Publications by authors named "Michael Chinkers"

Steroid-hormone-receptor maturation is a multi-step process that involves several TPR (tetratricopeptide repeat) proteins that bind to the maturation complex via the C-termini of hsp70 (heat-shock protein 70) and hsp90 (heat-shock protein 90). We produced a random T7 peptide library to investigate the roles played by the C-termini of the two heat-shock proteins in the TPR-hsp interactions. Surprisingly, phages with the MEEVD sequence, found at the C-terminus of hsp90, were not recovered from our biopanning experiments.

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The major stress protein transcription factor, heat shock factor (HSF1), is tightly regulated through a multilayered activation-deactivation process involving oligomerization, post-translational modification, and interaction with the heat shock protein (Hsp90)-containing multichaperone complex. Conditions of proteotoxic stress, such as heat shock, trigger reversible assembly of latent HSF1 monomers into DNA-binding homotrimers that bind with high affinity to cognate heat shock elements. Transactivation is a second and independently regulated function of HSF1 that is accompanied by hyperphosphorylation and appears to involve a number of signaling events.

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Hsp70/Hsp90 organizing protein (Hop) coordinates Hsp70 and Hsp90 interactions during assembly of steroid receptor complexes. Hop is composed of three tetratricopeptide repeat (TPR) domains (TPR1, TPR2a, and TPR2b) and two DP repeat domains (DP1 and DP2); Hsp70 interacts directly with TPR1 and Hsp90 with TPR2a, but the function of other domains is less clear. Human Hop and the Saccharomyces cerevisiae ortholog Sti1p, which share a common domain arrangement, are functionally interchangeable in a yeast growth assay and in supporting the efficient maturation of glucocorticoid receptor (GR) function.

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The delivery of neurotransmitter receptors into synapses is essential for synaptic function and plasticity. In particular, AMPA-type glutamate receptors (AMPA receptors) reach excitatory synapses according to two distinct routes: a regulated pathway, which operates transiently during synaptic plasticity, and a constitutive pathway, which maintains synaptic function under conditions of basal transmission. However, the specific mechanisms that distinguish these two trafficking pathways are essentially unknown.

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FKBP52 is a steroid receptor-associated immunophilin that binds via a tetratricopeptide repeat (TPR) domain to hsp90. FKBP52 has also been shown to interact either directly or indirectly via its peptidylprolyl isomerase (PPIase) domain with cytoplasmic dynein, a motor protein involved in retrograde transport of vesicles toward the nucleus. The functional role for the PPIase domain in receptor movement was demonstrated by showing that expression of the PPIase domain fragment of FKBP52 in 3T3 cells inhibits dexamethasone-dependent nuclear translocation of a green fluorescent protein-glucocorticoid receptor chimera.

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The protein serine/threonine phosphatase designated PP5 has little basal activity, and physiological activators of the enzyme have never been identified. Purified PP5 can, however, be activated by partial proteolysis or by the binding of supraphysiological concentrations of polyunsaturated long-chain fatty acids to its tetratricopeptide repeat (TPR) domain. To test whether activation of PP5 by polyunsaturated but not saturated fatty acids was an artifact of the lower solubility of saturated fatty acids, the effects of fatty acyl-CoA esters were examined.

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