Short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) are an important link in the maintenance and normalization of some important body functions. Recently, the metabolic component of the SCFAs effects has also been actively studied; the effect on body weight, insulin resistance and glycemia is of particular interest in the context of the prevention and treatment of carbohydrate metabolism disorders. In this regard, it is relevant to study the characteristics of SCFAs' production in patients with impaired carbohydrate metabolism, mainly with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRoot gravitropic bending represents a fundamental aspect of terrestrial plant physiology. Gravity is perceived by sedimentation of starch-rich plastids (statoliths) to the bottom of the central root cap cells. Following gravity perception, intercellular auxin transport is redirected downwards leading to an asymmetric auxin accumulation at the lower root side causing inhibition of cell expansion, ultimately resulting in downwards bending.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSoluble chaperones residing in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) play vitally important roles in folding and quality control of newly synthesized proteins that transiently pass through the ER en route to their final destinations. These soluble residents of the ER are themselves endowed with an ER retrieval signal that enables the cell to bring the escaped residents back from the Golgi. Here, by using purified proteins, we showed that phytaspase, a plant aspartate-specific protease, introduces two breaks at the C-terminus of the ER resident calreticulin-3.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe phytohormone auxin triggers transcriptional reprogramming through a well-characterized perception machinery in the nucleus. By contrast, mechanisms that underlie fast effects of auxin, such as the regulation of ion fluxes, rapid phosphorylation of proteins or auxin feedback on its transport, remain unclear. Whether auxin-binding protein 1 (ABP1) is an auxin receptor has been a source of debate for decades.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFProteolytic enzymes are instrumental in various aspects of plant development, including senescence. This may be due not only to their digestive activity, which enables protein utilization, but also to fulfilling regulatory functions. Indeed, for the largest family of plant serine proteases, subtilisin-like proteases (subtilases), several members of which have been implicated in leaf and plant senescence, both non-specific proteolysis and regulatory protein processing have been documented.
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