A microsatellite-based high-density genetic map facilitates for fine mapping of hereditary traits of interest, characterization of meiosis, and providing a foundation for physical map construction. Here, we developed a comprehensive genetic map on the basis of >880,000 genotypes across the USDA MARC cattle reference families with a potential genetic resolution of 0.8 cM at the 95% confidence level (∼800 kb in the bovine genome). We incorporated 2325 microsatellites into the second-generation genetic map by linkage analysis based on sex-averaged two-point LOD scores (>3.0), of which 2293 were fine-mapped by multipoint linkage analysis. The new 3160-cM map comprised of 29 sex-averaged autosomal linkage groups and a sex-specific X-chromosome linkage group includes 3960 markers with 2389 positions, resulting in an average interval size of 1.4 cM. More than half (51%) of the total length of the map is covered with intervals of 2.0 cM or less, and the largest gap is a 10.2-cM interval on the X-linkage group. The new map should accelerate fine mapping and positional cloning of genes for genetic diseases and economically important traits in cattle, as well as related livestock species, such as sheep and goat.[Supplemental material is available online at www.genome.org. Marker information of new microsatellites is available from DDBJ under accession nos. AB164707 to AB166543 including flanking sequences and AB166544 to AB166659 for only primer sequences. Linkage groups for all autosomes and X-and Y-chromosomes are presented at

Hierarchical ordering in a series of side-group liquid-crystal block copolymers was investigated in the bulk via differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), polarized light microscopy, smallangle X-ray scattering (SAXS), and small-angle neutron scattering (SANS). The diblock copolymers comprise a polystyrene block and a block of poly(methyl methacrylate) bearing a chiral biphenyl ester mesogenic unit linked to the backbone by a dodecyloxy spacer. A series of copolymers with different volume fractions of mesogenic block were prepared by atom transfer radical polymerization. Ordering of mesogens into a smectic phase is characterized by a period 3.5 nm. Glass transition temperatures and the clearing temperature for each sample were determined by DSC. Additional ordering occurs due to microphase separation of the block copolymer at a length scale of 22-27 nm, as confirmed by SAXS and SANS. The order-disorder transition was found to be coincident with the smectic-isotropic transition for a sample comprising PS cylinders. A hexagonal morphology was determined for samples with both a minority and a majority liquid-crystal block. Remarkably, the morphology comprising liquid-crystal (LC) cylinders in a polystyrene matrix could be oriented by slow cooling through the clearing temperature, in the presence of a strong magnetic field. The inverse morphology of cylinders formed by the PS block in an LC matrix was not oriented in this way. This is ascribed to the nucleation of defects around the nanorods in the LC matrix. The thin film nanostructure was investigated by atomic force microscopy (AFM) and X-ray reflectivity for a sample comprising PS cylinders. AFM confirmed a hexagonal-packed cylinder morphology in thin films with coexisting parallel and perpendicular orientations of rods with respect to the substrate. The presence of Bragg peaks in specular X-ray reflectivity intensity profiles indicates a proportion of smectic layers lying parallel to the substrate, with a spacing similar to that in bulk. Our results provide a comprehensive picture of hierarchical ordering in the bulk and in thin films.

Polymerization of ethyl and benzyl diazoacetates (EDA and BDA) initiated with π-allylPdCl-based systems [π-allylPdCl/NaBPh4, π-allylPdCl/NaBArF 4 (ArF = 3,5-{CF3}2C6H3), and π-allylPdCl] is described. Initiation efficiencies of the π-allylPdCl-based systems are much higher than those of the previously reported (NHC)­Pd/borate (NHC = N-heterocyclic carbene) systems, and the new systems are capable of polymerizing the alkyl diazoacetates at low temperatures (0 ∼ −20 °C), where the (NHC)­Pd/borate systems cannot initiate the polymerization. MALDI–TOF–MS analyses of the polymers obtained from EDA provide information for the chain-end structures of the polymers, based on which initiation and termination mechanisms are proposed. Interestingly, EDA polymerization by the π-allylPdCl-based systems in the presence of alcohols (EtOH, nPrOH, and nBuOH) or water was found to afford RO- or HO-initiated polymers as major products, as confirmed by MALDI–TOF–MS analyses.

Inherited chronic renal diseases are associated with failures in glomerular filtration and tubular resorption. Such failures invariably result from defects in selective filtration and absorption in surface renal epithelium. Recently, we described an autosomal recessive chronic interstitial nephritis with diffuse zonal fibrosis (CINF) in cattle. Bovine CINF, characterized by increased blood urea nitrogen, creatinine, and urinary proteins, leads to lethality before puberty, usually within the first 6 months or year of life. Here, we demonstrate that the first four exons of PCLN-1/Claudin-16(CL-16), which encodes a member of the claudin family of tight junction proteins, were deleted in CINF-affected cattle. CL-16was expressed preferentially in kidneys of normal cattle, but transcripts were totally absent in affected offspring. This observation suggests that the lack of CL-16 protein contributes to the dysfunction of paracellular renal transport systems.[The CL-16cDNA sequence has been deposited at GenBank under accession no. AB030082.]

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