Melting curve prediction of PCR products is limited to perfectly complementary strands. Multiple domains are calculated by recursive nearest neighbor thermodynamics. However, the melting curve of an amplicon containing a heterozygous single-nucleotide variant (SNV) after PCR is the composite of four duplexes: two matched homoduplexes and two mismatched heteroduplexes. To better predict the shap...

Genes of the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) play a critical role in immune recognition, and many alleles confer susceptibility to infectious and autoimmune diseases. How these deleterious alleles persist in populations is controversial. One hypothesis postulates that MHC heterozygote superiority emerges over multiple infections because MHC-mediated resistance is generally dominant and m...

Address for Correspondence:Kiyoshi Hayasaka, Department of Pediatrics, Yamagata University School of Medicine, 2-2-2 Iida-Nishi, Yamagata 990-9585, Japan We present two patients with idiopathic nephrotic syndrome who showed temporary indirect hyperbilirubinemia during the course of treatment with immunosuppressant drugs and/or steroids. We analyzed the gene of the bilirubin uridine-diphosphate ...

Glutamate receptors may play a critical role in the refinement of developing synapses. The lateral superior olivary nucleus (LSO)-medial nucleus of trapezoid body (MNTB) synaptic transmission in the mammalian auditory brain stem mediate many excitatory transmitters such as glutamate, which is a useful model to study excitatory synaptic development. Hearing deficits are often accompanied by chan...

Hairpin-tail (T(hp)) is a new allele of brachyury on chromosome 17 (linkage group IX) of the mouse. The morphological effects in the heterozygote are on the notochord and the tail. The homozygous abnormal is unknown. T(hp) is unique in that the phenotype of the heterozygote seems to depend on the source of the T(hp) gene. If it is inherited via the egg the phenotype is extreme and death follows...