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M Merchez

Publications and source records attributed to M Merchez.

9 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1996

Herniation through the foramen of Winslow. Report of two cases.

PURPOSE: Two clinical cases of internal herniation through the foramen of Winslow are presented. The first case concerns herniation of the cecum and ascending colon. In the second patient, the ileum was herniated through the foramen epiploicum. METHODS: Preoperative assessment of clinical and radiologic findings suggested diagnosis. RESULTS: Final diagnosis was only made at laparotomy. Reduction of hernia could be performed by pulse traction, and no signs of intestinal necrosis were seen. CONCLUSION: Herniation through the foramen of Winslow should be taken into account when making a differential diagnosis for upper gastrointestinal tract obstruction.

Adult↗
PubMed1984

Vectors with restriction-site banks. I. pJRD158, a 3903-bp plasmid containing 28 unique cloning sites.

A DNA fragment has been constructed that contains many unique cloning sites not present in currently used Escherichia coli plasmid cloning vehicles. Insertion of this fragment into a modified version of pBR322 results in an AmpRTetR vector (pJRD158) of 3903 bp containing 28 unique cloning sites, four "almost unique" cloning sites, and eight unassigned unique 6-bp palindromes. The plasmid has the additional advantages of very high copy number and altered incompatibility. The latter permits it to be stably maintained in the same host as pBR322.

Base Sequence↗
PubMed1983

Gene rearrangements leading to the expression of an insertion-inactivated tetracycline resistance gene in pBR322.

Cloning into the HindIII site of plasmid pBR322 inactivates the tetR promoter and usually prevents the expression of the tetR gene. The corresponding clones revert to tetracycline resistance at a low frequency. Such reversion is caused by gene rearrangement within the plasmids. DNA sequence analysis reveals three classes of revertants. The first class contains plasmids with partial duplications, which result in the fusion of the promoter of the RNA I species to the tetR gene. The event itself destroys the region encoding the RNA primer for replication and thus the plasmids would be replication defective if the duplication did not also include this region of the molecule. The plasmids from the second class are simple deletions which again fuse the tetR region to the RNA I promoter. In one case, the junction takes place at the end of the RNA I transcript, leaving RNA I and the RNA primer virtually intact. However, it removes the promoter of the RNA primer, the latter now being read from the cloned material. The second member of this class has fused the tetR gene well upstream of the RNA I region so that the RNA primer is still read from its own promoter. The low-level tetracycline resistance is probably due to partial read-through of the RNA I terminator. The third class of revertants differs from the previous two by the acquisition of foreign DNA in the form of an IS2-type insertion element which is known to promote transcription.

Base Sequence↗
PubMed1982

Cloning and characterization of a genomic DNA fragment carrying the basic copy of the gene coding for variant surface antigen 118 of Trypanosoma brucei.

It has been proposed (Hoeijmakers et al., 1980b) that variant surface antigen (VSA) gene expression in Trypanosoma brucei is accomplished by a gene re-arrangement involving the basic copy of the VSA gene to give the so-called expression-linked copy (which is present only in the strain expressing that particular antigen). In this publication, the basic and expression-linked copies of the gene have been visualized by Southern blot analysis of nuclear DNA and shown to be located on HindIII fragments of 4.5 and 10-12 kb, respectively. In addition, several other bands of weaker hybridization are seen, probably representing evolutionary relatives. Using a shotgun approach, HindIII gene banks have been constructed and recombinants isolated which carry the 4.5-kb HindIII fragment containing the VSA118 gene basic copy. Several clones containing evolutionary relatives were also found. The 4.5-kb HindIII fragment is able to hybridize to probes derived from both the 5' and 3' ends of the cDNA, while the relatives have homology only to the 3' end. A detailed comparison of the restriction map of VSA118 cDNA with that of the VSA118 basic copy showed no differences, demonstrating that the gene contains no introns. This result also indicates that the gene from which VSA118 mRNA is transcribed (whether this be the basic copy or the expression-linked copy) is identical to the basic copy over the region analysed.

