A Survey on Tubulin and Arginine Methyltransferase Families Sheds Light on Embryo as Model System for Antiproliferative Drug Development.

Tubulins and microtubules (MTs) represent targets for taxane-based chemotherapy. To date, several lines of evidence suggest that effectiveness of compounds binding tubulin often relies on different post-translational modifications on tubulins. Among them, methylation was recently associated to drug resistance mechanisms impairing taxanes binding.

Cadmium effects on p38/MAPK isoforms in MDA-MB231 breast cancer cells.

Emerging evidence seems to indicate that the heavy metal cadmium (Cd) is able to regulate gene expression, drastically affecting the pattern of transcriptional activity in normal and pathological eukaryotic cells, also affecting intracellular signalization events. Human p38 is a family of mitogen-activated protein kinases consisting of four isoforms (alpha, beta, gamma and delta) which mediate signal transduction cascades controlling several aspects of cell physiology. In this study we examined whether exposure of MDA-MB231 tumor cells from the human breast to Cd may exert some effect on p38 isoform expression and accumulation, as well as on p38 activation.

Sea urchin neural alpha2 tubulin gene: isolation and promoter analysis.

Expression of Talpha2 gene, during sea urchin Paracentrotus lividus development, is spatially and temporally regulated. In order to characterize this gene, we isolated the relevant genomic sequences and scanned the isolated 5'-flanking region in searching for cis-regulatory elements required for proper expression. Gel mobility shift and footprinting assays, as well as reporter gene (CAT and beta-gal) expression assays, were used to address cis-regulatory elements involved in regulation.

Hsp40 is involved in cilia regeneration in sea urchin embryos.

In a previous paper we demonstrated that, in Paracentrotus lividus embryos, deciliation represents a specific kind of stress that induces an increase in the levels of an acidic protein of about 40 kD (p40). Here we report that deciliation also induces an increase in Hsp40 chaperone levels and enhancement of its ectodermal localization. We suggest that Hsp40 might play a chaperoning role in cilia regeneration.

Sea urchin deciliation induces thermoresistance and activates the p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway.

In this study, we demonstrate by a variety of approaches (ie, morphological analysis, Western blots, immunolocalization, and the use of specific antibodies) that hyperosmotic deciliation stress of sea urchin embryos induces a thermotolerant response. Deciliation is also able to activate a phosphorylation signaling cascade the effector of which might be the p38 stress-activated protein kinase because we found that the administration of the p38 inhibitor SB203580 to sea urchin deciliated gastrula embryos makes the hyperosmotic deciliation stress lethal.