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Border Regions (border + regions)
Selected AbstractsGenetic characterization of the dibenzofuran-degrading Actinobacteria carrying the dbfA1A2 gene homologues isolated from activated sludgeFEMS MICROBIOLOGY LETTERS, Issue 1 2004Takashi Noumura Abstract Thirteen dibenzofuran (DF)-utilizing bacteria carrying the DF terminal dioxygenase genes homologous to those of Terrabacter sp. strain DBF63 (dbfA1A2) were newly isolated from activated sludge samples. The amplified ribosomal DNA restriction analysis and the hybridization analyses showed that these strains were grouped into five genetically different types of bacteria. The sequence analyses of the 16S rRNA genes and the dbfA1A2 homologues from these five selected isolates revealed that the isolates belonged to the genus Rhodococcus, Terrabacter or Janibacter and that they shared 99,100% conserved dbfA1A2 homologues. We investigated the genetic organizations flanking the dbfA1A2 homologues and showed that the minimal conserved DNA region present in all five selected isolates consisted of an ,9.0-kb region and that their outer regions became abruptly non-homologous. Among them, Rhodococcus sp. strain DFA3 possessed not only the 9.0-kb region but also the 6.2-kb region containing dbfA1A2 homologues. Sequencing of their border regions suggested that some genetic rearrangement might have occurred with insertion sequence-like elements. Also, within their conserved regions, some insertions or deletions were observed. [source] So near yet so far: blocked networks, global links and multiple exclusion in the German,Polish borderlandsGLOBAL NETWORKS, Issue 3 2006JÖRG DÜRRSCHMIDT We rarely consider borders and border regions. However, state borders provide a crucial component of a globalizing society in transition. Exhibiting a structural ambivalence, borders can be seedbeds of cosmopolitanism, sites of cultural closure, or often both simultaneously. To understand cross-border interaction we have to engage with a complex configuration of global and sub-global dynamics. In this article I argue that borders are revealing analytical tools that must be included in any grounded theory of global change. I draw on fieldwork conducted in the German-Polish border region, mostly in the German-Polish twin city Guben/Gubin. Here we are confronted with the simultaneous processes of globalization, European integration and post-socialist transformation. [source] Ethnicity, Economic Polarization and Regional Inequality in Southern SlovakiaGROWTH AND CHANGE, Issue 2 2000Adrian Smith This paper examines the relationships between ethnicity and regional economic transformation in Slovakia. It takes as its focus the position of the Hungarian minority in Slovakia in the uneven process of regional change. The paper places these issues within the context of struggles over ethnicity and ,nation' in post-independence Slovakia. The paper argues that ethnicity has been a thoroughly contested issue since the collapse of ,communism' in Slovakia and a variety of struggles have been waged over enhancing the rights and position of the Hungarian minority population. The concentration of the Hungarian minority in the southern Slovak border regions with Hungary is examined within the context of the uneven economic impacts of the ,transition to capitalism'. It is argued that, while the economic decline seen in many of these ,Hungarian' regions has impacted negatively on the local populations, the roots of these changes lie within the ways in which such regions were integrated into the state socialist regional division of labor. In particular, the role of peripheral industrialization in such regions prior to 1989, in attempting to reduce economic differences among various ethnic groups, resulted in the establishment of branch plant economies which have had difficulty in surviving since 1989. It is therefore the interweaving of the economics of regional decline and the politics of ethnicity that help us to understand the complex place of the Hungarian minority in Slovakia. [source] Partial deletions of the W chromosome due to reciprocal translocation in the silkworm Bombyx moriINSECT MOLECULAR BIOLOGY, Issue 4 2005H. Abe Abstract In the silkworm, Bombyx mori (female, ZW; male, ZZ), femaleness is determined by the presence of a single W chromosome, irrespective of the number of autosomes or Z chromosomes. The W chromosome is devoid of functional genes, except the putative female-determining gene (Fem). However, there are strains in which chromosomal fragments containing autosomal markers have been translocated on to W. In this study, we analysed the W chromosomal regions of the Zebra-W strain (T(W;3)Ze chromosome) and the Black-egg-W strain (T(W;10)+w,2 chromosome) at the molecular level. Initially, we undertook a project to identify W-specific RAPD markers, in addition to the three already established W-specific RAPD markers (W-Kabuki, W-Samurai and W-Kamikaze). Following the screening of 3648 arbitrary 10-mer primers, we obtained nine W-specific RAPD marker sequences (W-Bonsai, W-Mikan, W-Musashi, W-Rikishi, W-Sakura, W-Sasuke, W-Yukemuri-L, W-Yukemuri-S and BMC1-Kabuki), almost all of which contained the border regions of retrotransposons, namely portions of nested retrotransposons. We confirmed the presence of eleven out of twelve W-specific RAPD markers in the normal W chromosomes of twenty-five silkworm strains maintained in Japan. These results indicate that the W chromosomes of the strains in Japan are almost identical in type. The Zebra-W strain (T(W;3)Ze chromosome) lacked the W-Samurai and W-Mikan RAPD markers and the Black-egg-W strain (T(W;10)+w,2 chromosome) lacked the W-Mikan RAPD marker. These results strongly indicate that the regions containing the W-Samurai and W-Mikan RAPD markers or the W-Mikan RAPD marker were deleted in the T(W;3)Ze and T(W;10)+w,2 chromosomes, respectively, due to reciprocal translocation between the W chromosome and the autosome. This deletion apparently does not affect the expression of Fem; therefore, this deleted region of the W chromosome does not contain the putative Fem gene. [source] | |||||||||||||