A "Hole Punched Plate" method for easy generation and harvesting of microconidia in the dermatophyte .

Handling of the medically important dermatophyte in the laboratory typically requires the generation of spores - for storage, treatment and plating when needed. The described method allows technically simple but efficient generation and harvesting of microconidia by cutting holes in Sabouraud dextrose agar medium that is covered by a mature mycelium.

Peaks and tails: Evaluation of irregularities in capillary serum protein electrophoresis.

The increased analytical sensitivity of capillary electrophoresis detects additional irregularities that are suspicious for a monoclonal component. This is most noticeable in the beta-1-, beta-2- and gamma-globulin fractions. The causes of non-monoclonal irregularities are manifold, but are rarely reported back to the ordering physician.

Replicating damaged DNA in eukaryotes.

DNA damage is one of many possible perturbations that challenge the mechanisms that preserve genetic stability during the copying of the eukaryotic genome in S phase. This short review provides, in the first part, a general introduction to the topic and an overview of checkpoint responses. In the second part, the mechanisms of error-free tolerance in response to fork-arresting DNA damage will be discussed in some detail.

Rad5 template switch pathway of DNA damage tolerance determines synergism between cisplatin and NSC109268 in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

The success of cisplatin (CP) based therapy is often hindered by acquisition of CP resistance. We isolated NSC109268 as a compound altering cellular sensitivity to DNA damaging agents. Previous investigation revealed an enhancement of CP sensitivity by NSC109268 in wild-type Saccharomyces cerevisiae and CP-sensitive and -resistant cancer cell lines that correlated with a slower S phase traversal.

Role of polymerase η in mitochondrial mutagenesis of Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

DNA polymerase η mostly catalyzes an error-free bypass of the most frequent UV lesions, pyrimidine dimers of the cyclobutane-type. In addition to its nuclear localization, we show here for the first time its mitochondrial localization in budding yeast. In mitochondria, this polymerase improves bypass replication fidelity opposite UV damage as shown in base pair substitution and frameshift assays.