OBJECTIVES We recently reported the preferential selection of the K65R resistance mutation in subtype C HIV-1 compared with subtype B and showed the underlying mechanism to be dependent on subtype C-specific silent nucleotide polymorphisms, i.e. genomic mutations that change the genotype but not the phenotype. The number of clinical reports demonstrating elevated numbers of K65R nevertheless su...

PURPOSE Analyses of the pattern of p53 mutations have been essential for epidemiologic studies linking carcinogen exposure and cancer. We were concerned by the inclusion of dubious reports in the p53 databases that could lead to controversial analysis prejudicial to the scientific community. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN We used the universal mutation database p53 database (21,717 mutations) combined w...

Synonymous mutations, which do not alter the encoded amino acid, have been routinely assumed to be 'neutral' and would have no effect on phenotype or fitness. Yet increasing observations have emerged to overturn this conventional concept. However, convicted elucidation of how synonymous mutations exert biological consequences in oncogenesis is still lacking. By performing systematic analysis of...

Four carbapenem-resistant Pseudomonas spp. were isolated from patients in Singapore. One Pseudomonas putida isolate contained a bla(IMP-1) identical to that first described in Japan. The sequence of a variant bla(IMP-1) in Pseudomonas fluorescens contained four silent mutations compared with the original sequence. The remaining P. putida isolates contained bla(VIM-6), a novel VIM gene variant.

A high frequency of activating BRAF somatic mutations have been identified recently in malignant melanoma and nevi indicating that BRAF activation could be an early and critical step in the initiation of melanocytic neoplasia. To determine whether BRAF mutations could be an earlier event occurring at the germline level, we screened the entire BRAF coding region for germline mutations in 80 inde...

PURPOSE To report mutations in the OPA1 gene in Japanese patients with bilateral optic atrophy unassociated with mitochondrial DNA mutations at nt 11778, 3460, and 14484. METHODS Twelve unrelated patients with bilateral optic atrophy and 100 healthy controls were examined. Each exon of the OPA1 gene was amplified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). All PCR products were sequenced. RESULTS O...

The population of influenza virus consists of a huge variety of variants, called quasispecies, due to error-prone replication. Previously, we reported that progeny virions of influenza virus become infected to adjacent cells via cell-to-cell transmission pathway in the presence of oseltamivir. During cell-to-cell transmission, viruses become infected to adjacent cells at high multiplicity since...

BACKGROUND We have investigated the role that the mutation rate and the structure of genetic variation at a locus play in determining whether a gene is involved in disease. We predict that the mutation rate and its genetic diversity should be higher in genes associated with disease, unless all genes that could cause disease have already been identified. RESULTS Consistent with our predictions...

Thirty-four pyrazinamide-resistant and 37 pyrazinamide-susceptible Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex strains were analyzed for pncA gene mutations. None of the sensitive strains had any mutations, apart from silent mutations, whereas all but one resistant strain showed pncA mutations. By using sequencing as a means of early resistance detection, the inconsistency of phenotypic pyrazinamide ass...