Bioinformatic prediction of ultraviolet light mutagenesis sensitivity of human genes and a method for genetically engineering UVB resistance.

Living on earth, we are exposed to ultraviolet (UV) light as part of the solar radiation. UVB spectrum light exposure contributes to the development of skin cancer by interacting with pyrimidine pairs to create lesions called cyclobutane pyrimidine dimers. If these lesions are not removed by nucleotide excision repair, they often give rise to C to T transition mutations.

Bioinformatic identification of plant peptides.

Plant peptides play a number of important roles in defence, development and many other aspects of plant physiology. Identifying additional peptide sequences provides the starting point to investigate their function using molecular, genetic or biochemical techniques. Due to their small size, identifying peptide sequences may not succeed using the default bioinformatic approaches that work well for average-sized proteins.

The Arabidopsis unannotated secreted peptide database, a resource for plant peptidomics.

In the era of genomics, if a gene is not annotated, it is not investigated. Due to their small size, genes encoding peptides are often missed in genome annotations. Secreted peptides are important regulators of plant growth, development, and physiology.

A petal breakstrength meter for Arabidopsis abscission studies.

Background: Abscission is the regulated dropping of plant organs, such as leaves or flower petals. This process involves a break down of the cell wall between layers of cells in the abscission zone, causing the organ to become detached. The model plant Arabidopsis thaliana undergoes floral organ abscission.

A novel method of cocaine delivery to fruit flies using a graphic arts airbrush.

The fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster is a model system for studying pathways regulating responses to cocaine. We describe a new method for delivering cocaine to Drosophila. Freebase cocaine dissolved in ethanol is sprayed onto cold-anaesthetized flies using a graphic arts airbrush modified to reproducibly control the drug dosage.

DVL, a novel class of small polypeptides: overexpression alters Arabidopsis development.

Small polypeptides can act as important regulatory molecules that coordinate cellular responses required for differentiation, growth, and development. In a gain-of-function genetic screen for genes that influence fruit development in Arabidopsis, we identified a novel gene -DEVIL1 (DVL1) - encoding a small protein. Overexpression of DVL1 results in pleiotropic phenotypes featured by shortened stature, rounder rosette leaves, clustered inflorescences, shortened pedicles, and siliques with pronged tips.

BAK1, an Arabidopsis LRR receptor-like protein kinase, interacts with BRI1 and modulates brassinosteroid signaling.

Brassinosteroids regulate plant growth and development through a protein complex that includes the leucine-rich repeat receptor-like protein kinase (LRR-RLK) brassinosteroid-insensitive 1 (BRI1). Activation tagging was used to identify a dominant genetic suppressor of bri1, bak1-1D (bri1-associated receptor kinase 1-1Dominant), which encodes an LRR-RLK, distinct from BRI1. Overexpression of BAK1 results in elongated organ phenotypes, while a null allele of BAK1 displays a semidwarfed phenotype and has reduced sensitivity to brassinosteroids (BRs).

Receptor serine/threonine protein kinases in signalling: analysis of the erecta receptor-like kinase of Arabidopsis thaliana.

The Arabidopsis ERECTA (ER) gene regulates elongation of above-ground organs. ER encodes a member of the leucine-rich repeats-receptor-like protein kinases (LRR-RLK) gene family, with the predicted protein containing a signal peptide, 20 leucine-rich repeats in the extracellular domain, a transmembrane domain, and a cytoplasmic serine/threonine protein kinase domain. The structural features of the predicted ER protein suggest its role in cell-cell signalling is through phosphorylating serine/threonine residues.