736 results match your criteria: "Critical Reviews In Biochemistry And Molecular Biology[Journal]"
Crit Rev Biochem Mol Biol
December 2024
The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, California, USA.
This review documents investigations leading to the unprecedented discovery of filamentation as a mode of enzyme regulation in the type II restriction endonuclease SgrAI. Filamentation is defined here as linear or helical polymerization of a single enzyme as occurs for SgrAI, and has now been shown to occur in many other enzyme systems, including conserved metabolic enzymes. In the case of SgrAI, filamentation activates the DNA cleavage rate by up to 1000-fold and also alters the enzyme's DNA sequence specificity.
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October 2024
Industrial Systems Biology Lab, Department of Bioinformatics, School of Life Sciences, Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli, India.
Space exploration and research are uncovering the potential for terrestrial life to survive in outer space, as well as the environmental factors that affect life during interplanetary transfer. The presence of methane in the Martian atmosphere suggests the possibility of methanogens, either extant or extinct, on Mars. Understanding how methanogens survive and adapt under space-exposed conditions is crucial for understanding the implications of extraterrestrial life.
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October 2024
Department of Chemistry, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA.
The Zrt/Irt-like protein (ZIP) family consists of ubiquitously expressed divalent -block metal transporters that play central roles in the uptake, secretion, excretion, and distribution of several essential and toxic metals in living organisms. The past few years has witnessed rapid progress in the molecular basis of these membrane transport proteins. In this critical review, we summarize the research progress at the molecular level of the ZIP family and discuss the future prospects.
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October 2024
Department of Life Sciences, School of Basic Sciences and Research, Sharda University, Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India.
() is one of the most successful human pathogens, causing a severe and widespread infectious disease. The frequent emergence of multidrug-resistant (MDR) strains has exacerbated this public health crisis, particularly in underdeveloped regions. employs a sophisticated array of virulence factors to subvert host immune responses, both innate and adaptive.
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October 2024
Inter-disciplinary Centre for Plant Genomics and Department of Plant Molecular Biology, University of Delhi, New Delhi, India.
In eukaryotes, general transcription factors (GTFs) enable recruitment of RNA polymerase II (RNA Pol II) to core promoters to facilitate initiation of transcription. Extensive research in mammals and yeast has unveiled their significance in basal transcription as well as in diverse biological processes. Unlike mammals and yeast, plant GTFs exhibit remarkable degree of variability and flexibility.
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October 2024
Institute for Health and Sport (IHES), Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia.
Crit Rev Biochem Mol Biol
October 2024
Laboratory "Regenerative Circular Bioeconomy", ENEA-Trisaia Research Centre, Rotondella, Italy.
Sirtuins (SIRTs) are a family of proteins with enzymatic activity. In particular, they are a family of class III NAD-dependent histone deacetylases and ADP-ribosyltransferases. NAD-dependent deac(et)ylase activities catalyzed by sirtuin include ac(et)ylation, propionylation, butyrylation, crotonylation, manylation, and succinylation.
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October 2024
Department of Biological Sciences, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
The concentration of intracellular and extracellular potassium is tightly regulated due to the action of various ion transporters, channels, and pumps, which reside primarily in the kidney. Yet, potassium transporters and cotransporters play vital roles in all organs and cell types. Perhaps not surprisingly, defects in the biogenesis, function, and/or regulation of these proteins are linked to range of catastrophic human diseases, but to date, few drugs have been approved to treat these maladies.
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October 2024
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA.
Chromatin is densely packed with nucleosomes, which limits the accessibility of many chromatin-associated proteins. Pioneer factors (PFs) are usually viewed as a special group of sequence-specific transcription factors (TFs) that can recognize nucleosome-embedded motifs, invade compact chromatin, and generate open chromatin regions. Through this process, PFs initiate a cascade of events that play key roles in gene regulation and cell differentiation.
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June 2024
Department of Biomolecular Chemistry, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, USA.
The SSB protein of functions to bind single-stranded DNA wherever it occurs during DNA metabolism. Depending upon conditions, SSB occurs in several different binding modes. In the course of its function, SSB diffuses on ssDNA and transfers rapidly between different segments of ssDNA.
