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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences

Calcium's Role As Nuanced Modulator Of Cellular Physiology In The Brain, Hilaree N. Frazier, Shaniya Maimaiti, Katie L. Anderson, Lawrence D. Brewer, John C. Gant, Nada M. Porter, Olivier Thibault Feb 2017

Calcium's Role As Nuanced Modulator Of Cellular Physiology In The Brain, Hilaree N. Frazier, Shaniya Maimaiti, Katie L. Anderson, Lawrence D. Brewer, John C. Gant, Nada M. Porter, Olivier Thibault

Pharmacology and Nutritional Sciences Faculty Publications

Neuroscientists studying normal brain aging, spinal cord injury, Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and other neurodegenerative diseases have focused considerable effort on carefully characterizing intracellular perturbations in calcium dynamics or levels. At the cellular level, calcium is known for controlling life and death and orchestrating most events in between. For many years, intracellular calcium has been recognized as an essential ion associated with nearly all cellular functions from cell growth to degeneration. Often the emphasis is on the negative impact of calcium dysregulation and the typical worse-case-scenario leading inevitably to cell death. However, even high amplitude calcium transients, when executed acutely can …


Oled Loki As A Catalyst For Tertiary Amine And Hydroxamate Glycosylation, Ryan R. Hughes, Khaled A. Shaaban, Jianjun Zhang, Hongnan Cao, George N. Phillips Jr., Jon S. Thorson Feb 2017

Oled Loki As A Catalyst For Tertiary Amine And Hydroxamate Glycosylation, Ryan R. Hughes, Khaled A. Shaaban, Jianjun Zhang, Hongnan Cao, George N. Phillips Jr., Jon S. Thorson

Center for Pharmaceutical Research and Innovation Faculty Publications

We describe the ability of an engineered glycosyltransferase (OleD Loki) to catalyze the N‐glycosylation of tertiary‐amine‐containing drugs and trichostatin hydroxamate glycosyl ester formation. As such, this study highlights the first bacterial model catalyst for tertiary‐amine N‐glycosylation and further expands the substrate scope and synthetic potential of engineered OleDs. In addition, this work could open the door to the discovery of similar capabilities among other permissive bacterial glycosyltransferases.


Structural Basis For Activation Of Calcineurin By Calmodulin, Julie Rumi-Masante, Farai I. Rusinga, Terrence E. Lester, Tori B. Dunlap, Todd D. Williams, A. Keith Dunker, David D. Weis, Trevor P. Creamer Jan 2012

Structural Basis For Activation Of Calcineurin By Calmodulin, Julie Rumi-Masante, Farai I. Rusinga, Terrence E. Lester, Tori B. Dunlap, Todd D. Williams, A. Keith Dunker, David D. Weis, Trevor P. Creamer

Center for Structural Biology Faculty Publications

The highly conserved phosphatase calcineurin (CaN) plays vital roles in numerous processes including T-cell activation, development and function of the central nervous system, and cardiac growth. It is activated by the calcium sensor calmodulin (CaM). CaM binds to a regulatory domain (RD) within CaN, causing a conformational change that displaces an autoinhibitory domain (AID) from the active site, resulting in activation of the phosphatase. This is the same general mechanism by which CaM activates CaM-dependent protein kinases. Previously published data have hinted that the RD of CaN is intrinsically disordered. In this work, we demonstrate that the RD is unstructured …


Usp8 Promotes Smoothened Signaling By Preventing Its Ubiquitination And Changing Its Subcellular Localization, Ruohan Xia, Hongge Jia, Junkai Fan, Yajuan Liu, Jianhang Jia Jan 2012

Usp8 Promotes Smoothened Signaling By Preventing Its Ubiquitination And Changing Its Subcellular Localization, Ruohan Xia, Hongge Jia, Junkai Fan, Yajuan Liu, Jianhang Jia

Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry Faculty Publications

The seven transmembrane protein Smoothened (Smo) is a critical component of the Hedgehog (Hh) signaling pathway and is regulated by phosphorylation, dimerization, and cell-surface accumulation upon Hh stimulation. However, it is not clear how Hh regulates Smo accumulation on the cell surface or how Hh regulates the intracellular trafficking of Smo. In addition, little is known about whether ubiquitination is involved in Smo regulation. In this study, we demonstrate that Smo is multi-monoubiquitinated and that Smo ubiquitination is inhibited by Hh and by phosphorylation. Using an in vivo RNAi screen, we identified ubiquitin-specific protease 8 (USP8) as a deubiquitinase that …


Juvenile Hormone Regulates Vitellogenin Gene Expression Through Insulin-Like Peptide Signaling Pathway In The Red Flour Beetle, Tribolium Castaneum, Zhentao Sheng, Jingjing Xu, Hua Bai, Fang Zhu, Subba R. Palli Dec 2011

