A Guide to the Russian Academy of Sciences - University of Texas ...

Studies of substrate and template specificity of different RNA and DNA
polymerases from various domains of life.
Study of nuclear proteoglicans participation in the regulation of gene
expression.
Investigation of the molecular-genetic mechanisms of human hypertension
using the rat strain with inherited stress-induced arterial
hypertension.
Plant mitochondrial genome structure. Expression of mitochondrial genes
in fertile and sterile sugar beet cytoplasms.
General Results 1993-1995:
New original methods of the synthesis of nucleoside 5'-triphosphate
derivatives bearing the residues of various fluorescent dyes and
photoreagents have been fulfilled and the compounds obtained have
been studied as substrates for different DNA and RNA polymerases.
A model for the DNA polymerase translocation along the DNA has been
proposed. According to the model, the movement of the enzyme is a
result of transition of the enzyme-bound DNA from A- to B-form
which is accompanied by the lenghtening of DNA within the binding
channel.
An original method of preparation of nonradioactively labelled DNA and
RNA probes for molecular hybridization has been suggested. The
method is based on incorporation of amino groups into
polynucleotides by alkylation and transamination of nucleic base
followed by attachment of different labels to these amino groups.
The level of labelling of such probes by biotin and fluorochroms
which gives maximal sensitivity during dot-, blot- and in situ
hybridization has been determined.
The use of high sensitive biotinilated DNA probes allows to map the
human horionic somatomammotropin gene to the 17q22 region.
The new method of the DNA photoimmobilization onto the different
solid supports which allows to increase the hybridization sensitivity
have been developed.
The test-systems for nonradioactive DNA diagnostics of bovine
leukemia provirus, Malaria in human blood, and mycoplasmic
contamination of cell cultures have been developed.
It has been shown that nuclear proteoglicans are very conservative in
mammalian cells. The oligo RNAs from the nuclear proteoglican
fraction are able to suppress a transcriptional process in cell culture.
The ISIAH (inherited stress-induced arterial hypertension) rat strain has
been characterized by DNA fingerprinting method, and very high
genetic homogeneity has been shown.
It has been carried out the mapping of point mutations in leader
sequence of the hsp70 gene of various rat strains with hypertensive
and normotensive status. The ISIAH rat strain has been shown to
carry the point mutation in the leader sequence at a distance of 35 bp
from the start of the transcription origin in the recognition site of
restrictase BamHI.
The molecular-genetic differences between the fertile and sterile types
of cytoplasm in sugar beet have been revealed. The mechanism of
spontaneous conversion of normal cytoplasm to sterile one has been
suggested.
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