221 results match your criteria: "Biochemistry Center (BZH)[Affiliation]"

The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is a dynamic and continuous membrane network with roles in many cellular processes. The importance and maintenance of ER structure and function have been extensively studied in interphase cells, yet recent findings also indicate crucial roles of the ER in mitosis. During mitosis, the ER is remodelled significantly with respect to composition and morphology but persists as a continuous network.

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Lipoxygenases catalyze the peroxidation of poly-unsaturated fatty acid chains either free or esterified in membrane lipids. Vitis vinifera LoxA is transcriptionally induced at ripening onset and localizes at the inner chloroplast membrane where it is responsible for galactolipid regiospecific mono- and di-peroxidation. Here we present a kinetic and structural characterization of LoxA.

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Article Synopsis
  • Scientists from 34 labs in 19 countries worked together to measure certain fats (ceramides) in human blood using special techniques.
  • They used both standard methods and their own methods to get very accurate and consistent results.
  • The study helps improve future medical tests and treatments by providing reliable information about these fats in blood samples.
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Nascent chains undergo co-translational enzymatic processing as soon as their N-terminus becomes accessible at the ribosomal polypeptide tunnel exit (PTE). In eukaryotes, N-terminal methionine excision (NME) by Methionine Aminopeptidases (MAP1 and MAP2), and N-terminal acetylation (NTA) by N-Acetyl-Transferase A (NatA), is the most common combination of subsequent modifications carried out on the 80S ribosome. How these enzymatic processes are coordinated in the context of a rapidly translating ribosome has remained elusive.

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The rapid increase in lipidomic studies has led to a collaborative effort within the community to establish standards and criteria for producing, documenting, and disseminating data. Creating a dynamic easy-to-use checklist that condenses key information about lipidomic experiments into common terminology will enhance the field's consistency, comparability, and repeatability. Here, we describe the structure and rationale of the established Lipidomics Minimal Reporting Checklist to increase transparency in lipidomics research.

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Mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) fuels cellular ATP demands. OXPHOS defects lead to severe human disorders with unexplained tissue specific pathologies. Mitochondrial gene expression is essential for OXPHOS biogenesis since core subunits of the complexes are mitochondrial-encoded.

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DEAD box RNA helicases are pervasive protein kinase interactors and activators.

Genome Res

July 2024

Division of Molecular Embryology, DKFZ-ZMBH Alliance, Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum (DKFZ), 69120 Heidelberg, Germany;

DEAD box (DDX) RNA helicases are a large family of ATPases, many of which have unknown functions. There is emerging evidence that besides their role in RNA biology, DDX proteins may stimulate protein kinases. To investigate if protein kinase-DDX interaction is a more widespread phenomenon, we conducted three orthogonal large-scale screens, including proteomics analysis with 32 RNA helicases, protein array profiling, and kinome-wide in vitro kinase assays.

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Polarized vesicular trafficking directs specific receptors and ion channels to cilia, but the underlying mechanisms are poorly understood. Here we describe a role for DLG1, a core component of the Scribble polarity complex, in regulating ciliary protein trafficking in kidney epithelial cells. Conditional knockout of Dlg1 in mouse kidney causes ciliary elongation and cystogenesis, and cell-based proximity labeling proteomics and fluorescence microscopy show alterations in the ciliary proteome upon loss of DLG1.

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Lipid switches in the immunological synapse.

J Biol Chem

July 2024

Laboratory of Protein Biochemistry, Institute of Chemistry & Biochemistry, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany. Electronic address:

Adaptive immune responses comprise the activation of T cells by peptide antigens that are presented by proteins of the Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) on the surface of an antigen-presenting cell. As a consequence of the T cell receptor interacting productively with a certain peptide-MHC complex, a specialized cell-cell junction known as the immunological synapse forms and is accompanied by changes in the spatiotemporal patterning and function of intracellular signaling molecules. Key modifications occurring at the cytoplasmic leaflet of the plasma and internal membranes in activated T cells comprise lipid switches that affect the binding and distribution of proteins within or near the lipid bilayer.

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Article Synopsis
  • - Protein-protein interaction experiments often produce false positives, but the new WeSA (Weighted SocioAffinity) metric helps to differentiate genuine interactions from noise by analyzing large datasets like IntAct and BioGRID.
  • - WeSA has been shown to improve accuracy in determining interaction confidence, achieving high scores in ROC analysis with results indicating high true positive rates and precision rates (AUC = 0.93, TPR = 0.84, FPR = 0.11, Precision = 0.98).
  • - The WeSA web server is user-friendly and allows researchers to submit their own data or explore existing human protein interaction information, with results displayed in tables and network visualizations to easily identify and remove false positives
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Heat stress can cause cell death by triggering the aggregation of essential proteins. In bacteria, aggregated proteins are rescued by the canonical Hsp70/AAA+ (ClpB) bi-chaperone disaggregase. Man-made, severe stress conditions applied during, e.

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The characterization of protein-protein interactions (PPIs) is fundamental to the understanding of biochemical processes. Many methods have been established to identify and study direct PPIs; however, screening and investigating PPIs involving large or poorly soluble proteins remains challenging. Here, we introduce ReLo, a simple, rapid, and versatile cell culture-based method for detecting and investigating interactions in a cellular context.

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RNA ligases of the RTCB-type play an essential role in tRNA splicing, the unfolded protein response and RNA repair. RTCB is the catalytic subunit of the pentameric human tRNA ligase complex. RNA ligation by the tRNA ligase complex requires GTP-dependent activation of RTCB.

