The small size and simplicity of the chicken MHC allows co-evolution of genes as haplotypes over considerable periods of time, and makes it possible to study the striking MHC-determined pathogen-specific disease resistance at the molecular level.
The reliability of conventional methods for RNA quality assessment including UV spectroscopy and 28S:18S area ratios are evaluated, and their inconsistency is demonstrated, and two new freely available classifiers are used, the Degradometer and RIN systems, to produce user-independent RNA quality metrics, based on analysis of microcapillary electrophoresis traces.
The gene map unifies the existing genetic and physical maps with the nucleotide and protein sequence databases in a fashion that should speed the discovery of genes underlying inherited human disease.
An effort to share resources such that the maximum amount of gene-related data is obtained with the last redundancy is described, to have the data derived from the use of common reagents placed in public databases, and to create master arrays containing a representative cDNA clone from each gene.
A map of 30,181 human gene-based markers was assembled and integrated with the current genetic map by radiation hybrid mapping, which contains nearly twice as many genes as the previous release and is twofold to threefold more accurate than the previous version.
The whole genome radiation hybrid panel developed by fusing irradiated diploid human fibroblasts with recipient hamster cells has been used as the starting material for the Genebridge4 panel, being made widely available for genome mapping projects.
It is demonstrated that rosette formation between LAG-3-transfected COS-7 cells and human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class II-bearing B lymphocytes is specifically dependent on L AG-3/HLA class II interaction.
A procedure is described for the large-scale purification of light (L) and heavy (H) chain mRNAs from plasmacytomas produced in mice by oligo(dT)-cellulose chromatography and either sucrose gradient centrifugation in conditions preventing aggregation or by means of high-resolution preparative gel electrophoresis under non-denaturing conditions.
Cloned in a cosmid vector four DNA clusters covering 320 kb of the chicken MHC (B complex), including five class II (B‐L) beta genes defining two related isotypic families, shows that the B complex does not contain well defined class I and class II regions.
Evaluation of the level of transcription of these different genes showed that genes from the B‐LBII family are predominantly transcribed over those of the other families, and phylogenetic analyses indicate that these families are not homologous to their mammalian counterparts.