Background: The argasid tick Ornithodoros erraticus is the main vector of tick-borne human relapsing fever (TBRF) and African swine fever (ASF) in the Mediterranean Basin. The prevention and control of these diseases would greatly benefit from the elimination of O. erraticus populations, and anti-tick vaccines are envisaged as an effective and sustainable alternative to chemical acaricide usage for tick control.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGlobal analysis of protein phosphorylation by mass spectrometry proteomic techniques has emerged in the last decades as a powerful tool in biological and biomedical research. However, there are several factors that make the global study of the phosphoproteome more challenging than measuring non-modified proteins. The low stoichiometry of the phosphorylated species and the need to retrieve residue specific information require particular attention on sample preparation, data acquisition and processing to ensure reproducibility, qualitative and quantitative robustness and ample phosphoproteome coverage in phosphoproteomic workflows.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The argasid tick Ornithodoros moubata is the main vector in mainland Africa of African swine fever virus and the spirochete Borrelia duttoni, which causes human relapsing fever. The elimination of populations of O. moubata would contribute to the prevention and control of these two serious diseases.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGenes acquired by horizontal gene transfer (HGT) may provide the recipient organism with potentially new functions, but proper expression level and integration of the transferred genes in the novel environment are not granted. Notably, transferred genes can differ from the receiving genome in codon usage preferences, leading to impaired translation and reduced functionality. Here, we characterize the genomic and proteomic changes undergone during experimental evolution of Escherichia coli after HGT of three synonymous versions, presenting very different codon usage preference, of an antibiotic resistance gene.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMonocytes are bone marrow-derived leukocytes that are part of the innate immune system. Monocytes are divided into three subsets: classical, intermediate and non-classical, which can be differentiated by their expression of some surface antigens, mainly CD14 and CD16. These cells are key players in the inflammation process underlying the mechanism of many diseases.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUnlabelled: Analytical proteomics has experienced exponential progress in the last decade and can be expected to lead research studies on diagnostic and therapeutic biomarkers in the near future. Because the development of this type of analysis requires the use of a large number of human samples with a minimum of quality requirements, our objective was to identify appropriate indicators for quality control of plasma samples stored in biobanks for research in proteomics. To accomplish this, plasma samples from 100 healthy donors were obtained and processed according to the pre-analytical variables of: a) time delay for the first centrifugation of the original blood sample (4 or 24h) and b) number of freeze/thaw cycles (1, 2 or 3) of the processed plasma samples.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUnlabelled: Full identification of boar seminal plasma (SP) proteins remains challenging. This study aims to provide an extensive proteomic analysis of boar SP and to generate an accessible database of boar SP-proteome. A SP-pool (33entire ejaculates/11 boars; 3ejaculates/boar) was analyzed to characterize the boar SP-proteome.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTandem affinity purification method (TAP) allows the efficient purification of native protein complexes which incorporate a target protein fused with the TAP tag. Purified multiprotein complexes can then be subjected to diverse types of proteomic analyses. Here we describe the data acquired after applying the TAP strategy on histones H3 and H4 coupled with mass spectrometry to identify associated proteins and protein post-translational modifications in the budding yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHistones and their post-translational modifications contribute to regulating fundamental biological processes in all eukaryotic cells. We have applied a conventional tandem affinity purification strategy to histones H3 and H4 of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Mass spectrometry analysis of the co-purified proteins revealed multiple associated proteins, including core histones, which indicates that tagged histones may be incorporated to the nucleosome particle.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAnti-silencing function 1 (Asf1) is a conserved key eukaryotic histone H3/H4 chaperone that participates in a variety of DNA and chromatin-related processes. These include the assembly and disassembly of histones H3 and H4 from chromatin during replication, transcription, and DNA repair. In addition, Asf1 is required for H3K56 acetylation activity dependent on histone acetyltransferase Rtt109.