Patient Perceptions in Mast Cell Disorders.

Understanding experiences, perceptions, and perspectives of patients with a mast cell disorder (MCD), including cutaneous mastocytosis, systemic mastocytosis, mast cell activation syndromes, and hereditary α-tryptasemia, is an important aspect of successful care, treatment, and informed development of novel therapies. This article reviews existing studies and presents new data on MCD patient perceptions regarding medical care, symptoms, allergies/sensitivities, triggers, future health/disease progression, treatment, impact on daily living, quality of life, support needs, and concerns regarding possible familial disease. Discussion includes aspects affecting the MCD community that require further consideration and development.

A pathway and genetic factors contributing to elevated gene expression noise in stationary phase.

Previous studies have identified factors associated with transcription and translation efficiency, such as promoter strength and mRNA sequences, that can affect stochasticity in gene expression. Here we present evidence for a pathway and associated genetic factors (namely, the ribosome modulation factor RMF and ppGpp) in Escherichia coli that contribute to heightened levels of gene expression noise during stationary phase. Endogenous cellular mechanisms that globally affect gene expression noise, such as those identified in this study, could provide phenotypic diversity under adverse conditions such as stationary phase.

The chromosome partitioning proteins Soj (ParA) and Spo0J (ParB) contribute to accurate chromosome partitioning, separation of replicated sister origins, and regulation of replication initiation in Bacillus subtilis.

Soj (ParA) and Spo0J (ParB) of Bacillus subtilis belong to a conserved family of proteins required for efficient plasmid and chromosome partitioning in many bacterial species. Unlike most Par systems, for which intact copies of both parA and parB are required for the Par system to function, inactivating soj does not cause a detectable chromosome partitioning phenotype whereas inactivating spo0J leads to a 100-fold increase in the production of anucleate cells. This suggested either that Soj does not function like other ParA homologues, or that a cellular factor might compensate for the absence of soj.

Effects of the chromosome partitioning protein Spo0J (ParB) on oriC positioning and replication initiation in Bacillus subtilis.

Spo0J (ParB) of Bacillus subtilis is a DNA-binding protein that belongs to a conserved family of proteins required for efficient plasmid and chromosome partitioning in many bacterial species. We found that Spo0J contributes to the positioning of the chromosomal oriC region, but probably not by recruiting the origin regions to specific subcellular locations. In wild-type cells during exponential growth, duplicated origin regions were generally positioned around the cell quarters.

CRM1-mediated nuclear export and regulated activity of the Receptor Tyrosine Kinase antagonist YAN require specific interactions with MAE.

ETS family transcription factors serve as downstream effectors of signal transduction pathways, mediating cellular proliferation, differentiation and, when misregulated, tumorigenesis. The transcriptional repressor YAN prevents inappropriate responses to Receptor Tyrosine Kinase signaling by outcompeting POINTED for access to target gene promoters. We demonstrate that the molecular mechanism underlying downregulation of YAN involves CRM1-mediated nuclear export and define a novel role in this context for MAE, a co-factor previously implicated in facilitating MAPK phosphorylation of YAN.