Specimens referred to Osteopygis (Late Cretaceous-Paleocene, North America) represent a chimera, a polyphyletic mixture of taxa. The holotype of Osteopygis (AMNH 1485) and more complete referred postcranial specimens resemble non-marine stem cryptodires (“macrobacnids”). Because the skull material historically referred to Osteopygis shares synapomorphies with chelomid sea turtles, all current workers accept Osteopygis as a stem-cheloniid… [Read More]

Given the commercial and ecological importance of the dwindling Chesapeake Bay blue crab (Callinectes sapidus) population there is a surprising scarcity of information concerning the molecular ecology of this species. The few studies published to date are based on allozyme data and indicate a single, panmictic population along the Atlantic coast. To address this short-coming… [Read More]

We have sequenced the genome of a second Drosophila species, Drosophila pseudoobscura, and compared this to the genome sequence of Drosophila melanogaster, a primary model organism. Throughout evolution the vast majority of Drosophila genes have remained on the same chromosome arm, but within each arm gene order has been extensively reshuffled, leading to a minimum… [Read More]

The GATA family of zinc-finger transcription factors plays key roles in the specification and differentiation of multiple cell types during development. GATA4 is an early regulator of gene expression during the development of endoderm and mesoderm, and genetic studies in mice have demonstrated that GATA4 is required for embryonic development. Despite the importance of GATA4… [Read More]

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The species complexity of microbial communities and challenges in culturing representative isolates make it difficult to obtain assembled genomes. Here we characterize and compare the metabolic capabilities of terrestrial and marine microbial communities using largely unassembled sequence data obtained by shotgun sequencing DNA isolated from the various environments. Quantitative gene content analysis reveals habitat-specific fingerprints… [Read More]

The organisms found growing in a mixed diesel sludge-chromium metal waste were characterized directly using environmental scanning electron microscopy (ESEM) and traditional fixation techniques with scanning electron microscopy (SEM). An attempt to identify organisms genetically directly from the sludge failed because of interference from chemicals in the waste with polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The organisms… [Read More]

Mutations in MEF2A have been implicated in an autosomal dominant form of coronary artery disease (adCAD1). In this study we sought to determine whether severe mutations in MEF2A might also explain sporadic cases of coronary artery disease (CAD). To do this, we resequenced the coding sequence and splice sites of MEF2A in approximately 300 patients… [Read More]

We used a unique combination of techniques to sequence the first complete chloroplast genome of a lycophyte, Huperzia lucidula. This plant belongs to a significant clade hypothesized to represent the sister group to all other vascular plants. We used fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) to isolate the organelles, rolling circle amplification (RCA) to amplify the genome,… [Read More]