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Ribosome production is essential for cell growth. Approximately 200 assembly factors drive this complicated pathway that starts in the nucleolus and ends in the cytoplasm. A large number of structural snapshots of the pre-60S pathway have revealed the principles behind large subunit synthesis.

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Article Synopsis
  • Scientists studied ribosomal RNA (rRNA) in human skin cells to learn how it changes when cells stop growing or are affected by stress.
  • They found that different patterns of a chemical change called 2'-O-methylation (2'-O-Me) in rRNA are linked to how the cells behave when they are stopped from growing.
  • By tweaking certain RNAs that help with these changes, they discovered they could either help the cells grow more or make them stop growing, showing that rRNA modifications can affect how cells develop.
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Glucosylceramide in bunyavirus particles is essential for virus binding to host cells.

Cell Mol Life Sci

February 2024

Center for Integrative Infectious Diseases Research (CIID), University Hospital Heidelberg, 69120, Heidelberg, Germany.

Hexosylceramides (HexCer) are implicated in the infection process of various pathogens. However, the molecular and cellular functions of HexCer in infectious cycles are poorly understood. Investigating the enveloped virus Uukuniemi (UUKV), a bunyavirus of the Phenuiviridae family, we performed a lipidomic analysis with mass spectrometry and determined the lipidome of both infected cells and derived virions.

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Excision of the initiator methionine is among the first co-translational processes that occur at the ribosome. While this crucial step in protein maturation is executed by two types of methionine aminopeptidases in eukaryotes (MAP1 and MAP2), additional roles in disease and translational regulation have drawn more attention to MAP2. Here, we report several cryo-EM structures of human and fungal MAP2 at the 80S ribosome.

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Cristae are invaginations of the mitochondrial inner membrane that are crucial for cellular energy metabolism. The formation of cristae requires the presence of a protein complex known as MICOS, which is conserved across eukaryotic species. One of the subunits of this complex, MIC10, is a transmembrane protein that supports cristae formation by oligomerization.

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The transcriptional antisilencer VirB acts as a master regulator of virulence gene expression in the human pathogen Shigella flexneri. It binds DNA sequences (virS) upstream of VirB-dependent promoters and counteracts their silencing by the nucleoid-organizing protein H-NS. However, its precise mode of action remains unclear.

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Multi-omic and functional analysis for classification and treatment of sarcomas with FUS-TFCP2 or EWSR1-TFCP2 fusions.

Nat Commun

January 2024

Division of Applied Functional Genomics, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), and National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT), NCT Heidelberg, a Partnership Between DKFZ and Heidelberg University Hospital, Heidelberg, Germany.

Linking clinical multi-omics with mechanistic studies may improve the understanding of rare cancers. We leverage two precision oncology programs to investigate rhabdomyosarcoma with FUS/EWSR1-TFCP2 fusions, an orphan malignancy without effective therapies. All tumors exhibit outlier ALK expression, partly accompanied by intragenic deletions and aberrant splicing resulting in ALK variants that are oncogenic and sensitive to ALK inhibitors.

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Dolichyl phosphates (DolP) are ubiquitous lipids that are present in almost all eukaryotic membranes. They play a key role in several protein glycosylation pathways and the formation of glycosylphosphatidylinositol anchors. These lipids constitute only ~0.

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Article Synopsis
  • - Bardet-Biedl syndrome (BBS) is a ciliopathy that disrupts primary cilia, impacting various organs like the kidneys and eyes, and is influenced by genetic factors and inter-individual variations.
  • - The study focuses on the BBS1 protein within the BBSome complex, using genetically modified renal cell lines to explore how mutations affect cell identity and function, revealing clonal variability.
  • - Findings indicate that BBS1 is crucial for maintaining epithelial characteristics in cells, with dysregulation in related gene expressions (like those governing epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition) indicating a common issue across different tissues affected by BBS.
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Polarized vesicular trafficking directs specific receptors and ion channels to cilia, but the underlying mechanisms are poorly understood. Here we describe a role for DLG1, a core component of the Scribble polarity complex, in regulating ciliary protein trafficking in kidney epithelial cells. Conditional knockout of in mouse kidney caused ciliary elongation and cystogenesis, and cell-based proximity labelling proteomics and fluorescence microscopy showed alterations in the ciliary proteome upon loss of DLG1.

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The eukaryotic guided entry of tail-anchored proteins (GET) pathway mediates the biogenesis of tail-anchored (TA) membrane proteins at the endoplasmic reticulum. In the cytosol, the Get3 chaperone captures the TA protein substrate and delivers it to the Get1/Get2 membrane protein complex (GET insertase), which then inserts the substrate via a membrane-embedded hydrophilic groove. Here, we present structures, atomistic simulations and functional data of human and Chaetomium thermophilum Get1/Get2/Get3.

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Zika virus prM protein contains cholesterol binding motifs required for virus entry and assembly.

Nat Commun

November 2023

Heidelberg University, Medical Faculty Heidelberg, Department of Infectious Diseases, Molecular Virology, Center for Integrative Infectious Diseases Research, Heidelberg, Germany.

Article Synopsis
  • - Enveloped viruses like Zika virus (ZIKV) depend on cellular lipids for successful infection and production of new virions, but the details of how viral proteins interact with lipids are not fully understood.
  • - A study using a specialized cholesterol probe revealed that cholesterol interacts closely with ZIKV's structural protein prM, identifying key cholesterol binding sites within prM's membrane domain.
  • - Disruption of the prM-cholesterol interaction negatively affects ZIKV entry into host cells and disrupts viral assembly, suggesting that prM plays a critical role in facilitating both processes through cholesterol-dependent mechanisms.
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