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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences
An Evolutionary Expressed Sequence Tag Analysis Of Drosophila Spermatheca Genes, Adrianne Prokupek, Federico G. Hoffmann, Seong-Il Eyun, Etsuko N. Moriyama, Min Zhou, Lawrence G. Harshman
An Evolutionary Expressed Sequence Tag Analysis Of Drosophila Spermatheca Genes, Adrianne Prokupek, Federico G. Hoffmann, Seong-Il Eyun, Etsuko N. Moriyama, Min Zhou, Lawrence G. Harshman
Papers in Genetics
This study investigates genes enriched for expression in the spermatheca, the long-term sperm storage organ (SSO) of female Drosophila. SSO genes are likely to play an important role in processes of sexual selection such as sperm competition and cryptic female choice. Although there is keen interest in the mechanisms of sexual selection at the molecular level, very little is known about the female genes that are involved. In the present study, a high proportion of genes enriched for expression in the spermatheca are evolving rapidly. Most of the rapidly evolving genes are proteases and genes of unknown function that …
Codon Usage In Twelve Species Of Drosophila, Saverio Vicario, Etsuko N. Moriyama, Jeffrey R. Powell
Codon Usage In Twelve Species Of Drosophila, Saverio Vicario, Etsuko N. Moriyama, Jeffrey R. Powell
Papers in Genetics
Background: Codon usage bias (CUB), the uneven use of synonymous codons, is a ubiquitous observation in virtually all organisms examined. The pattern of codon usage is generally similar among closely related species, but differs significantly among distantly related organisms, e.g., bacteria, yeast, and Drosophila. Several explanations for CUB have been offered and some have been supported by observations and experiments, although a thorough understanding of the evolutionary forces (random drift, mutation bias, and selection) and their relative importance remains to be determined. The recently available complete genome DNA sequences of twelve phylogenetically defined species of Drosophila offer a hitherto …
Purification, Crystallization And Preliminary Crystallographic Analysis Of Deoxyuridine Triphosphate Nucleotidohydrolase From Arabidopsis Thaliana, Mamta Bajaj, Hideaki Moriyama
Purification, Crystallization And Preliminary Crystallographic Analysis Of Deoxyuridine Triphosphate Nucleotidohydrolase From Arabidopsis Thaliana, Mamta Bajaj, Hideaki Moriyama
Papers in Genetics
The deoxyuridine triphosphate nucleotidohydrolase gene from Arabidopsis thaliana was expressed and the gene product was purified. Crystallization was performed by the hanging-drop vapour-diffusion method at 298 K using 2 M ammonium sulfate as the precipitant. X-ray diffraction data were collected to 2.2 Å resolution using Cu Kα radiation. The crystal belongs to the orthorhombic space group P212121, with unit-cell parameters a = 69.90, b = 70.86 Å, c = 75.55 Å. Assuming the presence of a trimer in the asymmetric unit, the solvent content was 30%, with a VM of 1.8 Å …
Conflict Between Translation Initiation And Elongation In Vertebrate Mitochondrial Genomes, Xuhua Xia, Huang Huang, Malisa Carullo, Esther Betran, Estuko N. Moriyama
Conflict Between Translation Initiation And Elongation In Vertebrate Mitochondrial Genomes, Xuhua Xia, Huang Huang, Malisa Carullo, Esther Betran, Estuko N. Moriyama
Papers in Genetics
The strand-biased mutation spectrum in vertebrate mitochondrial genomes results in an AC-rich L-strand and a GT-rich H-strand. Because the L-strand is the sense strand of 12 protein-coding genes out of the 13, the third codon position is overall strongly AC-biased. The wobble site of the anticodon of the 22 mitochondrial tRNAs is either U or G to pair with the most abundant synonymous codon, with only one exception. The wobble site of Met-tRNA is C instead of U, forming the Watson- Crick match with AUG instead of AUA, the latter being much more frequent than the former. This has been …
Environmental Stress And Reproduction In Drosophila Melanogaster: Starvation Resistance, Ovariole Numbers And Early Age Egg Production, Marta L. Wayne, Usha Soundararajan, Lawrence G. Harshman
Environmental Stress And Reproduction In Drosophila Melanogaster: Starvation Resistance, Ovariole Numbers And Early Age Egg Production, Marta L. Wayne, Usha Soundararajan, Lawrence G. Harshman
Papers in Genetics
Background: The Y model of resource allocation predicts a tradeoff between reproduction and survival. Environmental stress could affect a tradeoff between reproduction and survival, but the physiological mechanisms underlying environmental mediation of the tradeoff are largely unknown. One example is the tradeoff between starvation resistance and early fecundity. One goal of the present study was to determine if reduced early age fecundity was indeed a robust indirect response to selection for starvation resistance, by investigation of a set of D. melanogaster starvation selected lines which had not previously been characterized for age specific egg production. Another goal of the present …
Community Analysis Of A Mercury Hot Spring Supports Occurrence Of Domain-Specific Forms Of Mercuric Reductase, Jessica Simbahan, Elizabeth Kurth, James Schelert, Amanda Dillman, Estuko N. Moriyama, Stevan Jovanovich, Paul H. Blum
Community Analysis Of A Mercury Hot Spring Supports Occurrence Of Domain-Specific Forms Of Mercuric Reductase, Jessica Simbahan, Elizabeth Kurth, James Schelert, Amanda Dillman, Estuko N. Moriyama, Stevan Jovanovich, Paul H. Blum
Papers in Genetics
Mercury is a redox-active heavy metal that reacts with active thiols and depletes cellular antioxidants. Active resistance to the mercuric ion is a widely distributed trait among bacteria and results from the action of mercuric reductase (MerA). Protein phylogenetic analysis of MerA in bacteria indicated the occurrence of a second distinctive form of MerA among the archaea, which lacked an N-terminal metal recruitment domain and a C-terminal active tyrosine. To assess the distribution of the forms of MerA in an interacting community comprising members of both prokaryotic domains, studies were conducted at a naturally occurring mercuryrich geothermal environment. Geochemical analyses …
Codon Usage, Estuko N. Moriyama
Codon Usage, Estuko N. Moriyama
Papers in Genetics
The genetic codes have degeneracy; that is, most amino acids (18 out of 20 in the universal genetic code) are encoded by more than one codon. Codons encoding the same amino acid are called synonymous codons. Both in prokaryotic and eukaryotic genes, the synonymous codons are not used with equal frequencies.