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The Rad51 protein has been shown to play a vital role in the DNA repair process. In humans, its interaction with proteins like BRCA1 and BRCA2 has provided an insight into the mechanism of how these molecules function as tumor suppressors. Several members of the Rad51-like family have been recently identified, including RAD51L2. This gene has been found to be amplified in breast tumors suggesting...
Sister chromatid cohesion is required for proper chromosome segregation during cell division. One group of proteins that is essential for sister chromatid cohesion during mitosis and meiosis is the RAD21/REC8 family of cohesin proteins. Two cohesin proteins are found in yeast; one that functions mainly in mitosis while the other participates in meiosis. In contrast, only one cohesin gene appears to...
NEMO (NFκB essential modulator) is a non-catalytic subunit of the cytokine-dependent IκB kinase complex that is involved in activation of the transcription factor NFκB. The human NEMO gene maps to Xq28 and is arranged head to head with the proximal G6PD gene. Mutations in NEMO have recently been associated with Incontinentia Pigmenti (Smahi et al., Nature 405 (2000) 466), an X-linked dominant disorder...
The Spo11 protein is an eukaryotic homologue of the topoisomerase 6 subunit A from archaebacteria. In yeast Spo11p has been found to bind covalently to double-strand breaks (DSBs) during meiosis. Single homologues of the SPO11 gene exist in various eukaryotes, except plants. Previously, we found in the Arabidopsis thaliana genome two ancient paralogs, AtSPO11-1 and 2. Here we report on the molecular...
We describe the cloning and characterization of a novel rat gene, bwd (brain-enriched WD), which encodes a protein with four copies of the WD amino acid motif, suggesting involvement in protein-protein interaction and a regulatory function in the cell. Northern analysis reveals two size classes of mRNA (1.8 and 2.2 kb), expressed in many adult tissues and developmental stages. Expression is highest...
The cellular slime mold Dictyostelium discoideum reproduces sexually under submerged and dark conditions. A cell surface glycoprotein gp138 has been identified as a target molecule for cell fusion-blocking antibodies, and is considered to be indispensable for the sexual cell fusion in this organism. Currently, four isoforms of gp138, DdFRP1α, DdFRP1β, DdFRP2, and DdFRP3, are known. Genes encoding...
The HMGIY non-histone proteins play important roles as architectural transcription factors that regulate gene transcription in mammalian cells and also act as host-supplied cofactors necessary for retroviral integration. The genes coding for the HMGIY proteins are proto-oncogenes, and their aberrant or over-expression is correlated with both neoplastic transformation and metastatic progression in...
Silver crucian carp (Carassius auratus gibelio) is a unique triploid bisexual species that can reproduce by gynogenesis. As all other gynogenetic animals, it keeps its chromosome integrity by inhibiting the first meiosis division (no extrusion of the first pole body). To understand the molecular events governing this reproduction mode, suppression subtractive hybridization was used to identify the...
Improvement of the biochemical characteristics of enzymes has been aided by misincorporation mutagenesis and DNA shuffling. Shuffling techniques can be used on a collection of mutants of the same gene, or related families of genes can be shuffled to produce mutants encoding chimeric gene products. One difficulty with current shuffling procedures is the predominance of unshuffled ('parental') molecules...
The M 2 muscarinic receptor inhibits the release of acetylcholine from cholinergic fibers in the lungs and elsewhere. In airway parasympathetic neurons, M 2 receptor expression is decreased by viral infections and by interferon-γ, increasing actylcholine release. Dexamethasone increases M 2 receptor expression, decreasing acetylcholine release. We carried out 5' rapid amplification...
The human SART1 gene was initially identified in a screen for proteins recognised by IgE, which may be implicated in atopic disease. We have examined the genomic structure and cDNA sequence of the SART1 gene in the compact genomes of the pufferfish Fugu rubripes and Tetraodon nigroviridis. The entire coding regions of both the Fugu and Tetraodon SART1 genes are contained within single exons. The Fugu...
Phospholemman (PLM) is a small transmembrane cardiac protein that is the major sarcolemmal substrate for phosphorylation in response to adrenergic stimulation. PLM likely plays a role in muscle contractility and cell volume regulation through its function as a channel or a channel regulator. We are the first to describe the structure of the PLM gene and to demonstrate PLM cDNA splice variants. We...
Genes encoding linker histone variants have evolved to link their expression to signals controlling the proliferative capacities of cells, i.e. cycling and growth-arrested cells express distinct and specific H1 subtypes. In metazoan, these variants show a tripartite structure, with considerably divergent sequences in their amino and carboxyl terminus domains. The aim of this review is to show how...
Gephyrin was first described as a peripheral membrane protein of 93 kDa anchoring the glycine receptor (GlyR) to subsynaptic microtubules and cytoskeleton. Analysis of knock-out mice demonstrated that gephyrin has additional functions in GABA A receptor localization at the synapse and in the biosynthetic pathway of the molybdenum cofactor (Moco). Here we describe a human non-neuronal gephyrin...
Sox18 encodes a transcription factor known to be important for the development of blood vessels and hair follicles in mice. In order to study the functional conservation of this gene through evolution, we have isolated and characterized Sox18 in chickens. cSox18 shows a high degree of sequence homology to both the mouse and human orthologues, particularly in the high mobility group DNA-binding domain...
Insects produce various anti-microbial peptides in response to injury and infection. In Drosophila, diptericin has previously been studied as an anti-bacterial immune response gene. Here, we report the cloning of the diptericin-like protein (dptlp) gene as a paralog of Drosophila diptericin. By comparison of their sequences, we found that the dptlp gene has all of the functional domains conserved...
This report presents the first hsp90 complete cDNA sequences from two Lepidoptera. The Bombyx mori full sequence was reconstituted from 15 partial cDNA clones belonging to expressed sequence tag libraries obtained from different tissues or cultured cells, thus showing the ubiquitous expression of the hsp90 gene. The Spodoptera frugiperda cDNA was isolated as a full-length clone from a cDNA library...
The enzyme myo-inositol monophosphatase (Impa) catalyzes the synthesis of free myo-inositol from various myo-inositol monophosphates in the phosphatidylinositol signaling system. Impa is a lithium-blockable enzyme that has been hypothesized to be the biological target for lithium-salts used as mood-stabilizing drugs in the treatment of manic-depressive (bipolar) illness. As an initial step to explore...
Tc1-like transposons are very widely distributed within the genomes of animal species. They consist of an inverted repeat sequence flanking a transposase gene with homology to the mobile DNA element, Tc1 of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. These elements seem particularly to infest the genomes of fish and amphibian species where they can account for 1% of the total genome. However, all vertebrate...
We previously reported the isolation of a novel apoptosis-related gene, human Nap1 (HGMW-approved symbol NCKAP1), the expression of which was strongly down-regulated in sporadic Alzheimer's disease (AD). Human Nap1 proved to be an orthologue of rat Nap1 which binds to the adaptor molecule Nck in signal transduction. In order to further elucidate the function of human Nap1, we performed yeast two-hybrid...
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