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Full-Text Articles in Medicine and Health Sciences

Coupling Between The Voltage-Sensing And Phosphatase Domains Of Ci-Vsp, Carlos A. Villalba-Galea, Francesco Miceli, Maurizio Taglialatela, Francisco Bezanilla Jul 2009

Coupling Between The Voltage-Sensing And Phosphatase Domains Of Ci-Vsp, Carlos A. Villalba-Galea, Francesco Miceli, Maurizio Taglialatela, Francisco Bezanilla

School of Pharmacy Faculty Articles

The Ciona intestinalis voltage sensor-containing phosphatase (Ci-VSP) shares high homology with the phosphatidylinositol phosphatase enzyme known as PTEN (phosphatase and tensin homologue deleted on chromosome 10). We have taken advantage of the similarity between these proteins to inquire about the coupling between the voltage sensing and the phosphatase domains in Ci-VSP. Recently, it was shown that four basic residues (R11, K13, R14, and R15) in PTEN are critical for its binding onto the membrane, required for its catalytic activity. Ci-VSP has three of the basic residues of PTEN. Here, we show that when R253 and R254 (which are the homologues …


Pick1 Deficiency Causes Male Infertility In Mice By Disrupting Acrosome Formation, Nan (Tori) Xiao, Chuen Kam, Chong Shen, Wenying Jin, Junqi Wang, Kwong Man Lee, Liwen Jiang, Jun Xia Apr 2009

Pick1 Deficiency Causes Male Infertility In Mice By Disrupting Acrosome Formation, Nan (Tori) Xiao, Chuen Kam, Chong Shen, Wenying Jin, Junqi Wang, Kwong Man Lee, Liwen Jiang, Jun Xia

All Dugoni School of Dentistry Faculty Articles

Protein interacting with C kinase 1 (PICK1) is a peripheral membrane protein involved in protein trafficking, a function that has been well characterized in neurons. Here, we report that male mice deficient in PICK1 are infertile and have a phenotype resembling the human disease globozoospermia. The primary defect in the testes of Pick1-knockout mice was fragmentation of acrosomes in the early stages of spermiogenesis. This fragmentation was followed by defects in nuclear elongation and mitochondrial sheath formation, leading to round-headed sperm, reduced sperm count, and severely impaired sperm motility. We found that PICK1 interacted with Golgi-associated PDZ- and coiled-coil motif-containing …