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The ring-shaped cohesin complex brings together distant DNA domains to maintain, express, and segregate the genome. Establishing specific chromosomal linkages depends on cohesin recruitment to defined loci. One such locus is the budding yeast centromere, which is a paradigm for targeted cohesin loading. The kinetochore, a multiprotein complex that connects centromeres to microtubules, drives the recruitment...
Kinetochores, multisubunit protein assemblies, connect chromosomes to spindle microtubules to promote chromosome segregation. The 10-subunit KMN assembly (comprising KNL1, MIS12, and NDC80 complexes, designated KNL1C, MIS12C, and NDC80C) binds microtubules and regulates mitotic checkpoint function through NDC80C and KNL1C, respectively. MIS12C, on the other hand, connects the KMN to the chromosome-proximal...
Kinetochores connect centromeric nucleosomes with mitotic-spindle microtubules through conserved, cross-interacting protein subassemblies. In budding yeast, the heterotetrameric MIND complex (Mtw1, Nnf1, Nsl1, Dsn1), ortholog of the metazoan Mis12 complex, joins the centromere-proximal components, Mif2 and COMA, with the principal microtubule-binding component, the Ndc80 complex (Ndc80C). We report...
The large (L) proteins of non-segmented, negative-strand RNA viruses, a group that includes Ebola and rabies viruses, catalyze RNA-dependent RNA polymerization with viral ribonucleoprotein as template, a non-canonical sequence of capping and methylation reactions, and polyadenylation of viral messages. We have determined by electron cryomicroscopy the structure of the vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV)...
Vaccines for rapidly evolving pathogens will confer lasting immunity if they elicit antibodies recognizing conserved epitopes, such as a receptor-binding site (RBS). From characteristics of an influenza-virus RBS-directed antibody, we devised a signature motif to search for similar antibodies. We identified, from three vaccinees, over 100 candidates encoded by 11 different VH genes. Crystal structures...
In this issue of Cell, Loffredo et al. demonstrate that exposing an old mouse to the circulatory system of a young mouse reverses age-related cardiac hypertrophy. The authors demonstrate that this effect can be recapitulated by treating old mice with growth and differentiation factor 11 (GDF11). These data suggest that GDF11 therapy may be a useful tool in combating age-related cardiac hypertrophy.
PGC-1α is a transcriptional coactivator induced by exercise that gives muscle many of the best known adaptations to endurance-type exercise but has no effects on muscle strength or hypertrophy. We have identified a form of PGC-1α (PGC-1α4) that results from alternative promoter usage and splicing of the primary transcript. PGC-1α4 is highly expressed in exercised muscle but does not regulate most...
The monopolin complex regulates different types of kinetochore-microtubule attachments in fungi, ensuring sister chromatid co-orientation in Saccharomyces cerevisiae meiosis I and inhibiting merotelic attachment in Schizosaccharomyces pombe mitosis. In addition, the monopolin complex maintains the integrity and silencing of ribosomal DNA (rDNA) repeats in the nucleolus. We show here that the S. cerevisiae...
Fast growth of microtubules is essential for rapid assembly of the microtubule cytoskeleton during cell proliferation and differentiation. XMAP215 belongs to a conserved family of proteins that promote microtubule growth. To determine how XMAP215 accelerates growth, we developed a single-molecule assay to visualize directly XMAP215-GFP interacting with dynamic microtubules. XMAP215 binds free tubulin...
Transcriptional activation of the interferon-β (IFN-β) gene requires assembly of an enhanceosome containing ATF-2/c-Jun, IRF-3/IRF-7, and NFκB. These factors bind cooperatively to the IFN-β enhancer and recruit coactivators and chromatin-remodeling proteins to the IFN-β promoter. We describe here a crystal structure of the DNA-binding domains of IRF-3, IRF-7, and NFκB, bound to one half of the enhancer,...
Iron, insoluble as free Fe 3+ and toxic as free Fe 2+ , is distributed through the body as Fe 3+ bound to transferrin (Tf) for delivery to cells by endocytosis of its complex with transferrin receptor (TfR). Although much is understood of the transferrin endocytotic cycle, little has been uncovered of the molecular details underlying the formation of the receptor-transferrin...
The modularity of protein architecture and the diversity of protein domains hint at a vast combinatorial richness. But evolution appears to have been relatively conservative about selecting new combinations. When a particular grouping of domains within a polypeptide chain can perform a concerted function, that combination tends to reappear in multiple genomic contexts. In other words, once a molecular...
The reovirus polymerase and those of other dsRNA viruses function within the confines of a protein capsid to transcribe the tightly packed dsRNA genome segments. The crystal structure of the reovirus polymerase, λ3, determined at 2.5 Å resolution, shows a fingers-palm-thumb core, similar to those of other viral polymerases, surrounded by major N- and C-terminal elaborations, which create a cage-like...
Cell entry by nonenveloped animal viruses requires membrane penetration without membrane fusion. The reovirus penetration agent is the outer-capsid protein, μ1. The structure of μ1, complexed with its ''protector'' protein, σ3, and the fit of this μ1 3 σ3 3 heterohexameric complex into the cryoEM image of an intact virion, reveal molecular events essential for viral penetration. Autolytic...
The p21-activated kinases (PAKs), stimulated by binding with GTP-liganded forms of Cdc42 or Rac, modulate cytoskeletal actin assembly and activate MAP-kinase pathways. The 2.3 9 resolution crystal structure of a complex between the N-terminal autoregulatory fragment and the C-terminal kinase domain of PAK1 shows that GTPase binding will trigger a series of conformational changes, beginning with...
The inhibitory protein, IκBα, sequesters the transcription factor, NF-κB, as an inactive complex in the cytoplasm. The structure of the IκBα ankyrin repeat domain, bound to a partially truncated NF-κ>B heterodimer (p50/p65), has been determined by X-ray crystallography at 2.7 Å resolution. It shows a stack of six IκBα ankyrin repeats facing the C-terminal domains of the NF-κB Rel homology regions...
Clathrin triskelions form the lattice that organizes recruitment of proteins to coated pits and helps drive vesiculation of the lipid bilayer. We report the crystal structure at 2.6 Å resolution of a 55 kDa N-terminal fragment from the 190 kDa clathrin heavy chain. The structure comprises the globular “terminal domain” and the linker that joins it to the end of a triskelion leg. The terminal domain...
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