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ATP phosphoribosyltransferase (ATP-PRT) catalyzes the condensation of ATP and PRPP at the first step of histidine biosynthesis and is regulated by a feedback inhibition from product histidine. Here, we report the genetic and biochemical characterization of such an enzyme, HisG Cg , from Corynebacterium glutamicum, including site-directed mutagenesis of the histidine-binding site for the first...
Botulinum neurotoxins (BoNTs) are the most toxic proteins known for humans and animals with an extremely low LD 50 of ∼1 ng/kg. BoNTs generally require a protein and a ganglioside on the cell membrane surface for binding, which is known as a “dual receptor” mechanism for host intoxication. Recent studies have suggested that in addition to gangliosides, other membrane lipids such as phosphoinositides...
Nep (Natrialba magadii extracellular protease) is a halolysin-like peptidase secreted by the haloalkaliphilic archaeon N. magadii that exhibits optimal activity and stability in salt-saturated solutions. In this work, the effect of salt on the function and structure of Nep was investigated. In absence of salt, Nep became unfolded and aggregated, leading to the loss of activity. The enzyme did not...
Adenines downstream of the initiation codon promote protein synthesis; however, some adenine-containing codons (AGA, AGG and AUA) at early positions inhibit protein synthesis when cognate tRNA is exhausted. It has also been reported, although not convincingly, the presence of adenines enhancing mRNA binding to the ribosome. To understand these apparent inconsistencies we analyzed the effect of these...
The eukaryotic Engulfment and Cell Motility (ELMO) proteins form an evolutionary conserved family of key regulators which play a central role in Rho-dependent biological processes such as engulfment and cell motility/migration. ELMO proteins interact with a subset of Downstream of Crk (DOCK) family members, a new type of guanine exchange factors (GEF) for Rac and cdc42 GTPases. The physiological function...
Foot and mouth disease virus expresses its genetic information as a single polyprotein that is translated from the single-stranded RNA genome. Proteinases contained within the polyprotein then generate the mature viral proteins. The leader protease (Lb pro ) performs the initial cleavage by freeing itself from the growing polypeptide chain; subsequently, Lb pro cleaves the two homologues...
Isothiocyanates (ITCs) play a major role in the potential chemopreventive effect. Cruciferous vegetables are a particularly abundant source of ITCs. Methallyl ITC (MAITC) belongs to ITCs as a synthesized compound. However, the effects of MATIC have never been elucidated. The aim of this work was to investigate the anti-inflammatory effects and mechanisms of methallyl isothiocyanate (MAITC) in mast...
Glucose-6 phosphatase (G6Pase), a key enzyme of glucose homeostasis, catalyses the hydrolysis of glucose-6 phosphate (G6P) to glucose and inorganic phosphate. A deficiency in G6Pase activity causes type 1 glycogen storage disease (GSD-1), mainly characterised by hypoglycaemia. Genetic analyses of the two forms of this rare disease have shown that the G6Pase system consists of two proteins, a catalytic...
Vascular inflammation and cardiac dysfunction are the leading causes of mortality and morbidity among the diabetic patients. Type 1 diabetic mellitus (T1DM) is associated with increased cardiovascular complications at an early stage of the disease. The purpose of the present study was to explore whether arjunolic acid (AA) plays any protective role against cardiovascular complications in T1DM and...
Telomerase is responsible for the immortal phenotype of cancer cells and telomerase inhibition may specifically target cancer cell proliferation. Ligands able to selectively bind to G-quadruplex telomeric DNA have been considered as telomerase inhibitors but their mechanisms of action have often been deduced from a non-quantitative telomerase activity assay (TRAP assay) that involves a PCR step and...
In ocular development, retinal physiological hypoxia in response to the retinal metabolic activity controls retinal vascular development, which is regulated by variable angiogenic factors. Herein, we demonstrated that hypoxia-induced IGF-II could contribute to retinal vascularization in ocular development. In the developing retina, IGF-II expression appears to be predominant on retinal vessels, which...
Growing evidence suggests the presence of active lysosomal enzymes in extra-lysosomal compartments, such as the plasma membrane. Although in the past little attention was paid to glycohydrolases acting on cellular compartments different from lysosomes, there is now increasing interest on plasma membrane-associated glycohydrolases because they should be involved, together with glycosyltransferases,...
A putative fatty acid hydratase gene from Macrococcus caseolyticus was cloned and expressed in Escherichia coli. The recombinant enzyme was a 68 kDa dimer with a molecular mass of 136 kDa. The enzymatic products formed from fatty acid substrates by the putative enzyme were isolated with high purity (>99%) by solvent fractional crystallization at low temperature. After the identification by GC–MS,...
Microtubule dynamic instability is tightly regulated by coordinated action of stabilizing and destabilizing microtubule associated proteins. Among the stabilizing proteins, tau plays a pivotal role in both physiological and pathological processes. Nevertheless, the detailed mechanism of tau–tubulin interaction is still subject to controversy. In this report, we studied for the first time tau binding...
Recent studies have established specific cellular functions for different bioactive sphingolipids in skeletal muscle cells. Ceramide 1-phosphate (C1P) is an important bioactive sphingolipid that has been involved in cell growth and survival. However its possible role in the regulation of muscle cell homeostasis has not been so far investigated. In this study, we show that C1P stimulates myoblast proliferation,...
Previous characterization of a native lamprey angiotensin II (LpAng II) that possesses a different sequence and function than teleost-type angiotensin II (Ang II) has raised a question as to the role of teleost-type angiotensin peptides in lampreys. In this study, teleost-type angiotensin like-peptides were identified in the buccal gland of lampreys by immunoassays and immunohistochemistry. The possible...
Mycobacterium, the most common disease-causing genus, infects billions of people and is notoriously difficult to treat. Understanding the subcellular localization of mycobacterial proteins can provide essential clues for protein function and drug discovery. In this article, we present a novel approach that focuses on local sequence information to identify localization motifs that are generated by...
The lectin of Dioclea virgata (DvirL), both native and complexed with X-man, was submitted to X-ray diffraction analysis and the crystal structure was compared to that of other Diocleinae lectins in order to better understand differences in biological properties, especially with regard to the ability of lectins to induce nitric oxide (NO) production. An association was observed between the volume...
Germ cells express a unique subset of genes called germ genes mostly encoding RNA-binding proteins such as Dazl, Dnd and Vasa. How germ gene expression is controlled remains illusive, because in no organism has a transcription factor been identified that regulate expression of these genes. Microphthalmia-associated transcription factor (Mitf) has been reported to show expression in male mouse germ...
The lipophilic pollutant tributyltin (TBT), other than inhibiting the DCCD (N,N′-dicyclohexylcarbodiimide) and oligomycin-sensitive Mg-ATPase activities in digestive gland mitochondria from the Mediterranean mussel Mytilus galloprovincialis, at higher than 1.0 μM concentrations in vitro promotes an increase in the ATPase activity fraction refractory to inhibitors of F O moiety, namely oligomycin...
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