Search results for "Numt"
showing 3 items of 3 documents
Reliability of mitochondrial DNA in an acanthocephalan: The problem of pseudogenes
2006
The utility of mitochondrial DNA as a molecular marker for evolutionary studies is well recognized. However, several problems can arise when using mitochondrial DNA, one of which is the presence of nuclear mitochondrial pseudogenes, or Numts. Pseudogenes of cytochrome oxidase I were preferentially amplified from Acanthocephalus lucii (Acanthocephala) using a universal PCR approach. To verify the presence and abundance of pseudogenes, length heterogeneity analysis of the PCR fragments was performed. PCR products obtained with universal primers often contained fragments of different sizes. Cloned sequences from universal PCR products nearly always contained sequence abnormalities such as inde…
New Insights Into Mitochondrial DNA Reconstruction and Variant Detection in Ancient Samples
2021
Ancient DNA (aDNA) studies are frequently focused on the analysis of the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), which is much more abundant than the nuclear genome, hence can be better retrieved from ancient remains. However, postmortem DNA damage and contamination make the data analysis difficult because of DNA fragmentation and nucleotide alterations. In this regard, the assessment of the heteroplasmic fraction in ancient mtDNA has always been considered an unachievable goal due to the complexity in distinguishing true endogenous variants from artifacts. We implemented and applied a computational pipeline for mtDNA analysis to a dataset of 30 ancient human samples from an Iron Age necropolis in Poliz…
OnabotulinumtoxinA Modulates Visual Cortical Excitability in Chronic Migraine: Effects of 12-Week Treatment
2022
Chronic migraine is a burdensome disease presenting with episodic pain and several symptoms that may persist even among headache attacks. Multisensory integration is modified in migraine, as assessed by the level of the perception of sound-induced flash illusions, a simple paradigm reflecting changes in cortical excitability which reveals to be altered in migraineurs. OnabotulinumtoxinA is an effective preventive therapy for chronic migraineurs, reducing peripheral and central sensitization, and may influence cortical excitability. Patients affected by chronic migraine who started onabotulinumtoxinA preventive therapy were included. Clinical effects (headache diaries and migraine related qu…