250 PATENT ABSTRACTS

Woody species, particularly poplar, are pro- duced by transformation of shoot cultures with the foreign DNA and regeneration of plants from transformed cells, where the plants are capable of expression of the foreign gene. Par- ticularly, poplar shoot cultures are employed and are transformed employing a manipulated Agrobacterium transformation system, followed by regeneration of the plant tissue into plants.

4800159

P R O C E S S F O R A M P L I F Y I N G , D E T E C T I N G , A N D / O R C L O N I N G

N U C L E I C A C I D S E Q U E N C E S

Kary B Mullis, Henry A Erlich, Norman Arnheim, Glenn T Horn, Randall Saiki, Stephen J Scharf assigned to Cetus Corporation

4 7 ~ 3 ~

A D E N O - A S S O C I A T E D V I R U S AS E U K A R Y O T I C E X P R E S S I O N

V E C T O R

Barrie J Carter, Jon D Tratschin assigned to The United States of America as represented by the Department of Health and Human Services

The present invention relates to a vector com- prising part of AAV DNA contained in a plas- mid and capable of being packaged into AAV particles and functioning as a vector for stable integration and expression of a gene in eu- karyotic cells when under control of an AAV transcription promoter. A method of preparing such plasmids which are packagable and rescuable is also described.

The present invention is directed to a process for amplifying and detecting any target nucleic acid sequence contained in a nucleic acid or mixture thereof. The process comprises treating separate complementary strands of the nucleic acid with a molar excess of two oligonucleotide primers, ex- tending the primers to form complementary primer extension products which act as tem- plates for synthesizing the desired nucleic acid sequence, and detecting the sequence so am- plified. The steps of the reaction may be carried out stepwise or simultaneously.and can be repeated as often as desired. In addition, a specific nucleic acid sequence may be cloned into a vector by using primers to amplify the sequence, which contain restriction sites on their non-complementary ends, and a nucleic acid fragment may be prepared from an existing shor- ter fragment using the amplification process.

4798789

C D N A C L O N E S C O D I N G F O R P O L Y P E P T I D E S E X H I B I T I N G

M U R I N E I N T E R L E U K I N - 2 A C T I V I T Y

Frank D Lee, Takash Yokota, Ken-ichi Arai as- signed to DNAX Research Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biology Inc

Plasmid vectors are provided that carry comple- mentary DNA (cDNA) clones coding for poly- peptides exhibiting murine interleukin-2 activity. One of these polypeptides is 168 amino acids in length, including a potential leader sequence of about 19 amino acids. The cDNA is derived from messenger RNA isolated from a mouse T-cell line after activation with con- canavalin A. The cDNA was cloned by in- corporation into a plasmid vector, which is then transformed into E. coli. The plasmid vector also contained DNA segments from the SV40 virus, permitting expression of the cDNA after trans- fection into a mammalian host cell, such as monkey COS-7 cells.

4800164

A U T O M A T I C D E V I C E F O R T H E A N A L Y S I S A N D C L O N I N G O F

C E L L U L A R C U L T U R E S AS W E L L AS F O R B A C T E R I O L O G I C A L

A N A L Y S I S

Jean-Claud Bisconte, Paris, France assigned to Institut National de la Sante et de la Recherche Medicale-INSERM

An automatic device for analyzing and cloning cellular cultures and bacteriological analysis, comprising an enclosure divided into two com- partments, the first compartment of which con- tains: a circular transparent plate comprising several microwells disposed in one or more cir- cular concentric rows, at least one special micro- scopic observation device, more especially of the phase contrast type, a device for the aspiration/injection of cellular medium or cells guaranteeing non contamination, a motor unit for providing the rotational as well as vertical and horizontal movements of said plate, with very accurate positioning in the three directions of movement, whereas the second compartment