Current Genomics - Volume 7, Issue 3, 2006

The pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel disease is only partially understood; various environmental and host (e.g. genetic-, epithelial-, immune and non-immune) factors are involved. It is a multifactorial polygenic disease with probable genetic heterogeneity. Much of the recent emphasis in inflammatory bowel disease genetics research has been directed at the evaluation of candidate disease susceptibility genes within infla Read More

With operon predictions based on conservation of gene order and 330 Prokaryotic genomes available, I am able to show that in most of the genomes analyzed about 70% of the genes in operons are separated by distances of -20 to 30 base pairs. Most of the differences in this tendency might be related to the appearance of signals inside the operons. However, a closer look at the extreme exceptions confirms that annot Read More

In Gram-negative pathogens, β-lactamase production remains the most important contributing factor to β- lactam resistance. β-lactamases are bacterial enzymes that inactivate β-lactam antibiotics by hydrolysis, which results in ineffective compounds. The three major groups usually referred to as the "newer β-lactamases" are plasmid-mediated AmpC enzymes, extended-spectrum β-lactamases (ESBLs) and carbapen Read More

Gene therapy has advanced rapidly over the last few decades due to the development of viral and plasmid vectors for gene delivery and strategies for the direct alteration of DNA/RNA species. Gene replacement using modified viral vectors and plasmids has yielded the greatest levels of therapeutic protein expression in muscle to date, however there are issues with immune mediated response to transgene and viral prot Read More

Hypodontia, the congenital agenesis of one or few permanent teeth is among the most common alterations in human dentition. Pax9 and Msx1 genes have critical roles in craniofacial development. Mutations in these genes cause severe tooth agenesis in humans and mice. The aim of the present work was to study the association of the CA repeat in the first intron of MSX1 gene and the C-160T polymorphism in the promot Read More

DNA microarray analysis has emerged as a leading technology to enhance our understanding of gene regulation and function in cellular mechanism controls on a genomic scale. This technology has advanced to unravel the genetic machinery of biological rhythms by collecting massive gene expression data during a time course. In this article, we have proposed a two-step procedure for clustering periodic patte Read More