette kit techniques could be performed if elisa is not available. the single use of the cassette kit will be inadequate for the diagnosis of cryptosporidiosis. background cryptosporidiosis ...