Gene deletion is an important element in the functional characterization of gene and protein function. Efficient tools for gene deletion have been developed in the model yeasts Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Schizosaccharomyces pombe, all of which rely on the replacement of the endogenous gene of interest with a selectable marker gene by homologous recombination. In order to minimize incidental recombination events between DNA sequences within the marker gene and a chromosomal sequence, gene deletion cassettes consisting entirely of heterologous DNA sequences are preferred.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGene inactivation is an essential step in the molecular dissection of gene function. In the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, many tools for gene disruption are available. Gene disruption cassettes comprising completely heterologous marker genes flanked by short DNA segments homologous to the regions to the left and right of the gene to be deleted mediate highly efficient one-step gene disruption events.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMissense mutations of the DNA mismatch repair gene MLH1 are found in a significant fraction of patients with Lynch syndrome (hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer, HNPCC) and their pathogenicity often remains unclear. We report here all 88 MLH1 missense variants identified in families from the German HNPCC consortium with clinical details of these patients/families. We investigated 23 MLH1 missense variants by two functional in vivo assays in yeast; seven map to the ATPase and 16 to the protein interaction domain.
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