scholarly journals Molecular Diversity and Network Complexity in Growing Protocells

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Atsushi Kamimura ◽  
Kunihiko Kaneko
Keyword(s):  
Catalytic Reaction ◽  
Host Species ◽  
Molecular Diversity ◽  
Reaction Network ◽  
Cellular Growth ◽  
Cell Reproduction ◽  
A Cell ◽  
Molecular Components ◽  
Growth Scaling ◽  
Cellular Components

AbstractA great variety of molecular components is encapsulated in cells. Each of these components is replicated for cell reproduction. To address an essential role of the huge diversity of cellular components, we study a model of protocells that convert resources into catalysts with the aid of a catalytic reaction network. As the resources are limited, it is shown that diversity in intracellular components is increased to allow the use of diverse resources for cellular growth. Scaling relation is demonstrated between resource abundances and molecular diversity. We then study how the molecule species diversify and complex catalytic reaction networks develop through the evolutionary course. It is shown that molecule species first appear, at some generations, as parasitic ones that do not contribute to replication of other molecules. Later, the species turn to be host species that support the replication of other species. With this successive increase of host species, a complex joint network evolves. The present study sheds new light on the origin of molecular diversity and complex reaction network at the primitive stage of a cell.

scholarly journals Molecular Diversity and Network Complexity in Growing Protocells

Life ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 53
Author(s):  
Atsushi Kamimura ◽  
Kunihiko Kaneko
Keyword(s):  
Molecular Species ◽  
Catalytic Reaction ◽  
Molecular Diversity ◽  
Reaction Network ◽  
Cellular Growth ◽  
Reaction Networks ◽  
Cell Reproduction ◽  
A Cell ◽  
Molecular Components ◽  
Cellular Components

A great variety of molecular components is encapsulated in cells. Each of these components is replicated for cell reproduction. To address the essential role of the huge diversity of cellular components, we studied a model of protocells that convert resources into catalysts with the aid of a catalytic reaction network. As the resources were limited, the diversity in the intracellular components was found to be increased to allow the use of diverse resources for cellular growth. A scaling relation was demonstrated between resource abundances and molecular diversity. In the present study, we examined how the molecular species diversify and how complex catalytic reaction networks develop through an evolutionary course. At some generations, molecular species first appear as parasites that do not contribute to the replication of other molecules. Later, the species turn into host species that contribute to the replication of other species, with further diversification of molecular species. Thus, a complex joint network evolves with this successive increase in species. The present study sheds new light on the origin of molecular diversity and complex reaction networks at the primitive stage of a cell.

Protein Flexibility Catalyzes a Cell Signaling Reaction of the Ras-GAP Complex

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keiei Kumon ◽  
Masahiro Higashi ◽  
Shinji Saito ◽  
Shigehiko Hayashi
Keyword(s):  
Cell Signaling ◽  
Conformational Changes ◽  
Catalytic Reaction ◽  
Protein Complex ◽  
Enzyme Mechanism ◽  
Activation Free Energy ◽  
Chemical Catalysis ◽  
Simple Chemical ◽  
A Cell ◽  
Enzyme Molecules

Many enzyme molecules exhibit characteristic global and slow dynamics which furnish them with allostery realizing remarkable molecular functionalities more than simple chemical catalysis. However, molecular mechanism of a catalytic reaction associated with the molecular flexibility of enzymes is not well-understood. Here we report a hybrid molecular simulation study on GTPase activity of a Ras-GAP protein complex for cell signaling termination. We unveiled that extensive conformational changes of the protein complex and exclusion of internal water molecules are induced upon the transition state (TS) formation in the catalytic reaction and significantly lower the reaction activation free energy. We also revealed that tumor-related mutations perturb those conformational changes upon the TS formation, leading to reduction of the catalytic activity. The findings of the remarkably dynamic protein conformation directly linking to the catalytic reaction have broad implications for understanding of enzyme mechanism and for developments of allosteric drugs and novel catalysts.

Proteomic Characterization of Protein-Protein Interactions

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Veenstra TD ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Protein Interactions ◽  
Disease Diagnosis ◽  
Cell System ◽  
Protein Protein Interactions ◽  
Novel Technologies ◽  
Cell Functions ◽  
Single Protein ◽  
A Cell ◽  
Molecular Components

Identifying all the molecular components within a living cell is the first step into understanding how it functions. To further understand how a cell functions requires identifying the interactions that occur between these components. This fact is especially relevant for proteins. No protein within a human cell functions on its own without interacting with another biomolecule - usually another protein. While Protein-Protein Interactions (PPI) have historically been determined by examining a single protein per study, novel technologies developed over the past couple of decades are enabling high-throughput methods that aim to describe entire protein networks within cells. In this review, some of the technologies that have led to these developments are described along with applications of these techniques. Ultimately the goal of these technologies is to map out the entire circuitry of PPI within human cells to be able to predict the global consequences of perturbations to the cell system. This predictive capability will have major impacts on the future of both disease diagnosis and treatment.

scholarly journals CellNetVis: a web tool for visualization of biological networks using force-directed layout constrained by cellular components

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henry Heberle ◽  
Marcelo Falsarella Carazzolle ◽  
Guilherme P. Telles ◽  
Gabriela Vaz Meirelles ◽  
Rosane Minghim
Keyword(s):  
Biological Networks ◽  
Visual Exploration ◽  
Web Tool ◽  
Biomolecular Interaction ◽  
Dense Networks ◽  
A Cell ◽  
Visualization Of Data ◽  
Cellular Compartments ◽  
Cellular Components ◽  
Dynamic Investigation

