scholarly journals Emerging Roles of Pleckstrin-2 Beyond Cell Spreading

Author(s):  
Gengchen Wang ◽  
Qian Zhou ◽  
Yan Xu ◽  
Baobing Zhao

Pleckstrin-2 is a member of pleckstrin family with well-defined structural features that was first identified in 1999. Over the past 20 years, our understanding of PLEK2 biology has been limited to cell spreading. Recently, increasing evidences support that PLEK2 plays important roles in other cellular events beyond cell spreading, such as erythropoiesis, tumorigenesis and metastasis. It serves as a potential diagnostic and prognostic biomarker as well as an attractive target for the treatment of cancers. Herein, we summary the protein structure and molecular interactions of pleckstrin-2, with an emphasis on its regulatory roles in tumorigenesis.

Author(s):  
U. Aebi ◽  
P. Rew ◽  
T.-T. Sun

Various types of intermediate-sized (10-nm) filaments have been found and described in many different cell types during the past few years. Despite the differences in the chemical composition among the different types of filaments, they all yield common structural features: they are usually up to several microns long and have a diameter of 7 to 10 nm; there is evidence that they are made of several 2 to 3.5 nm wide protofilaments which are helically wound around each other; the secondary structure of the polypeptides constituting the filaments is rich in ∞-helix. However a detailed description of their structural organization is lacking to date.


Marine Drugs ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (6) ◽  
pp. 330
Author(s):  
Timofey V. Malyarenko ◽  
Alla A. Kicha ◽  
Valentin A. Stonik ◽  
Natalia V. Ivanchina

Sphingolipids are complex lipids widespread in nature as structural components of biomembranes. Commonly, the sphingolipids of marine organisms differ from those of terrestrial animals and plants. The gangliosides are the most complex sphingolipids characteristic of vertebrates that have been found in only the Echinodermata (echinoderms) phylum of invertebrates. Sphingolipids of the representatives of the Asteroidea and Holothuroidea classes are the most studied among all echinoderms. In this review, we have summarized the data on sphingolipids of these two classes of marine invertebrates over the past two decades. Recently established structures, properties, and peculiarities of biogenesis of ceramides, cerebrosides, and gangliosides from starfishes and holothurians are discussed. The purpose of this review is to provide the most complete information on the chemical structures, structural features, and biological activities of sphingolipids of the Asteroidea and Holothuroidea classes.


2021 ◽  
pp. 155708512098763
Author(s):  
Emily M. Wright ◽  
Gillian M. Pinchevsky ◽  
Min Xie

We consider the broad developments that have occurred over the past decade regarding our knowledge of how neighborhood context impacts intimate partner violence (IPV). Research has broadened the concept of “context” beyond structural features such as economic disadvantage, and extended into relationships among residents, collective “action” behaviors among residents, cultural and gender norms. Additionally, scholars have considered how the built environment might foster (or regulate) IPV. We now know more about the direct, indirect, and moderating ways that communities impact IPV. We encourage additional focus on the policy implications of the research findings.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick A. Lewis

Abstract Cellular control of vesicle biology and trafficking is critical for cell viability, with disruption of these pathways within the cells of the central nervous system resulting in neurodegeneration and disease. The past two decades have provided important insights into both the genetic and biological links between vesicle trafficking and neurodegeneration. In this essay, the pathways that have emerged as being critical for neuronal survival in the human brain will be discussed – illustrating the diversity of proteins and cellular events with three molecular case studies drawn from different neurological diseases.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Rahman ◽  
Y. Xiong ◽  
J. G. C. van Hasselt ◽  
J. Hansen ◽  
E. A. Sobie ◽  
...  

AbstractGene expression signatures (GES) connect phenotypes to mRNA expression patterns, providing a powerful approach to define cellular identity, function, and the effects of perturbations. However, the use of GES has suffered from vague assessment criteria and limited reproducibility. The structure of proteins defines the functional capability of genes, and hence, we hypothesized that enrichment of structural features could be a generalizable representation of gene sets. We derive structural gene expression signatures (sGES) using features from various levels of protein structure (e.g. domain, fold) encoded by the transcribed genes in GES, to describe cellular phenotypes. Comprehensive analyses of data from the Genotype-Tissue Expression Project (GTEx), ARCHS4, and mRNA expression of drug effects on cardiomyocytes show that structural GES (sGES) are useful for identifying robust signatures of biological phenomena. sGES also enables the characterization of signatures across experimental platforms, facilitates the interoperability of expression datasets, and can describe drug action on cells.


Author(s):  
Drew Massey

This chapter considers Adès’s compositional priorities by exploring his works which respond to complete, pre-existing musical pieces. I refer to these efforts collectively as Adès’s glossary. These glosses refract an existing piece through the lens of his own aesthetic, and also constitute a kind of commentary on practices through which composers have historically recruited music of the past into their work. Moreover, Adès’s engagements with composers ranging from Dowland to Nancarrow can be grouped according to a few overarching goals. Some of his glosses seek to comment or clarify on the harmonic or structural features of a piece; others focus on questions of performativity. In the case of his reconfiguration of his own music, Adès engages in a process of intensification of the source material, resulting in self-borrowings which distill the sometimes uncanny—or even disturbing—qualities present in the originals.


