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E Dore

Publications and source records attributed to E Dore.

34 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

Re-examination of earlier work on repetitive DNA and mosquito infectivity in rodent malaria.

Previous results, relating mosquito infectivity to percentage of repetitive DNA in the genome of Plasmodia, are re-examined in the light of the finding that a parasite line used in the previous studies and classified as Plasmodium berghei NK65, was a mixed infection, where the major component appeared to be Plasmodium yoelii. This conclusion was reached through cloning and isoenzyme typing of different clones. Isoenzyme typing alone is not sufficiently sensitive to reveal contamination amounting to less than 20% in a mixture. Attention is drawn to the risk inherent in work with uncloned lines, where the proportions of species or sub-species present may vary according to line history and gametocyte viability.

Animals↗

Further studies and electron microscopic characterization of Plasmodium berghei DNA.

The average length and the interspersion pattern of repetitive DNA sequences in the Plasmodium berghei genome have been studied by electron microscopy. Within the limitations posed by the relatively high genome complexity, analysis of partially renatured total DNA indicates that repetitive sequences do not occupy preferential positions along the genome, but are widely dispersed (one in approx. 8000 base pairs of unique DNA). Structures appearing as loops flanked by inverted repeats are present. Analysis of the repetitive fraction purified by hydroxyapatite chromatography shows that the average length of rapidly reassociating repetitive structures is around 800 base pairs with 90% of the length distribution between 400 and 1400 base pairs. Suitable extraction methods, preserving circularity of extrachromosomal DNA components, allow the detection of molecules which can be identified as mitochondrial DNA, 10.5 +/- 0.4 microns long.

Animals↗

Mosquito infectivity is directly related to the proportion of repetitive DNA in Plasmodium berghei.

A strain of Plasmodium berghei (NK 65) was followed during syringe transmission in mice for over 120 passages after the last complete cycle, while the following parameters were monitored: (a) capacity to infect mosquitoes, inducing oocyst formation; (b) presence in the peripheral blood of morphologically identifiable gametocytes; (c) presence of a repetitive component in the DNA extracted from intraerythrocytic population. The suggestion of a possible role of this component in gametogenesis came from an earlier work (Dore, E., Birago, C., Frontali, C. and Battaglia, P.A. (1980) Mol. Biochem. Parasitol. 1, 199-208). Present results confirm the correlation between proportion of repetitive DNA and infectivity towards mosquitoes with a correlation coefficient r = 0.92-0.07+0.04. A parallel decrease of the two quantities is observed in the course of syringe transmission. A limited number of cloned lines, derived from strain NK 65 at different times during syringe transmission, shared the infectivity properties of the parent strain at the moment of cloning, thus confirming that in the infective stage single asexual parasites from the schizogonic cycle are able to originate the whole cycle. The above arguments and results suggest that differentiation into active gametocytes involves amplification of a portion of the genome.

Aedes↗

The alkaline denaturation of DNA.

A kinetic study of the alkaline transition of DNA, in clearly defined physico-chemical conditions, is presented, which allows us to identify, within the alkaline transition region, different pH ranges, corresponding to different ratelimiting factors. This analysis brings into consideration three distinct intervals of time which characterize the whole process, namely the time necessary for full hyperchromicity to be reached, the time required for strand separation in the case of a single DNA molecule, and the time for complete denaturation to be reached in the case of a DNA solution.THE RESULTS OBTAINED FROM ULTRACENTRIFUGAL, AND SPECTROPHOTOMETRIC MEASUREMENTS, INVOLVING RAPID MIXING EXPERIMENTS, SEEM TO INDICATE THE FOLLOWING CONCLUSIONS: whereas, in the lower pH ranges considered within the transition region, the denaturation process is limited by the first time constant, this same constant becomes extremely short at higher pH. On the other hand the fact that, in the higher pH range, the second and third time constants do not coincide (the time to unwind a single T2 DNA molecule being at least one order of magnitude shorter than the time required for bulk denaturation to be reached) suggests that in this pH range the overall denaturation rate is limited by a statistical process governing the initiation of unwinding.These observations are discussed in terms of a model in which the unwinding energy is given by the electrostatic repulsions which originate in the deprotonated DNA molecule. The model itself suggests some experiment which seem to confirm it.

Bacillus megaterium↗