Publications by authors named "K J Banasiak"

Utilizingresources available from the mother's body to guarantee healthy offspring growth is the fundamental reproductive strategy. Recently, we showed that a class of the largest extracellular vesicles known as exophers, which are responsible for the removal of neurotoxic components from neurons ( Melentijevic et al., 2017 ) and damaged mitochondria from cardiomyocytes (Nicolás-Ávila et al.

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CHIP (C-terminus of Hsc70-interacting protein) and its worm ortholog CHN-1 are E3 ubiquitin ligases that link the chaperone system with the ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS). CHN-1 can cooperate with UFD-2, another E3 ligase, to accelerate ubiquitin chain formation; however, the basis for the high processivity of this E3s set has remained obscure. Here, we studied the molecular mechanism and function of the CHN-1-UFD-2 complex in Caenorhabditis elegans.

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Article Synopsis
  • Organismal functionality and reproduction are influenced by metabolic changes and energy balance, but the link between organism health and reproductive success is not well understood.
  • Research using the roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans revealed that large extracellular vesicles called exophers are released by body wall muscles to aid in embryo growth.
  • These exophers, produced in response to signals from developing embryos, transport essential proteins to oocytes, enhancing growth rates of offspring from mothers with more exophers and suggesting a role in adapting to environmental changes.
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The proteolytic machinery activity diminishes with age, leading to abnormal accumulation of aberrant proteins; furthermore, a decline in protein degradation capacity is associated with multiple age-related proteinopathies. Cellular proteostasis can be maintained the removal of ubiquitin (Ub)-tagged damaged and redundant proteins by the ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS). However, during aging, central nervous system (CNS) cells begin to express a frameshift-mutated Ub, UBB.

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