Deletion of TRPC4 and TRPC6 in mice impairs smooth muscle contraction and intestinal motility in vivo.

Background & Aims: Downstream effects of muscarinic receptor stimulation in intestinal smooth muscle include contraction and intestinal transit. We thought to determine whether classic transient receptor potential (TRPC) channels integrate the intracellular signaling cascades evoked by the stimulated receptors and thereby contribute to the control of the membrane potential, Ca-influx, and cell responses.

Methods: We created trpc4-, trpc6-, and trpc4/trpc6-gene-deficient mice and analyzed them for intestinal smooth muscle function in vitro and in vivo.

Specific detection and semi-quantitative analysis of TRPC4 protein expression by antibodies.

In mouse tissues two variants of the transient receptor potential (canonical) (TRPC) 4 protein are expressed: the "full-length" TRPC4 protein and a slightly smaller variant, called TRPC4Delta(761-864), which lacks 84 amino acid residues. Although the presence of mRNA encoding the TRPC4 protein in mammalian cells and the detection of the heterologously expressed TRPC4 protein by Western blot analysis have been reported, the unequivocal detection of endogenous TRPC4 proteins has proven difficult. In the present study we compared polyclonal antibodies for the detection of TRPC4 proteins in mouse tissues and monitored their specificity and reliability by analysing corresponding tissues from TRPC4-deficient mice.

Salt stress-induced chloride flux: a study using transgenic Arabidopsis expressing a fluorescent anion probe.

Salt stress leads to massive accumulation of toxic levels of Na(+) and Cl(-) ions in plants. By using the recombinant fluorescent probe CLOMELEON, we demonstrate passive anion flux under salt stress. Chloride influx is restricted in the presence of divalent cations like Mg(2+) and Ca(2+), and completely blocked by La(3+).

Proteolytic E-cadherin activation followed by solution NMR and X-ray crystallography.

Cellular adhesion by classical cadherins depends critically on the exact proteolytic removal of their N-terminal prosequences. In this combined solution NMR and X-ray crystallographic study, the consequences of propeptide cleavage of an epithelial cadherin construct (domains 1 and 2) were followed at atomic level. At low protein concentration, the N-terminal processing induces docking of the tryptophan-2 side-chain into a binding pocket on the same molecule.

Peculiarities of aqueous amaranth starch suspensions.

Among the starches the granules from amaranth starch (a. hypochondriacus, amylopectin type) are singular because of their extremely small size of 1-3 microm and high uniformity. However, large spherical particles of 30-80 microm in diameter were observed from spray-dried amaranth starch by environmental scanning electron microscopy (ESEM) which exhibited a characteristic fine structure.