The validation and verification of laboratory methods and procedures before their use in clinical testing is essential for providing a safe and useful service to clinicians and patients. This paper outlines the principles of validation and verification in the context of clinical human molecular genetic testing. We describe implementation processes, types of tests and their key validation components, and suggest some relevant statistical approaches that can be used by individual laboratories to ensure that tests are conducted to defined standards.

Tachykinin-like peptides have been identified in many vertebrate and invertebrate species. On the basis of the data reviewed in this paper, these peptides can be classified into two distinct subfamilies, which are recognized by their respective sequence characteristics. All known vertebrate tachykinins and a few invertebrate ones share a common C-terminal sequence motif, -FXGLMa. The insect tachykinins, which have a common -GFX1GX2Ra C-terminus, display about 30% of sequence homology with the first group. Tachykinins are multifunctional brain/gut peptides. In mammals and insects, various isoforms play an important neuromodulatory role in the central nervous system. They are involved in the processing of sensory information and in the control of motor activities. In addition, members of both subfamilies elicit stimulatory responses on a variety of visceral muscles. The receptors for mammalian and insect tachykinins show a high degree of sequence conservation and their functional characteristics are very similar. In both mammals and insects, angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) plays a prominent role in tachykinin peptide metabolism.

The European Union (EU) policy for healthcare requires the establishment of a system of European Reference Networks, union-wide information databases, and registries for rare diseases (RDs) based on shared criteria. In pursuing its goals, the ‘Building Consensus and Synergies for the EU Registration of RD Patients in Europe' (EPIRARE) project convened a meeting with experts of the competent health authorities to discuss the role of national institutional RD patient registries in supporting EU patient registration and the room for international cooperation. With this aim, this paper comparatively analyses the current situation of national institutional RD registries in the EU.

STKR is an insect G protein-coupled receptor, cloned from the stable fly Stomoxys calcitrans. It displays sequence similarity to vertebrate tachykinin [or neurokinin (NK)] receptors. Functional expression of the cloned STKR cDNA was obtained in cultured Drosophila melanogaster Schneider 2 (S2) cells. Insect tachykinin-like peptides or "insectatachykinins," such as Locusta tachykinin (Lom-TK) III, produced dose-dependent calcium responses in stably transfected S2-STKR cells. Vertebrate tachykinins (or neurokinins) did not evoke any effect at concentrations up to 10 Ϫ5 M, but an antagonist of mammalian neurokinin receptors, spantide II, inhibited the Lom-TK III-induced calcium response. Further analysis showed that the agonist-induced intracellular release of calcium ions was not affected by pretreatment of the cells with pertussis toxin. The calcium rise was blocked by the phospholipase C inhibitor U73122. In addition, Lom-TK III was shown to have a stimulatory effect on the accumulation of both inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate and cyclic AMP. These are the same second messengers that are induced in mammalian neurokinin-dependent signaling processes. Key Words: Gene expression-G proteincoupled receptor-Insect-Neurokinin-NeuropeptideTachykinin. J. Neurochem. 74, 2182Neurochem. 74, -2189Neurochem. 74, (2000.Tachykinins [or neurokinins (NKs)] belong to a large, evolutionarily conserved family of multifunctional brain/ gut peptides. They are present in important integrative regions of the central nervous system and play a crucial role in the processing of sensory information and in the control of motor activities (Erspamer, 1981;Maggio, 1988;Nässel, 1993;Wegerhoff et al., 1996;Vitzthum and Homberg, 1998). These peptides also exhibit a broad spectrum of peripheral activities. Tachykinins and their receptors are involved in a variety of human pathophysiological processes (Khawaja and Rogers, 1996). Substance P, the major mammalian tachykinin, was discovered in 1931 as a factor causing peripheral vasodilatation and stimulation of intestinal muscle contractions (Von Euler and Gaddum, 1931). Forty years later, its amino acid sequence was determined (Chang et al., 1971). Since then, many other tachykinins have been characterized from a large variety of vertebrate and a few invertebrate species (Erspamer, 1981;Kangawa et al., 1983;Kimura et al., 1983;Nawa et al., 1984;Tatemoto et al., 1985;Kage et al., 1988;Maggio, 1988). These peptides share the C-terminal sequence motif Phe-XxxGly-Leu-Met-amide (FXGLMa). Insectatachykinins, also referred to as "tachykinin-related peptides," constitute a group of neuropeptides that stimulate the contractility of cockroach hindgut and locust oviduct muscles and display sequence similarity to the tachykinins (Schoofs et al., 1990a(Schoofs et al., ,b, 1993. They were initially discovered in the migratory locust Locusta migratoria. More recently, additional members of this peptide (sub)family were discovered in other invertebrate species such as the blowfly Calliphora vomitoria (Lun...

Promiscuous hormone mRNA expression in the pituitary remains poorly understood. We examined by means of RT-PCR and immunostaining whether glycoprotein hormone alpha-subunit (alphaGSU) could be coexpressed with proopiomelanocortin (POMC) in vivo and under pressure of CRH in vitro. Cells coexpressing alphaGSU and POMC mRNA amounted to 2.6% of the cells in ex vivo rat pituitary at birth [postnatal d 1 (P1)], fell to much lower level at P14, and were undetectable in adulthood. In cultured pituitary aggregates of P14 rats, alphaGSU/POMC cells remained scarce but represented up to 6.6% after chronic treatment with CRH but not leukemia inhibitory factor. CRH was less effective in aggregates from P1 and adult rats. The total alphaGSU population ex vivo at P1 was two times smaller than at P14, but in culture it expanded 2.5 times, concomitantly with a reciprocal change in POMC cell abundance. Tpit transcripts were detected in POMC-only and alphaGSU/POMC cells but not in alphaGSU-only cells. Cells coexpressing alphaGSU and POMC mRNA were relatively abundant in P14 chicken pituitary and aggregate cultures, but occurrence was not affected by CRH. Immunostaining showed alphaGSU and POMC colocalization in sporadic cells in intact rat pituitary and CRH-treated cultures at P1 but not at P14 and adult age. The data demonstrate the occurrence of cells coexpressing alphaGSU and POMC in rat and chicken pituitary. The developmental dynamics of this cell population and its response to CRH in vitro in the rat suggest a relationship of these cells with the embryonic branching of the POMC and alphaGSU cell lineages and their mutually opposite developmental course during early postnatal life.