| 1. |
- Hillier, Ladeana W, et al.
(författare)
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Sequence and comparative analysis of the chicken genome provide unique perspectives on vertebrate evolution
- 2004
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Ingår i: Nature. - 0028-0836 .- 1476-4687. ; 432:7018, s. 695-716
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We present here a draft genome sequence of the red jungle fowl, Gallus gallus. Because the chicken is a modern descendant of the dinosaurs and the first non-mammalian amniote to have its genome sequenced, the draft sequence of its genome--composed of approximately one billion base pairs of sequence and an estimated 20,000-23,000 genes--provides a new perspective on vertebrate genome evolution, while also improving the annotation of mammalian genomes. For example, the evolutionary distance between chicken and human provides high specificity in detecting functional elements, both non-coding and coding. Notably, many conserved non-coding sequences are far from genes and cannot be assigned to defined functional classes. In coding regions the evolutionary dynamics of protein domains and orthologous groups illustrate processes that distinguish the lineages leading to birds and mammals. The distinctive properties of avian microchromosomes, together with the inferred patterns of conserved synteny, provide additional insights into vertebrate chromosome architecture.
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| 2. |
- Morabito, R, et al.
(författare)
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Towards a new Certified Reference Material for butyltins, methylmercury and arsenobetaine in oyster tissue
- 2004
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Ingår i: TRAC-TRENDS IN ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY. - : Elsevier BV. - 0165-9936. ; 23:9, s. 664-76
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Increasing awareness of the determination of chemical species in the environment evolves jointly with the need to control the validity of analytical measurements in a wide variety of matrices. There are few Certified Reference Materials (CRMs) available for various chemical species, and they are certified for species of one single element (e.g., species of tin and mercury). Three years of collaboration within the framework of European Commission research programmes involving more than 20 laboratories have made it possible to produce an oyster reference material for species of tin, mercury and arsenic (BCR-710) and to perform the necessary experimental work for its certification. This article summarises the feasibility study and describes the various steps in the preparation, production and characterisation of this material for its content of arsenobetaine, methylmercury, tributyltin and dibutyltin. These steps included stability and homogeneity testing as well as value assignment based on a collaborative approach involving a group of European laboratories. Further work is going on to certify total contents for a range of trace metals.
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| 3. |
- Williams, P., et al.
(författare)
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Quorum sensing and the population-dependent control of virulence
- 2000
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Ingår i: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Biological Sciences. - : The Royal Society. - 0962-8436 .- 1471-2970. ; 355:1397, s. 667-680
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- One crucial feature of almost all bacterial infections is the need for the invading pathogen to reach a critical cell population density sufficient to overcome host defences and establish the infection. Controlling the expression of virulence determinants in concert with cell population density may therefore confer a significant survival advantage on the pathogen such that the host is overwhelmed before a defence response can be fully initiated. Many different bacterial pathogens are now known to regulate diverse physiological processes including virulence in a cell-density-dependent manner through cell-cell communication. This phenomenon, which relies on the interaction of a diffusible signal molecule (e.g. an N-acylhomoserine lactone) with a sensor or transcriptional activator to couple gene expression with cell population density, has become known as 'quorum sensing'. Although the size of the 'quorum' is likely to be highly variable and influenced by the diffusibility of the signal molecule within infected tissues, nevertheless quorum-sensing signal molecules can be detected in vivo in both experimental animal model and human infections. Furthermore, certain quorum-sensing molecules have been shown to possess pharmacological and immunomodulatory activity such that they may function as virulence determinants per se. As a consequence, quorum sensing constitutes a novel therapeutic target for the design of small molecular antagonists capable of attenuating virulence through the blockade of bacterial cell-cell communication.
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