LAMMER Kinase Modulates Cell Cycle by Phosphorylating the MBF Repressor, Yox1, in .

Lkh1, a LAMMER kinase homolog in the fission yeast , acts as a negative regulator of filamentous growth and flocculation. It is also involved in the response to oxidative stress. The deletion mutant displays slower cell growth, shorter cell size, and abnormal DNA content compared to the wild type.

Allosteric modulation of a human odorant receptor.

Odor perception is first determined by how the myriad of environmental volatiles are detected at the periphery of the olfactory system. The combinatorial activation of dedicated odorant receptors generates enough encoding power for the discrimination of tens of thousands of odorants. Recent studies have revealed that odorant receptors undergo widespread inhibitory modulation of their activity when presented with mixtures of odorants, a property likely required to maintain discrimination and ensure sparsity of the code for complex mixtures.

Retracted: Molecular characterization of excipients' preferential interactions with therapeutic monoclonal antibodies.

Retraction: Molecular characterization of excipients' preferential interactions with therapeutic monoclonal antibodies by Jehoon Kim, Mark R. H. Krebs and Bernhardt L.

A Thermodynamic Model for Genome Packaging in Hepatitis B Virus.

Understanding the fundamentals of genome packaging in viral capsids is important for finding effective antiviral strategies and for utilizing benign viral particles for gene therapy. While the structure of encapsidated genomic materials has been routinely characterized with experimental techniques such as cryo-electron microscopy and x-ray diffraction, much less is known about the molecular driving forces underlying genome assembly in an intracellular environment and its in vivo interactions with the capsid proteins. Here we study the thermodynamic basis of the pregenomic RNA encapsidation in human Hepatitis B virus in vivo using a coarse-grained molecular model that captures the essential components of nonspecific intermolecular interactions.

Thermodynamic and Structural Evidence for Reduced Hydrogen Bonding among Water Molecules near Small Hydrophobic Solutes.

The structure of water molecules near a hydrophobic solute remains elusive despite a long history of scrutiny. Here, we re-examine the subtle issue by a combination of thermodynamic analysis for Henry's constants of several nonpolar gases over a broad range of temperatures and molecular dynamic simulations for the water structure in the hydration shell using several popular semiempirical models of liquid water. Both the structural and thermodynamic data indicate that hydrophobic hydration reduces the degree of the hydrogen bonding among water molecules, and the effect becomes more prominent at high temperatures.

A theoretical study of SRPK interaction with the flexible domains of hepatitis B capsids.

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) controls genome encapsidation and reverse transcription from a single-stranded RNA to a double-stranded DNA through the flexible C-terminal domain (CTD) of the capsid proteins. Although the microscopic structure of the nucleocapsid plays a critical role in the life cycle of HBV, the location of CTD residues at different stages of viral replication remains poorly understood. In this work, we report the radial distributions of individual amino-acid residues of the CTD tails for both empty and RNA-containing HBV capsids by using a coarse-grained model for the key biological components and the classical density functional theory.

A molecular thermodynamic model for the stability of hepatitis B capsids.

Self-assembly of capsid proteins and genome encapsidation are two critical steps in the life cycle of most plant and animal viruses. A theoretical description of such processes from a physiochemical perspective may help better understand viral replication and morphogenesis thus provide fresh insights into the experimental studies of antiviral strategies. In this work, we propose a molecular thermodynamic model for predicting the stability of Hepatitis B virus (HBV) capsids either with or without loading nucleic materials.

Shape effect on nanoparticle solvation: a comparison of morphometric thermodynamics and microscopic theories.

Conventional wisdom for controlling the nanoparticle size and shape during synthesis is that particle growth favors the direction of a facet with the highest surface energy. However, the particle solvation free energy, which dictates the particle stability and growth, depends not only on the surface area and surface free energy but also on other geometric measures such as the solvent excluded volume and the surface curvature and their affiliated thermodynamic properties. In this work, we study the geometrical effects on the solvation free energies of nonspherical nanoparticles using morphometric thermodynamics and density functional theories.

Removal of intact β2-microglobulin at neutral ph by using seed-conjugated polymer beads prepared with β2-microglobulin-derived peptide (58-67).

Removal of β2-microglobulin (β2M) from the blood of patients suffering from kidney dysfunction is crucial to protect those individuals from getting the diseased state of dialysis-related amyloidosis. By harnessing the nucleation-dependent fibrillation process of amyloidogenesis, a β2M removal strategy has been proposed by preparing seed-conjugated polymer beads and assimilating soluble β2M to the fibrils on the surface at neutral pH. A novel peptide segment of β2M ranging from residue 58 to residue 67 (Lys-Asp-Trp-Ser-Phe-Tyr-Leu-Leu-Tyr-Tyr), which was capable of being fibrillated at neutral pH was isolated.

alpha-Synuclein enhances bioluminescent activity of firefly luciferase by facilitating luciferin localization.

alpha-Synuclein, the pathological component of Parkinson's disease, has been demonstrated to be highly interactive with various protein partners. alpha-Synuclein has been shown to exert a novel effect on the bioluminescence of firefly luciferase by stimulating the oxyluciferin formation from its substrate of luciferin, which results in a significant enhancement of the spike of flashing light via concomitant augmentation for both rapid rise and quick decay of the luminescence. Binding affinity between alpha-synuclein and luciferase was evaluated with K(d) of 8.

Novel method for quantitative determination of amyloid fibrils of alpha-synuclein and amyloid beta/A4 protein by using resveratrol.

Amyloidosis producing insoluble fibrillar protein aggregates is the common pathological feature of various neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases in which alpha-synuclein and amyloid beta/A4 protein (Abeta) participate to form Lewy bodies and senile plaques, respectively. To develop a novel analytical tool for amyloidosis, resveratrol, the major phenolic constituent of red wine and isolatable from grapevines, was employed to monitor the amyloids of alpha-synuclein and Abeta. Specific interaction to the amyloids enhanced the intrinsic fluorescence of resveratrol at 395 nm with an advent of new shoulder peak at 440 nm following an excitation at 320 nm.