Trace DNA Sampling Success from Evidence Items Commonly Encountered in Forensic Casework.

Trace DNA analysis is a significant part of a forensic laboratory's workload. Knowing optimal sampling strategies and item success rates for particular item types can assist in evidence selection and examination processes and shorten turnaround times. In this study, forensic short tandem repeat (STR) casework results were reviewed to determine how often STR profiles suitable for comparison were obtained from "handler" and "wearer" areas of 764 items commonly submitted for examination.

Evidence for a role of MCM (mini-chromosome maintenance)5 in transcriptional repression of sub-telomeric and Ty-proximal genes in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

The MCM (mini-chromosome maintenance) genes have a well established role in the initiation of DNA replication and in the elongation of replication forks in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. In this study we demonstrate elevated expression of sub-telomeric and Ty retrotransposon-proximal genes in two mcm5 strains. This pattern of up-regulated genes resembles the genome-wide association of MCM proteins to chromatin that was reported earlier.

The role of the carboxyterminal domain of RNA polymerase II in regulating origins of DNA replication in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

MCM (minichromosome maintenance) proteins function as a replication licensing factor (RLF-M), which contributes to limiting initiation of DNA replication to once per cell cycle. In the present study we show that a truncation of the pol II CTD in a S. cerevisiae strain harboring a mutation in mcm5 partially reverses its ts phenotype and improves maintenance of CEN/ARS minichromosomes.

Identification of an acetoacetyl coenzyme A synthetase-dependent pathway for utilization of L-(+)-3-hydroxybutyrate in Sinorhizobium meliloti.

D-(-)-3-Hydroxybutyrate (DHB), the immediate depolymerization product of the intracellular carbon store poly-3-hydroxybutyrate (PHB), is oxidized by the enzyme 3-hydroxybutyrate dehydrogenase to acetoacetate (AA) in the PHB degradation pathway. Externally supplied DHB can serve as a sole source of carbon and energy to support the growth of Sinorhizobium meliloti. In contrast, wild-type S.