Acetylation is a post-translational modification that occurs on thousands of proteins located in many cellular organelles. This process mediates many protein functions and modulates diverse biological processes. In mammalian cells, where acetyl-CoA is the primary acetyl donor, acetylation in the mitochondria is thought to occur by chemical means due to ... More
Functional compartmentalization of Rad9 and Hus1 reveals diverse assembly of the 9-1-1 complex components during the DNA damage response in Leishmania.
AuthorsDamasceno JD, Obonaga R, Santos EV, Scott A, McCulloch R, Tosi LR
JournalMol Microbiol
PubMed ID27301589
'The Rad9-Rad1-Hus1 (9-1-1) complex is a key component in the coordination of DNA damage sensing, cell cycle progression and DNA repair pathways in eukaryotic cells. This PCNA-related trimer is loaded onto RPA-coated single stranded DNA and interacts with ATR kinase to mediate effective checkpoint signaling to halt the cell cycle ... More
The Conserved Sonic Hedgehog Limb Enhancer Consists of Discrete Functional Elements that Regulate Precise Spatial Expression.
AuthorsLettice LA, Devenney P, De Angelis C, Hill RE
JournalCell Rep
PubMed ID28793263
'Expression of sonic hedgehog (Shh) in the limb bud is regulated by an enhancer called the zone of polarizing activity regulatory sequence (ZRS), which, in evolution, belongs to an ancient group of highly conserved cis regulators found in all classes of vertebrates. Here, we examined the endogenous ZRS in mice, ... More
Self-assembling functional programmable protein array for studying protein-protein interactions in malaria parasites.
AuthorsArévalo-Pinzón G, González-González M, Suárez CF, Curtidor H, Carabias-Sánchez J, Muro A, LaBaer J, Patarroyo MA, Fuentes M
JournalMalar J
PubMed ID30016987
'Plasmodium vivax is the most widespread malarial species, causing significant morbidity worldwide. Knowledge is limited regarding the molecular mechanism of invasion due to the lack of a continuous in vitro culture system for these species. Since protein-protein and host-cell interactions play an essential role in the microorganism''s invasion and replication, ... More
Characterization of membrane penetration and cytotoxicity of C9orf72-encoding arginine-rich dipeptides.
AuthorsKanekura K, Harada Y, Fujimoto M, Yagi T, Hayamizu Y, Nagaoka K, Kuroda M
JournalSci Rep
PubMed ID30143685
'Cell-penetrating peptides (CPPs) including arginine-rich peptides are attracting a lot of attention due to their potential as a novel intracellular drug delivery tool without substantial toxicity. On the other hand, disease-associated arginine-rich CPPs, such as poly-PR and poly-GR translated from C9orf72 gene, also efficiently enter neuronal cells and then kill ... More
A targeted proteomic strategy for the measurement of oral cancer candidate biomarkers in human saliva.
AuthorsKawahara R, Bollinger JG, Rivera C, Ribeiro AC, Brandão TB, Paes Leme AF, MacCoss MJ
JournalProteomics
PubMed ID26552850
Head and neck cancers, including oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC), are the sixth most common malignancy in the world and are characterized by poor prognosis and a low survival rate. Saliva is oral fluid with intimate contact with OSCC. Besides non-invasive, simple, and rapid to collect, saliva is a potential ... More
Comparing the functions of equine and canine influenza H3N8 virus PA-X proteins: Suppression of reporter gene expression and modulation of global host gene expression.
AuthorsFeng KH, Sun M, Iketani S, Holmes EC, Parrish CR
JournalVirology
PubMed ID27314620
The influenza PA-X protein is translated from the PA open reading frame from frameshifting and suppresses cellular gene expression due to its ribonuclease activity. We further defined the functional roles of PA-X by comparing PA-X proteins from two related viruses - equine influenza (EIV) and canine influenza (CIV) H3N8 - ... More
An Inhibitory Motif on the 5'UTR of Several Rotavirus Genome Segments Affects Protein Expression and Reverse Genetics Strategies.
