Quantitative Structural Organization of Bulk Apical Membrane Traffic in Pollen Tubes.

Pollen tube tip growth depends on balancing secretion of cell wall material with endocytic recycling of excess material incorporated into the plasma membrane (PM). The classical model of tip growth, which predicts bulk secretion, occurs apically, and is compensated by subapical endocytosis, has been challenged in recent years. Many signaling proteins and lipids with important functions in the regulation of membrane traffic underlying tip growth associate with distinct regions of the pollen tube PM, and understanding the mechanisms responsible for the targeting of these regulatory factors to specific PM domains requires quantitative information concerning the sites of bulk secretion and endocytosis.

BMP7-induced-Pten inhibits Akt and prevents renal fibrosis.

Bone morphogenetic protein-7 (BMP-7) counteracts pro-fibrotic effects of TGFβ in cultured renal cells and protects from fibrosis in acute and chronic renal injury models. Using the unilateral ureteral obstruction (UUO) model of chronic renal fibrosis, we investigated the effect of exogenous-rhBMP-7 on pro-fibrotic signaling pathways mediated by TGFβ and hypoxia. Mice undergoing UUO were treated with vehicle or rhBMP-7 (300μg/kg i.

Secretion and Endocytosis in Pollen Tubes: Models of Tip Growth in the Spot Light.

Pollen tube tip growth is a widely used model ideally suited to study cellular processes underlying polarized cell expansion. Local secretion supplying material for plasma membrane (PM) and cell wall extension is essential for this process. Cell wall biogenesis requires fusion of secretory vesicles with the PM at an about 10× higher rate than PM extension.

Phenotype-based Discovery of 2-[(E)-2-(Quinolin-2-yl)vinyl]phenol as a Novel Regulator of Ocular Angiogenesis.

Retinal angiogenesis is tightly regulated to meet oxygenation and nutritional requirements. In diseases such as proliferative diabetic retinopathy and neovascular age-related macular degeneration, uncontrolled angiogenesis can lead to blindness. Our goal is to better understand the molecular processes controlling retinal angiogenesis and discover novel drugs that inhibit retinal neovascularization.

The eukaryotic linear motif resource ELM: 10 years and counting.

The eukaryotic linear motif (ELM http://elm.eu.org) resource is a hub for collecting, classifying and curating information about short linear motifs (SLiMs).

ELM--the database of eukaryotic linear motifs.

Linear motifs are short, evolutionarily plastic components of regulatory proteins and provide low-affinity interaction interfaces. These compact modules play central roles in mediating every aspect of the regulatory functionality of the cell. They are particularly prominent in mediating cell signaling, controlling protein turnover and directing protein localization.