Animals↗
PubMed1981

Cloning of bacteriophage T5 DNA fragments. II. Isolation of recombinants carrying T5 PstI fragments.

The adjacent PstI-J, I and G fragments of the phage T5 DNA molecule (4.4, 4.6 and 7.2 kb, respectively) have been cloned in plasmid pBR322 and their locations verified by Southern blot analysis. The PstI I and G fragments overlap the previously cloned HindIII-P and G fragments and like those, contain no known genetic markers. In addition, one of the 12 newly isolated T5 mutants maps in this PstI-IG region. Thus, the size of the "empty" region between genes D15 and D17, which we have previously observed on the genetic map, extends to at least 11.8 kb. In contrast, the PstI-J fragment carried part of the D12 gene and the intact D14 and D15 genes. This clone is of particular interest since the D15 gene product is a nuclease and is responsible for the positive control of late gene transcription. The orientation of these genes relative to the T5 DNA molecule has been determined by a combination of restriction, deletion and complementation analyses.

Chromosome Mapping↗
PubMed1980

Cloning and expression of Trypanosoma brucei kinetoplast DNA in Escherichia coli.

The kinetoplast DNA of Trypanosoma brucei is made of two components: mini-circles (1 kb, 90% of total kDNA) and maxi-circles (20 kb, 10%) of total kDNA). These are interlocked to form a network of about 10 000 kb. In order to analyse the components of such a network structure, we have cloned individual mini-circle molecules and two of the three EcoRI maxi-circle fragments in E. coli. Cloned mini-circles are somewhat heterogeneous in size and their restriction patterns are completely different. Despite this heterogeneity all are found to contain a homologous region(s) defined by DNA/DNA hybridization. The maxi-circles probably correspond to the mitochondrial DNA of other organisms and, in contrast to mini-circles, do not show sequence heterogeneity. One of the two cloned maxi-circle EcoRI fragments is able to direct the synthesis of two polypeptides of 10 300 and 13 500 daltons in E. coli mini-cells. Detailed analysis of this phenomenon shows that both structural genes and promoter(s) are located within the cloned maxi-circle fragment.

Animals↗
PubMed1979

Cloning of bacteriophage T5 DNA fragments in plasmid pBR322 and bacteriophage lambda gtWES.

Bacteriophage T5 was digested with the restriction endonucleases HindIII and EcoRI and the resulting fragments were inserted into the plasmid pBR322 and the bacteriophage lambda gtWES as vectors. Approx. 15% of the phage genome was recovered in recombinant clones. The recombinants were characterized by restriction analysis, DNA/DNA hybridization employing Southern blots, and ability to complement or recombine with amber mutants of T5. The results obtained allow revisions of the physical map of the T5 genome and partial correlation of the physical map with the genetic map.

Chromosome Mapping↗
PubMed1979

A new host-vector system allowing selection for foreign DNA inserts in bacteriophage lambda gtWES.

An improved vector (lambda gtWES.T5-622) for EcoRI fragments has been derived from EK2 vector lambda gtWES.lambdaB' by replacing the lambda B fragment with two identical 1.1 Md fragments from the pre-early region of bacteriophage T5. The new vector has two advantages which facilitate elimination of parental-type recombinants in an in vitro recombination experiment. Firstly, the 1.1 Md insert is too small to be re-inserted into lambda gtWES in a single copy. Secondly the 1.1 Md T5 fragment carries T5 gene A3 which prevents growth of phage retaining this fragment when the Excherichia coli host carries plasmid ColIb. Thus, essentially all plaques are due to phage with donor DNA inserts and are free of T5 DNA fragments. The size usually given as the theoretical minimum size for insertion into the lambda gt series of vectors is 0.66 Md. We have shown that this size is an underestimate and that the lower limit is about 1.6 Md. A precise estimate is difficult since there is strong selection, among phage having small inserts, for those which have acquired additional genetic material by duplication of the lambda DNA.

Bacteriophage lambda↗