Structure of novel enzyme in mannan biodegradation process 4-O-β-D-mannosyl-D-glucose phosphorylase MGP.

The crystal structure of a novel component of the mannan biodegradation system, 4-O-β-D-mannosyl-D-glucose phosphorylase (MGP), was determined to a 1.68-Å resolution. The structure of the enzyme revealed a unique homohexameric structure, which was formed by using two helices attached to the N-terminus and C-terminus as a tab for sticking between subunits.

INOH: ontology-based highly structured database of signal transduction pathways.

The Integrating Network Objects with Hierarchies (INOH) database is a highly structured, manually curated database of signal transduction pathways including Mammalia, Xenopus laevis, Drosophila melanogaster, Caenorhabditis elegans and canonical. Since most pathway knowledge resides in scientific articles, the database focuses on curating and encoding textual knowledge into a machine-processable form. We use a hierarchical pathway representation model with a compound graph, and every pathway component in the INOH database is annotated by a set of uniquely developed ontologies.

Architecture of the DNA polymerase B-proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA)-DNA ternary complex.

DNA replication in archaea and eukaryotes is executed by family B DNA polymerases, which exhibit full activity when complexed with the DNA clamp, proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA). This replication enzyme consists of the polymerase and exonuclease moieties responsible for DNA synthesis and editing (proofreading), respectively. Because of the editing activity, this enzyme ensures the high fidelity of DNA replication.

Mechanism of replication machinery assembly as revealed by the DNA ligase-PCNA-DNA complex architecture.

The 3D structure of the ternary complex, consisting of DNA ligase, the proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) clamp, and DNA, was investigated by single-particle analysis. This report presents the structural view, where the crescent-shaped DNA ligase with 3 distinct domains surrounds the central DNA duplex, encircled by the closed PCNA ring, thus forming a double-layer structure with dual contacts between the 2 proteins. The relative orientations of the DNA ligase domains, which remarkably differ from those of the known crystal structures, suggest that a large domain rearrangement occurs upon ternary complex formation.

The molecule role ontology: an ontology for annotation of signal transduction pathway molecules in the scientific literature.

In general, it is not easy to specify a single sequence identity for each molecule name that appears in a pathway in the scientific literature. A molecule name may stand for concepts of various granularities, from concrete objects such as H-Ras and ERK1 to abstract concepts or categories such as Ras and MAPK. Typically, the relations among molecule names derive a hierarchical structure; without a proper way to handle this knowledge, it becomes ever more difficult to develop a reliable pathway database.

Event ontology: a pathway-centric ontology for biological processes.

Event ontology is a new biomedical ontology developed to annotate pathway components in a pathway database. It organizes the concepts and terms of sub-pathways, pathways, biological phenomena, experimental conditions, medications, and external stimuli appearing in biological pathways (e.g.