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June 2024
Molecular and Cellular Oncogenesis Program, The Wistar Institute, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
encodes a transcription factor that is centrally-involved in several pathways, including the control of metabolism, the stress response, DNA repair, cell cycle arrest, senescence, programmed cell death, and others. Since the discovery of as the most frequently-mutated tumor suppressor gene in cancer over four decades ago, the field has focused on uncovering target genes of this transcription factor that are essential for tumor suppression. This search has been fraught with red herrings, however.
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June 2024
Institute of Biochemistry and Technical Biochemistry, University of Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany.
Protein lysine methyltransferases (PKMTs) transfer up to three methyl groups to the side chains of lysine residues in proteins and fulfill important regulatory functions by controlling protein stability, localization and protein/protein interactions. The methylation reactions are highly regulated, and aberrant methylation of proteins is associated with several types of diseases including neurologic disorders, cardiovascular diseases, and various types of cancer. This review describes novel insights into the catalytic machinery of various PKMTs achieved by the combined application of biochemical experiments and simulation approaches during the last years, focusing on clinically relevant and well-studied enzymes of this group like DOT1L, SMYD1-3, SET7/9, G9a/GLP, SETD2, SUV420H2, NSD1/2, different MLLs and EZH2.
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June 2024
Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers' Rights Authority, New Delhi, India.
Traditionally, it has been believed that inheritance is driven as phenotypic variations resulting from changes in DNA sequence. However, this paradigm has been challenged and redefined in the contemporary era of epigenetics. The changes in DNA methylation, histone modification, non-coding RNA biogenesis, and chromatin remodeling play crucial roles in genomic functions and regulation of gene expression.
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June 2024
Department of Molecular Biosciences, University of Texas, Austin, TX, USA.
Decades of scientific research have been devoted to unraveling the intricacies of eukaryotic transcription since the groundbreaking discovery of eukaryotic RNA polymerases in the late 1960s. RNA polymerase II, the polymerase responsible for mRNA synthesis, has always attracted the most attention. Despite its structural resemblance to its bacterial counterpart, eukaryotic RNA polymerase II faces a unique challenge in progressing transcription due to the presence of nucleosomes that package DNA in the nuclei.
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December 2023
Key Laboratory of Aquatic Germplasm Resource of Zhejiang, College of Biological and Environmental Sciences, Zhejiang Wanli University, Ningbo, China.
Hemoglobin (Hb) has been identified in at least 14 molluscan taxa so far. Research spanning over 130 years on molluscan Hbs focuses on their genes, protein structures, functions, and evolution. Molluscan Hbs are categorized into single-, two-, and multiple-domain chains, including red blood cell, gill, and extracellular Hbs, based on the number of globin domains and their respective locations.
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December 2023
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Penn State University, University Park, PA, USA.
2',3'-cyclic nucleotide monophosphates (2',3'-cNMPs) have been discovered within both prokaryotes and eukaryotes in the past decade and a half, raising questions about their conserved existence in cells. In plants and mammals, wounding has been found to cause increased levels of 2',3'-cNMPs. Roles for 2',3'-cNMPs in plant immunity suggest that their regulation may be valuable for both plant hosts and microbial pathogens.
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December 2023
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Drexel University College of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, United States.
Dogma had been firmly entrenched in the minds of the scientific community that the anucleate mammalian platelet was incapable of protein biosynthesis since their identification in the late 1880s. These beliefs were not challenged until the 1960s when several reports demonstrated that platelets possessed the capacity to biosynthesize proteins. Even then, many still dismissed the synthesis as trivial and unimportant for at least another two decades.
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February 2023
Biosystems and Integrative Sciences Institute, Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal.