mSystems ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin C. Creekmore ◽  
Josh H. Gray ◽  
William G. Walton ◽  
Kristen A. Biernat ◽  
Michael S. Little ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Gut microbial β-glucuronidase (GUS) enzymes play important roles in drug efficacy and toxicity, intestinal carcinogenesis, and mammalian-microbial symbiosis. Recently, the first catalog of human gut GUS proteins was provided for the Human Microbiome Project stool sample database and revealed 279 unique GUS enzymes organized into six categories based on active-site structural features. Because mice represent a model biomedical research organism, here we provide an analogous catalog of mouse intestinal microbial GUS proteins—a mouse gut GUSome. Using metagenome analysis guided by protein structure, we examined 2.5 million unique proteins from a comprehensive mouse gut metagenome created from several mouse strains, providers, housing conditions, and diets. We identified 444 unique GUS proteins and organized them into six categories based on active-site features, similarly to the human GUSome analysis. GUS enzymes were encoded by the major gut microbial phyla, including Firmicutes (60%) and Bacteroidetes (21%), and there were nearly 20% for which taxonomy could not be assigned. No differences in gut microbial gus gene composition were observed for mice based on sex. However, mice exhibited gus differences based on active-site features associated with provider, location, strain, and diet. Furthermore, diet yielded the largest differences in gus composition. Biochemical analysis of two low-fat-associated GUS enzymes revealed that they are variable with respect to their efficacy of processing both sulfated and nonsulfated heparan nonasaccharides containing terminal glucuronides. IMPORTANCE Mice are commonly employed as model organisms of mammalian disease; as such, our understanding of the compositions of their gut microbiomes is critical to appreciating how the mouse and human gastrointestinal tracts mirror one another. GUS enzymes, with importance in normal physiology and disease, are an attractive set of proteins to use for such analyses. Here we show that while the specific GUS enzymes differ at the sequence level, a core GUSome functionality appears conserved between mouse and human gastrointestinal bacteria. Mouse strain, provider, housing location, and diet exhibit distinct GUSomes and gus gene compositions, but sex seems not to affect the GUSome. These data provide a basis for understanding the gut microbial GUS enzymes present in commonly used laboratory mice. Further, they demonstrate the utility of metagenome analysis guided by protein structure to provide specific sets of functionally related proteins from whole-genome metagenome sequencing data.


2014 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 1934578X1400900 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yasunori Yaoita ◽  
Masao Kikuchi ◽  
Koichi Machida

Over the past twenty years, our research group has been studying the chemical constituents of mushrooms. From nineteen species, namely, Amanita virgineoides Bas (Amanitaceae), Daedaleopsis tricolor (Bull.: Fr.) Bond. et Sing. (Polyporaceae), Grifola frondosa (Fr.) S. F. Gray (Polyporaceae), Hericium erinaceum (Bull.: Fr.) Pers. (Hericiaceae), Hypsizigus marmoreus (Peck) Bigelow (Tricholomataceae), Lactarius piperatus (Scop.: Fr.) S. F. Gray (Russulaceae), Lentinula edodes (Berk.) Sing. (Pleurotaceae), Lyophyllyum connatum (Schum.: Fr.) Sing. (Tricholomataceae), Naematoloma sublateritium (Fr.) Karst. (Strophariaceae), Ompharia lapidescens Schroeter (Polyporaceae), Panellus serotinus (Pers.: Fr.) Kuhn. (Tricholomataceae), Pholiota nameko (T. Ito) S. Ito et Imai in Imai (Strophariaceae), Pleurotus eringii (DC.: Fr.) Quel. (Pleurotaceae), Polyporus umbellatus Fries (Polyporaceae), Russula delica Fr. (Russulaceae), Russula sanguinea (Bull.) Fr. (Russulaceae), Sarcodon aspratus (Berk.) S. Ito (Thelephoraceae), Tricholoma matsutake (S. Ito et Imai) Sing. (Tricholomataceae), and Tricholoma portentosum (Fr.) Quel. (Tricholomataceae), we isolated eight new sesquiterpenoids, six new meroterpenoids, three new triterpenoids, and twenty eight new sterols. In this review, structural features of these new compounds are discussed.


2018 ◽  
Vol 54 (95) ◽  
pp. 13303-13318 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xu-Qing Wang ◽  
Wei-Jian Li ◽  
Wei Wang ◽  
Hai-Bo Yang
Keyword(s):  

Heterorotaxanes, in which at least two types of macrocycles were introduced as the wheel components in rotaxanes, have attracted more and more attention during the past few decades owing to their unique structural features and intriguing properties.


2020 ◽  
Vol 110 (8) ◽  
pp. 1476-1482
Author(s):  
Rachelle Bester ◽  
Sophia S. Malan ◽  
Hans J Maree

Over the past 2 decades, fruit symptoms resembling a marbling pattern on the fruit skin or corking of the fruit flesh were observed on Japanese plums in South Africa, resulting in unmarketable fruit. The ability of high-throughput sequencing (HTS) to detect known and unknown pathogens was exploited by assaying affected and unaffected fruit tree accessions to identify the potential aetiological agent of marbling and/or corky flesh disease. In this study, it is shown that the disease is associated with a previously undescribed small RNA with typical viroid structural features. The potential viroid was the only pathological agent consistently detected in all symptomatic trees by HTS, and the association with the symptoms was confirmed in field surveys over two seasons. To date, this RNA was not detectable by RT-PCR in seedlings raised from seeds collected from infected trees. Although the autonomous replication of this viroid-like RNA was not proven, it was shown to be transmissible by grafting and associated with a range of symptoms that include marbling on the fruit skin, corky flesh, reduced fruit size, irregular shape, and uneven fruit surface depending on the cultivar. Moreover, the circular RNA genome, consisting of 317 nucleotides, strongly supports that this viroid-like RNA is most likely a viroid for which the name plum viroid I (PVd-I) is proposed. The primary structure of this viroid showed a less than 90% nucleotide sequence identity to viroids of the genus Apscaviroid, with which it has close phylogenetic relationships and shares conserved structural motifs.


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