Publications by authors named "Laura van der Weel"

Escherichia coli ZraP (zinc resistance associated protein) is the major Zn containing soluble protein under Zn stress conditions. ZraP is the accessory protein of a bacterial two-component, Zn sensitive signal transduction system ZraSR. ZraP has also been reported to act as a Zn dependent molecular chaperone.

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Electron Paramagnetic Resonance (EPR) monitored redox titrations are a powerful method to determine the midpoint potential of cofactors in proteins and to identify and quantify the cofactors in their detectable redox state. The technique is complementary to direct electrochemistry (voltammetry) approaches, as it does not offer information on electron transfer rates, but does establish the identity and redox state of the cofactors in the protein under study. The technique is widely applicable to any protein containing an electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) detectable cofactor.

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Background: The highly homologous [4Fe-4S] containing fumarases FumA and FumB, sharing 90% amino acid sequence identity, from Escherichia coli are differentially regulated, which suggests a difference in their physiological function. The ratio of FumB over FumA expression levels increases by one to two orders of magnitude upon change from aerobic to anaerobic growth conditions.

Methodology/principal Findings: To understand this difference in terms of structure-function relations, catalytic and thermodynamic properties were determined for the two enzymes obtained from homologous overexpression systems.

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Storage of iron in a nontoxic and bioavailable form is essential for many forms of life. Three subfamilies of the ferritin-like superfamily, namely, ferritin, bacterioferritin, and Dps (DNA-binding proteins from starved cells), are able to store iron. Although the function of these iron-storage proteins is constitutive to many organisms to sustain life, the genome of some organisms appears not to encode any of these proteins.

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Prostate cancer is a leading cause of death among men in Western countries. Whereas the survival rate approaches 100% for patients with localized cancer, the results of treatment in patients with metastasized prostate cancer at diagnosis are much less successful. The patients are usually presented with a variety of treatment options, but therapeutic interventions in prostate cancer are associated with frequent adverse side effects.

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The hyperthermophilic archaeon Pyrococcus furiosus is a strict anaerobe. It is therefore not expected to use the oxidative tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle for energy transduction. Nonetheless, its genome encodes more putative TCA cycle enzymes than the closely related Pyrococcus horikoshii and Pyrococcus abyssi, including an aconitase (PF0201).

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Background: Specificity of transgene expression is important for safety during gene therapeutical applications. For prostate cancer, transcriptional targeting has been applied but was hampered by loss of specificity and low activity. We constructed a small chimeric promoter for high and prostate-specific transgene expression from adenoviral vectors.

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TARP (T cell receptor gamma-chain alternate reading frame protein) is a protein that in males is uniquely expressed in prostate epithelial cells and prostate cancer cells. We have previously shown that the transcriptional activity of a chimeric sequence comprising the TARP promoter (TARPp) and the PSA enhancer (PSAe) is strictly controlled by testosterone and highly restricted to cells of prostate origin. Here we report that a chimeric sequence comprising TARPp and the PSMA enhancer (PSMAe) is highly active in testosterone-deprived prostate cancer cells, while a regulatory sequence comprising PSAe, PSMAe, and TARPp (PPT) has high prostate-specific activity both in the presence and in the absence of testosterone.

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Background: Fanconi anaemia (FA) is an autosomal recessive chromosomal instability disorder. Six distinct FA disease genes have been identified, the products of which function in an integrated pathway that is thought to support a nuclear caretaker function. Comparison of FA gene characteristics in different species may help to unravel the molecular function of the FA pathway.

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