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUnlabelled: Echinostomes are cosmopolitan parasites that infect a large number of different warm-blooded hosts, both in nature and in the laboratory. They also constitute an important group of food-borne trematodes of public health importance mainly in Southeast Asia and the Far East. In addition, echinostomes are an ideal model to study several aspects of intestinal helminth biology, since they present a number of advantages.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTick saliva contains pharmacologically active molecules that allow these parasites to obtain a blood meal from the host and facilitate host infection by tick-borne pathogens. Recent transcriptomic and proteomic analyses of the salivary glands of several tick species have provided data sets that are invaluable for a better understanding of tick sialomes and tick-host-pathogen relationships. Here we performed a proteomic study of the saliva from the argasid tick Ornithodoros moubata.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSchistosomes are blood parasites adapted to their intravascular habitat that have evolved mechanisms to evade the immune and hemostatic responses of their hosts. It has been observed that the schistosome can regulate the endothelium function along the infection, which contributes to modulation of host defensive responses and parasite survival. The purpose of this work was the analysis of the changes induced by Schistosoma bovis adult worms in the proteome expressed by infected mice on the endothelial surface of their portal vein.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Although the AIB1 oncogene has an important role during the early phase of the cell cycle as a coactivator of E2F1, little is known about its function during mitosis.
Methodology/principal Findings: Mitotic cells isolated by nocodazole treatment as well as by shake-off revealed a post-translational modification occurring in AIB1 specifically during mitosis. This modification was sensitive to the treatment with phosphatase, suggesting its modification by phosphorylation.
The somatic extract of Zygocotyle lunata (Trematoda: Paramphistomidae) adults collected from experimentally infected mice was investigated using a proteomic approach to separate and identify tryptic peptides from the somatic extract of Z. lunata adult worms. A shot-gun liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry procedure was used.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe excretory/secretory proteome of Echinostoma caproni (Trematoda: Echinostomatidae) adults collected from experimentally infected mice was investigated using a proteomic approach. We performed a shot-gun liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry for the separation and identification of tryptic peptides from the excretory/secretory products of E. caproni adult worms.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFStrongyloidiasis can be perpetuated by autoinfection with the filariform larvae L3, causing asymptomatic chronic infections and creating a population of carriers, affecting not only developing countries. So far, very little is known about the proteins that interact with the human host, and few proteins from the infective Strongyloides stercoralis L3 have been characterized. Here, we report results obtained from a proteomic analysis of the proteins from S.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRetinoic acid (RA) signaling is mediated by the retinoic acid receptor (RAR), belonging to the nuclear hormone receptor superfamily. In addition to its classical transcriptional actions, RAR also mediates rapid transcription-independent (nongenomic) actions, consisting in the activation of signal transduction pathways, as the phosphatidyl-inositol-3-kinase or the ERK MAPK-signaling pathways. RA-induced rapid transcription-independent actions play a role in different physiological contexts.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn vitro, prolyl oligopeptidase (POP) cleaves proline-containing bioactive peptides such as substance P, gonadotropin-releasing hormone, thyrotropin-releasing hormone, arginine-vasopressin, and neurotensin. Based on specific in vivo inhibition, POP has been suggested to be involved in cognitive and psychiatric processes but the identity of its physiological substrates has remained inconclusive. We have combined (a) sample snap-freezing and boiling buffer extraction, to limit protein degradation and reduce sample complexity; (b) pH two-dimensional liquid reverse-phase chromatography to enhance resolution; and (c) iTRAQ isobaric labeling to identify the rat brain peptides whose levels were differentially changed due to in vivo POP inhibition.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAnnexin A2 has been described as an important receptor for tissue-type plasminogen activator in endothelium and other cell types. Interaction between tissue-type plasminogen activator and its cellular receptor is critical for many of the functions of this protease. The annexin A2 motif that mediates tissue plasminogen activator interaction has been assigned to the hexapeptide LCKLSL in the amino-terminal domain of the protein, and it has been proposed that Cys(8) of this sequence is essential for tPA binding.
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