Protein aggregation is implicated in multiple diseases, so-called proteinopathies, ranging from neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease (PD) to type 2 diabetes mellitus and sickle cell disease (SCD). The structure of the protein aggregates and the kinetics and mechanisms of aggregation have been the object of intense research over the years toward the development of therapeutic routes, including the design of aggregation inhibitors. Nonetheless, the rational design of drugs targeting aggregation inhibition remains a challenging endeavor because of multiple, disease-specific factors, including an incomplete understanding of protein function, the multitude of toxic and non-toxic protein aggregates, the lack of specific drug binding targets, discrepant action mechanisms of aggregation inhibitors, or a low selectivity, specificity, and/or drug potency, reflected in the high concentrations required for some inhibitors to be effective.
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February 2023
School of Natural Sciences, Laurentian University, Sudbury, Canada.
The tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle is a primordial metabolic pathway that is conserved from bacteria to humans. Although this network is often viewed primarily as an energy producing engine fueling ATP synthesis oxidative phosphorylation, mounting evidence reveals that this metabolic hub orchestrates a wide variety of pivotal biological processes. It plays an important part in combatting cellular stress by modulating NADH/NADPH homeostasis, scavenging ROS (reactive oxygen species), producing ATP by substrate-level phosphorylation, signaling and supplying metabolites to quell a range of cellular disruptions.
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February 2023
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, USA.
Disulfide bond formation is a catalyzed reaction essential for the folding and stability of proteins in the secretory pathway. In prokaryotes, disulfide bonds are generated by DsbB or VKOR homologs that couple the oxidation of a cysteine pair to quinone reduction. Vertebrate VKOR and VKOR-like enzymes have gained the epoxide reductase activity to support blood coagulation.
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May 2023
Department of Biomolecular Chemistry, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA.
G-quadruplexes (G4s) are highly stable, non-canonical DNA or RNA structures that can form in guanine-rich stretches of nucleic acids. G4-forming sequences have been found in all domains of life, and proteins that bind and/or resolve G4s have been discovered in both bacterial and eukaryotic organisms. G4s regulate a variety of cellular processes through inhibitory or stimulatory roles that depend upon their positions within genomes or transcripts.
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November 2023
Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA.
Mammalian cells are exquisitely sensitive to the presence of double-stranded RNA (dsRNA), a molecule that they interpret as a signal of viral presence requiring immediate attention. Upon sensing dsRNA cells activate the innate immune response, which involves transcriptional mechanisms driving inflammation and secretion of interferons (IFNs) and interferon-stimulated genes (ISGs), as well as synthesis of RNA-like signaling molecules comprised of three or more 2'-5'-linked adenylates (2-5As). 2-5As were discovered some forty years ago and described as IFN-induced inhibitors of protein synthesis.
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February 2023
Department of New Biology, Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology (DGIST), Daegu, South Korea.
In the human cell nucleus, dynamically organized chromatin is the substrate for gene regulation, DNA replication, and repair. A central mechanism of DNA loop formation is an ATPase motor cohesin-mediated loop extrusion. The cohesin complexes load and unload onto the chromosome under the control of other regulators that physically interact and affect motor activity.
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February 2023
Xiangya School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China.
Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are evolutionarily conserved noncoding RNAs with tissue-specific expression patterns, and exert unique cellular functions that have the potential to become biomarkers in therapeutic applications. Therefore, accurate and sensitive detection of circRNA with facile platforms is essential for better understanding of circRNA biological processes and circRNA-related disease diagnosis and prognosis; and precise regulation of circRNA through efficient delivery of circRNA or siRNA is critical for therapeutic purposes. Here, we reviewed the current development of circRNA identification methodologies, including overviewing the purification steps, summarizing the sequencing methods of circRNA, as well as comparing the advantages and disadvantages of traditional and new detection methods.
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May 2023
Department of Chemistry, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC, USA.
Understanding how Nature accomplishes the reduction of inert nitrogen gas to form metabolically tractable ammonia at ambient temperature and pressure has challenged scientists for more than a century. Such an understanding is a key aspect toward accomplishing the transfer of the genetic determinants of biological nitrogen fixation to crop plants as well as for the development of improved synthetic catalysts based on the biological mechanism. Over the past 30 years, the free-living nitrogen-fixing bacterium emerged as a preferred model organism for mechanistic, structural, genetic, and physiological studies aimed at understanding biological nitrogen fixation.
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