Formaldehyde-based whole-mount in situ hybridization method for planarians.

Whole-mount in situ hybridization (WISH) is a powerful tool for visualizing gene expression patterns in specific cell and tissue types. Each model organism presents its own unique set of challenges for achieving robust and reproducible staining with cellular resolution. Here, we describe a formaldehyde-based WISH method for the freshwater planarian Schmidtea mediterranea developed by systematically comparing and optimizing techniques for fixation, permeabilization, hybridization, and postprocessing.

Soil acidification and foliar nutrient status of Ontario's deciduous forest in 1986 and 2005.

To assess the impacts of the decline in sulphur (S) deposition over the past 20 years in Ontario, soil chemistry and sugar maple (Acer saccharum Marsh) foliar chemistry were measured at 17 sites in south and central Ontario in 2005 and compared with archived samples collected in 1986. Foliar S concentrations were lower in 2005, reflecting the decline in S deposition whereas foliar N remained unchanged, reflecting the lack of change in N deposition in Ontario. Mineral soil pH, exchangeable base cations were lower in 2005 whereas total S, N and cation exchange capacity (CEC) were unchanged.

Molecular characterization of FRAXB and comparative common fragile site instability in cancer cells.

The common fragile site, FRA3B, has been shown to be a site of frequent homozygous deletions in some cancers, resulting in loss of expression of the associated FHIT gene. It has been proposed that FHIT is a tumor suppressor gene that is inactivated as a result of the instability of FRA3B in tumorigenesis. More recently, deletions at other common fragile sites, FRA7G and FRA16D, have been identified in a small number of cancer cell lines.