August 2016

Genetic diversity analysis in South African taro (Colocasia esculenta) accessions using molecular tools

Taro [Colocasia esculenta (L) Schott] belongs to the family Araceae. It is an important staple food crop grown mainly by small scale farmers in many parts of the world. Taro is grown in South Africa from the coastal parts of the northern Eastern Cape to the KwaZulu-Natal north coast. Although it is an important staple in South Africa, very little information exists on the genetic diversity of the crop. Knowledge of the...

Author(s): Mwamba Nguluta, Patrick Adebola and Michael Pillay

August 2016

Comparison of Lagostomus maximus amelogenin gene (AMELX) with other mammals

The aim of this study was to compare the Lagostomus maximus AMEL sequence to assess their similarity with the AMEL genes from other mammals. Previously, a sequence of the AMEL gene of L. maximus which corresponds to the intron 3 of the human sequence for AMELX (AMEL on the X chromosome) was reported. The comparisons made, by the use of the algorithm provided by the NCBI (Basic Local Alignment Search Tool: BLAST) allowed...

Author(s): María Beatriz Espinosa