Given the current projections, maize will become the largest crop worldwide within a few years. It is vital that a crop this important have a well-defined genome. One hundred and thirty Bacterial Artificial Chromosome (BAC) maize sequences have been analyzed through various bioinformatics software, such as BLAST (Basic Local Alignment Searching Tool), GenScan, and Clustalx. BLAST analysis revealed that the maize genome is composed of diverse sequences that represent a variety of families of retrotransposons. These are segments of DNA that move from one location on a chromosome to another, resulting in genetic variation.

Cadmium is a toxic heavy metal released from smelting and absorbed and bioaccumulated by organisms along the food chain. Cadmium binds to organic molecules by forming bonds with sulfur and nitrogen, thereby inactivating proteins, and is one of the three contaminants which, according to the EPA, pose the most threat to the environment. The objective of this study was to determine the long-term effect of various concentrations of cadmium chloride (CdCl2) on the growth of cultures of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, a unicellular green algae found in fresh water, by measuring optical density and chlorophyll concentration.

Some researchers claim nucleosomes disappear during transcriptional activation, and others claim nucleosomes reposition themselves. For example, the PH05 gene found in Saccharomyces cerevisiae requires nucleosome repositioning prior to transcription. This research focuses on the importance of nucleosome remodeling in transcription. A procedure developed in a previously published study used a photochemical reagent to cross-link a cysteine on the nucleosome, followed by nucleosome mapping on a sequencing gel.