AbstractBackgroundThe advent of “omics” science has brought new perspectives in contemporary biology through the high-throughput analyses of molecular interactions, providing new clues in protein/gene function and in the organization of biological pathways. Biomolecular interaction networks, or graphs, are simple abstract representations where the components of a cell (e.g. proteins, metabolites etc.) are represented by nodes and their interactions are represented by edges. An appropriate visualization of data is crucial for understanding such networks, since pathways are related to functions that occur in specific regions of the cell. The force-directed layout is an important and widely used technique to draw networks according to their topologies. Placing the networks into cellular compartments helps to quickly identify where network elements are located and, more specifically, concentrated. Currently, only a few tools provide the capability of visually organizing networks by cellular compartments. Most of them cannot handle large and dense networks. Even for small networks with hundreds of nodes the available tools are not able to reposition the network while the user is interacting, limiting the visual exploration capability.ResultsHere we propose CellNetVis, a web tool to easily display biological networks in a cell diagram employing a constrained force-directed layout algorithm. The tool is freely available and open-source. It was originally designed for networks generated by the Integrated Interactome System and can be used with networks from others databases, like InnateDB.ConclusionsCellNetVis has demonstrated to be applicable for dynamic investigation of complex networks over a consistent representation of a cell on the Web, with capabilities not matched elsewhere.

scholarly journals Revisiting Catalytic Cycles: A Broader View Through the Energy Span Model

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diego Garay-Ruiz ◽  
Carles Bo
Keyword(s):  
Catalytic Reaction ◽  
Reaction Mechanisms ◽  
Computational Study ◽  
Reaction Network ◽  
Co2 Hydrogenation ◽  
Level Of Detail ◽  
Reaction Pathways ◽  
Catalytic Systems ◽  
Computational Code ◽  
Catalytic Cycles

<div><div><div><p>The computational study of catalytic processes allows discovering really intricate and detailed reaction mechanisms that involve many species and transformations. This increasing level of detail can even result detrimental when drawing conclusions from the computed mechanism, as many co-existing reaction pathways can be in close com- petence. Here we present a reaction network-based implementation of the energy span model in the form of a computational code, gTOFfee, capable of dealing with any user-specified reaction network. This approach, compared to microkinetic simulations, enables a much easier and straightforward analysis of the performance of any catalytic reaction network. In this communication, we will go through the foundations and appli- cability of the underlying model, and will tackle the application to two relevant catalytic systems: homogeneous Co-mediated propene hydroformylation and heterogeneous CO2 hydrogenation over Cu(111).</p></div></div></div>

Trichonympha burlesquei n. sp. from Reticulitermes virginicus and evidence against a cosmopolitan distribution of Trichonympha agilis in many termite hosts

2013 ◽  
Vol 63 (Pt_10) ◽  
pp. 3873-3876 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erick R. James ◽  
Vera Tai ◽  
Rudolf H. Scheffrahn ◽  
Patrick J. Keeling
Keyword(s):  
Phylogenetic Analysis ◽  
Single Cell ◽  
Host Species ◽  
Molecular Diversity ◽  
Novel Species ◽  
Reticulitermes Flavipes ◽  
Cosmopolitan Distribution ◽  
Type Host ◽  
Reticulitermes Virginicus ◽  
Molecular Phylogenetic

Historically, symbiotic protists in termite hindguts have been considered to be the same species if they are morphologically similar, even if they are found in different host species. For example, the first-described hindgut and hypermastigote parabasalian, Trichonympha agilis (Leidy, 1877) has since been documented in six species of Reticulitermes, in addition to the original discovery in Reticulitermes flavipes. Here we revisit one of these, Reticulitermes virginicus, using molecular phylogenetic analysis from single-cell isolates and show that the Trichonympha in R. virginicus is distinct from isolates in the type host and describe this novel species as Trichonympha burlesque i n. sp. We also show the molecular diversity of Trichonympha from the type host R. flavipes is greater than supposed, itself probably representing more than one species. All of this is consistent with recent data suggesting a major underestimate of termite symbiont diversity.

scholarly journals The effects of 5α-dihydrotestosterone on the kinetics of cell proliferation in rat prostate

1974 ◽  
Vol 142 (3) ◽  
pp. 483-489 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barry Lesser ◽  
Nicholas Bruchovsky
Keyword(s):  
Cell Cycle ◽  
Cell Proliferation ◽  
Cellular Growth ◽  
Velocity Sedimentation ◽  
Growth Fraction ◽  
Subcutaneous Injections ◽  
Daughter Cells ◽  
A Cell ◽  
Rat Prostate ◽  
Kinetics Of

The regenerating rat prostate was used as an experimental model to determine the effects of 5α-dihydrotestosterone on certain parameters of cell proliferation, including the duration of the phases of the cell cycle and the size of the cellular growth fraction. Rats castrated 7 days previously were treated with daily subcutaneous injections of 5α-dihydrotestosterone for 14 days; 48h after the beginning of therapy, cells in the process of DNA synthesis were labelled with a single injection of radioactive thymidine and the progress of these cells through the division cycle was observed. Cell-cycle analysis was performed by fractionating prostatic nuclei according to their position in the cell cycle by using the technique of velocity sedimentation under unit gravity. The results indicate that during regeneration the cell population undergoes 1.8 doublings with a doubling time of 40h, and that the process involves almost four rounds of cell division with a cell-generation time of 20h. The growth fraction at any time is about 0.5, and about half the daughter cells produced do not re-enter the proliferative cycle. All cells present at the start of regeneration eventually undergo at least one division during the course of regeneration, although any given cell can divide from one to four times.

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