AuthorsDe Lorenzo G, Drikic M, Papa G, Eichwald C, Burrone OR, Arnoldi F
JournalPLoS One
PubMed ID27846320
Rotavirus genome consists of eleven segments of dsRNA, each encoding one single protein. Viral mRNAs contain an open reading frame (ORF) flanked by relatively short untranslated regions (UTRs), whose role in the viral cycle remains elusive. Here we investigated the role of 5'UTRs in T7 polymerase-driven cDNAs expression in uninfected ... More
Novel small molecules potentiate premature termination codon readthrough by aminoglycosides.
AuthorsBaradaran-Heravi A, Balgi AD, Zimmerman C, Choi K, Shidmoossavee FS, Tan JS, Bergeaud C, Krause A, Flibotte S, Shimizu Y, Anderson HJ, Mouly V, Jan E, Pfeifer T, Jaquith JB, Roberge M
JournalNucleic Acids Res
PubMed ID27407112
Nonsense mutations introduce premature termination codons and underlie 11% of genetic disease cases. High concentrations of aminoglycosides can restore gene function by eliciting premature termination codon readthrough but with low efficiency. Using a high-throughput screen, we identified compounds that potentiate readthrough by aminoglycosides at multiple nonsense alleles in yeast. Chemical ... More
A phosphotyrosine switch regulates organic cation transporters.
AuthorsSprowl JA, Ong SS, Gibson AA, Hu S, Du G, Lin W, Li L, Bharill S, Ness RA, Stecula A, Offer SM, Diasio RB, Nies AT, Schwab M, Cavaletti G, Schlatter E, Ciarimboli G, Schellens JHM, Isacoff EY, Sali A, Chen T, Baker SD, Sparreboom A, Pabla N
JournalNat Commun
PubMed ID26979622
Membrane transporters are key determinants of therapeutic outcomes. They regulate systemic and cellular drug levels influencing efficacy as well as toxicities. Here we report a unique phosphorylation-dependent interaction between drug transporters and tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs), which has uncovered widespread phosphotyrosine-mediated regulation of drug transporters. We initially found that organic ... More
Molecular characterization of three Rhesus glycoproteins from the gills of the African lungfish, Protopterus annectens, and effects of aestivation on their mRNA expression levels and protein abundance.
AuthorsChng YR, Ong JLY, Ching B, Chen XL, Hiong KC, Wong WP, Chew SF, Lam SH, Ip YK
JournalPLoS One
PubMed ID29073147
African lungfishes are ammonotelic in water. They can aestivate for long periods on land during drought. During aestivation, the gills are covered with dried mucus and ammonia excretion ceases. In fishes, ammonia excretion through the gills involves Rhesus glycoproteins (RhGP/Rhgp). This study aimed to obtain the complete cDNA coding sequences ... More
Discovering Protein-Protein Interactions Using Nucleic Acid Programmable Protein Arrays.
AuthorsTang Y, Qiu J, Machner M, LaBaer J
JournalCurr Protoc Cell Biol
PubMed ID28256722
We have developed a protocol enabling the study of protein-protein interactions (PPIs) at the proteome level using in vitro-synthesized proteins. Assay preparation requires molecular cloning of the query gene into a vector that supports in vitro transcription/translation (IVTT) and appends a HaloTag to the query protein of interest. In parallel, ... More
Light-Dependent Degradation of PIF3 by SCF
AuthorsDong J, Ni W, Yu R, Deng XW, Chen H, Wei N
JournalCurr Biol
PubMed ID28736168
Plant seedlings emerging from darkness into the light environment undergo photomorphogenesis, which enables autotrophic growth with optimized morphology and physiology. During this transition, plants must rapidly remove photomorphogenic repressors accumulated in the dark. Among them is PHYTOCHROME-INTERACTING FACTOR 3 (PIF3), a key transcription factor promoting hypocotyl growth. Here we report that, ... More
Direct Promoter Repression by BCL11A Controls the Fetal to Adult Hemoglobin Switch.
AuthorsLiu N, Hargreaves VV, Zhu Q, Kurland JV, Hong J, Kim W, Sher F, Macias-Trevino C, Rogers JM, Kurita R, Nakamura Y, Yuan GC, Bauer DE, Xu J, Bulyk ML, Orkin SH