Cover design Mitochondrial DNA rearrangements in oocytes The cover of Molecular Human Reproduction displays PCR fragments which are characteristic of mitochondrial (mt) DNA rearrangements in single human oocytes. A nested PCR strategy of long followed by short reactions was used to amplify two thirds of the mitochondrial genome. In the second round, the distance between the primers was > 5kb. Thus, under the reaction conditions, PCR fragments were only produced in the presence of DNA rearrangements. Sequence analyses have confirmed the deletions indicated by the bands marked #2Ð6. This study has shown that the proportion of oocytes with mt DNA rearrangements is significantly reduced throughout oocyte maturation. For further details, see 927-933.
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