Juvenile Hormone Regulates Vitellogenin Gene Expression Through Insulin-Like Peptide Signaling Pathway In The Red Flour Beetle, Tribolium Castaneum, Zhentao Sheng, Jingjing Xu, Hua Bai, Fang Zhu, Subba R. Palli

Entomology Faculty Publications

Our recent studies identified juvenile hormone (JH) and nutrition as the two key signals that regulate vitellogenin (Vg) gene expression in the red flour beetle, Tribolium castaneum. Juvenile hormone regulation of Vg synthesis has been known for a long time in several insects, but the mechanism of JH action is not known. Experiments were conducted to determine the mechanism of action of these two signals in regulation of Vg gene expression. Injection of bovine insulin or FOXO double-stranded RNA into the previtellogenic, starved, or JH-deficient female adults increased Vg mRNA and protein levels, thereby implicating the pivotal role for …


Systematic Two-Hybrid And Comparative Proteomic Analyses Reveal Novel Yeast Pre-Mrna Splicing Factors Connected To Prp19, Liping Ren, Janel R. Mclean, Tony R. Hazbun, Stanley Fields, Craig Vander Kooi, Melanie D. Ohi, Kathleen L. Gould Feb 2011

Systematic Two-Hybrid And Comparative Proteomic Analyses Reveal Novel Yeast Pre-Mrna Splicing Factors Connected To Prp19, Liping Ren, Janel R. Mclean, Tony R. Hazbun, Stanley Fields, Craig Vander Kooi, Melanie D. Ohi, Kathleen L. Gould

Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry Faculty Publications

Prp19 is the founding member of the NineTeen Complex, or NTC, which is a spliceosomal subcomplex essential for spliceosome activation. To define Prp19 connectivity and dynamic protein interactions within the spliceosome, we systematically queried the Saccharomyces cerevisiae proteome for Prp19 WD40 domain interaction partners by two-hybrid analysis. We report that in addition to S. cerevisiae Cwc2, the splicing factor Prp17 binds directly to the Prp19 WD40 domain in a 1:1 ratio. Prp17 binds simultaneously with Cwc2 indicating that it is part of the core NTC complex. We also find that the previously uncharacterized protein Urn1 (Dre4 in Schizosaccharomyces pombe) directly …


The Leishmania Donovani Lipophosphoglycan Excludes The Vesicular Proton-Atpase From Phagosomes By Impairing The Recruitment Of Synaptotagmin V, Adrien F. Vinet, Mitsunori Fukuda, Salvatore J. Turco, Albert Descoteaux Oct 2009

The Leishmania Donovani Lipophosphoglycan Excludes The Vesicular Proton-Atpase From Phagosomes By Impairing The Recruitment Of Synaptotagmin V, Adrien F. Vinet, Mitsunori Fukuda, Salvatore J. Turco, Albert Descoteaux

Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry Faculty Publications

We recently showed that the exocytosis regulator Synaptotagmin (Syt) V is recruited to the nascent phagosome and remains associated throughout the maturation process. In this study, we investigated the possibility that Syt V plays a role in regulating interactions between the phagosome and the endocytic organelles. Silencing of Syt V by RNA interference revealed that Syt V contributes to phagolysosome biogenesis by regulating the acquisition of cathepsin D and the vesicular proton-ATPase. In contrast, recruitment of cathepsin B, the early endosomal marker EEA1 and the lysosomal marker LAMP1 to phagosomes was normal in the absence of Syt V. As Leishmania …


Polyglutamine Disruption Of The Huntingtin Exon 1 N Terminus Triggers A Complex Aggregation Mechanism, Ashwani K. Thakur, Murali Jayaraman, Rakesh Mishra, Monika Thakur, Veronique M. Chellgren, In-Ja L Byeon, Dalaver H. Anjum, Ravindra Kodali, Trevor P. Creamer, James F. Conway, Angela M. Gronenborn, Ronald Wetzel Apr 2009

Polyglutamine Disruption Of The Huntingtin Exon 1 N Terminus Triggers A Complex Aggregation Mechanism, Ashwani K. Thakur, Murali Jayaraman, Rakesh Mishra, Monika Thakur, Veronique M. Chellgren, In-Ja L Byeon, Dalaver H. Anjum, Ravindra Kodali, Trevor P. Creamer, James F. Conway, Angela M. Gronenborn, Ronald Wetzel

Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry Faculty Publications

Simple polyglutamine (polyQ) peptides aggregate in vitro via a nucleated growth pathway directly yielding amyloid-like aggregates. We show here that the 17-amino-acid flanking sequence (HTTNT) N-terminal to the polyQ in the toxic huntingtin exon 1 fragment imparts onto this peptide a complex alternative aggregation mechanism. In isolation, the HTTNT peptide is a compact coil that resists aggregation. When polyQ is fused to this sequence, it induces in HTTNT, in a repeat-length dependent fashion, a more extended conformation that greatly enhances its aggregation into globular oligomers with HTTNT cores and exposed polyQ. In a second …