Uracil may occur in DNA due to either cytosine deamination or thymine replacing incorporation. Its quantitative characterization is important in assessing DNA damages in cells with perturbed thymidylate metabolism or within different DNA segments involved in immunoglobulin gene diversification. The archaeal DNA polymerase from Pyrococcus furiosus binds strongly to the deaminated base uracil and...

One of the major problems in strawberry production is difficulty in diagnosis of anthracnose caused by Colletotrichum acutatum or Glomerella cingulata in latent infection stage. We here developed a diagnostic tool for the latent infection consisting of initial culturing of fungi, DNA extraction, synthesis of PCR-amplified probes and microtube hybridization (MTH) using a macroarray. The initial ...

BACKGROUND Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is a frequent autosomal recessive disorder, characterized by lower motor neuron loss in the spinal cord. More than 95% of SMA patients show homozygous survival motor neuron 1 (SMN1) deletion. We previously developed a screening system for SMN1 deletion based on a modified competitive oligonucleotide priming-PCR (mCOP-PCR) technique. However, non-specific...

To find a specific method for HLA-B27 typing for the diagnosis of rheumatic disorders, we extensively tested the single-step B27-specific polymerase chain reaction (PCR) described by Dominguez et al. (Immunogenetics 1992;36:277-82). This method, which relies on specific primer recognition of a sequence in the third exon (unique to the B27-allele), was used for screening of 270 characterized blo...

Bifidobacteria are well known for their beneficial effects on health and are used as probiotics in food and pharmaceutical products. As they form one of the most important groups in both human and animal feces, their use as fecal indicator organisms in raw milk products has recently been proposed. Bifidobacteria species isolated in humans are different from those isolated in animals. It should ...

We present a method that allows simultaneous fusion and cloning of multiple PCR products in a rapid and efficient manner. The procedure is based on the use of PCR primers that contain a single deoxyuridine residue near their 5' end. Treatment of the PCR products with a commercial deoxyuridine-excision reagent generates long 3' overhangs designed to specifically complement each other. The combin...

Canine parvovirus 2 (CPV-2) is the causative agent of acute hemorrhagic enteritis and myocarditis in dogs. A nested polymerase chain reaction (n-PCR) was developed using published pCPV-2ab as external primer set and self designed and custom synthesized pCPV-2N as internal primer set for the detection of canine parvovirus in faecal samples of dogs. Out of 52 faecal samples, 27 and 31 were tested...

we describe a rapid, simple, and reliable procedure for routine isolation of mycobacterium leprae dna from slit-skin swab specimens. this one-step dna extraction method is based on the utilization of chelexr 100, a chelating ion exchange resin. slit-skin swab specimens from seven untreated leprosy patients at baba baghi leprosy hospital in iran were processed by this procedure. the polymerase c...