1,891 results match your criteria: "Institute of Protein[Affiliation]"

Many proteins form paralogous multimers-molecular complexes in which evolutionarily related proteins are arranged into specific quaternary structures. Little is known about the mechanisms by which they acquired their stoichiometry (the number of total subunits in the complex) and heterospecificity (the preference of subunits for their paralogs rather than other copies of the same protein). Here, we use ancestral protein reconstruction and biochemical experiments to study historical increases in stoichiometry and specificity during the evolution of vertebrate hemoglobin (Hb), an αβ heterotetramer that evolved from a homodimeric ancestor after a gene duplication.

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Introduction: Tat protein is a trans-activator of HIV-1 genome transcription, with additional functions including the ability to induce the chronic inflammatory process. Natural amino acid polymorphisms in Tat may affect its functional properties and the course of HIV infection. The aim of this work is to analyze the marks of Tat consensus sequences in non-A6 HIV-1 variants characteristic of the Russian Federation, as well as study natural polymorphisms in Tat CRF63_02A6 and subtype B variants circulating in Russia.

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Massively parallel characterization of transcriptional regulatory elements.

Nature

January 2025

Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.

The human genome contains millions of candidate cis-regulatory elements (cCREs) with cell-type-specific activities that shape both health and many disease states. However, we lack a functional understanding of the sequence features that control the activity and cell-type-specific features of these cCREs. Here we used lentivirus-based massively parallel reporter assays (lentiMPRAs) to test the regulatory activity of more than 680,000 sequences, representing an extensive set of annotated cCREs among three cell types (HepG2, K562 and WTC11), and found that 41.

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mRNA delivery offers new opportunities for disease treatment by directing cells to produce therapeutic proteins. However, designing highly stable mRNAs with programmable cell type-specificity remains a challenge. To address this, we measured the regulatory activity of 60,000 5' and 3' untranslated regions (UTRs) across six cell types and developed PARADE (Prediction And RAtional DEsign of mRNA UTRs), a generative AI framework to engineer untranslated RNA regions with tailored cell type-specific activity.

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The amino acid composition of proteins depends on many factors. It varies in organisms that are distant in taxonomic position. The amino acid composition of proteins depends on the localization of proteins in cells and tissues and the structure of proteins.

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Small GTPase ARL4C Associated with Various Cancers Affects Microtubule Nucleation.

Biomedicines

December 2024

A.N. Belozersky Institute of Physico-Chemical Biology, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow 119992, Russia.

The changes in the level of small GTPase ARL4C are associated with the initiation and progression of many different cancers. The content of ARL4C varies greatly between different tissues, and the induction of ARL4C expression leads to changes in cell morphology and proliferation. Although ARL4C can bind alpha-tubulin and affect intracellular transport, the role of ARL4C in the functioning of the tubulin cytoskeleton remained unclear.

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Neural precursor cells contain two types of intermediate filaments (IFs): neurofilaments consisting of three IV type proteins and vimentin belonging to the type III IF proteins that disappear at the later stages of differentiation. The involvement of vimentin in neurogenesis was demonstrated earlier; however, the role of its temporary expression in neurons is not clear. We showed that the vimentin IFs that interacted with mitochondria maintained their membrane potential at the appropriate level, and thus, ensured their proper function.

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Hydrogen-deuterium exchange mass spectrometry (HDX-MS) approach has become a valuable analytical complement to traditional methods. HDX-MS allows the identification of dynamic surfaces in proteins. We have shown that the introduction of various mutations into the amino acid sequence of whale apomyoglobin (apoMb) leads to a change in the number of exchangeable hydrogen atoms, which is associated with a change in its compactness in the native-like condition.

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How proteins manage to fold and how chaperones manage to assist the folding.

Phys Life Rev

December 2024

Institute of Protein Research, Russian Academy of Sciences, Pushchino, Moscow Region, 142290, Russian Federation. Electronic address:

This review presents the current understanding of (i) spontaneous self-organization of spatial structures of protein molecules, and (ii) possible ways of chaperones' assistance to this process. Specifically, we overview the most important features of spontaneous folding of proteins (mostly, of the single-domain water-soluble globular proteins): the choice of the unique protein structure among zillions of alternatives, the nucleation of the folding process, and phase transitions within protein molecules. We consider the main experimental facts on protein folding, both in vivo and in vitro, of both kinetic and thermodynamic nature.

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The RNA-binding S1 domain is a β-barrel with a highly conserved RNA-binding site on its surface. This domain is an important part of the structures of different bacterial, archaeal, and eukaryotic proteins. A distinctive feature of the S1 domain is multiple presences (structural repeats) in proteins and protein complexes.

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Context: Pathogenic variants in the TBCE gene, encoding tubulin-specific chaperone E crucial for tubulin folding, are linked to three severe neurodevelopmental disorders: Hypoparathyroidism-retardation-dysmorphism (HRD) syndrome, Kenny-Caffey syndrome type 1, and progressive encephalopathy with amyotrophy and optic atrophy.

Objective: We identified patients with a novel, milder TBCE-associated phenotype and aimed to characterize it at the clinical and molecular levels.

Materials And Methods: We conducted splicing analysis using deep NGS sequencing of RT-PCR products and detected TBCE through Western blotting.

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Intermediate filaments (IFs) represented by a diverse range of proteins, are one of the three main cytoskeleton components in different types of animal cells. IFs provide mechanical strength to cells and help position the nucleus and organelles in the cell. Desmin is an IF protein typical of muscle cells, while vimentin, which has a similar structure, is expressed in many mesenchymal cells.

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Acceleration of carbonic anhydrase amyloid aggregation leads to a decrease in the fibrils toxicity.

Biochem Biophys Res Commun

December 2024

Branch of the Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry RAS, Prospekt Nauki, 6, Pushchino, 142290, Russia; Institute of Protein Research RAS, Institutskaya, 4, Pushchino, 142290, Russia. Electronic address:

Cells damage by protein aggregates is one of the causes of amyloid diseases. This study aimed to explore the structural features of cytotoxic amyloid fibrils and to find strategies to reduce their damaging effect. Bovine carbonic anhydrase B (BCAB) was chosen for this work due to high toxicity of its amyloid fibrils.

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This paper is dedicated to the memory of Oleg B. Ptitsyn (1929-1999) and presents an answer to his question: "What is the role of conserved non-functional residues in protein folding?". This answer follows from the experimental works of three labs.

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We describe an effort ("Codebook") to determine the sequence specificity of 332 putative and largely uncharacterized human transcription factors (TFs), as well as 61 control TFs. Nearly 5,000 independent experiments across multiple and assays produced motifs for just over half of the putative TFs analyzed (177, or 53%), of which most are unique to a single TF. The data highlight the extensive contribution of transposable elements to TF evolution, both in and , and identify tens of thousands of conserved, base-level binding sites in the human genome.

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A DNA sequence pattern, or "motif", is an essential representation of DNA-binding specificity of a transcription factor (TF). Any particular motif model has potential flaws due to shortcomings of the underlying experimental data and computational motif discovery algorithm. As a part of the Codebook/GRECO-BIT initiative, here we evaluated at large scale the cross-platform recognition performance of positional weight matrices (PWMs), which remain popular motif models in many practical applications.

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Identification of methylation-sensitive human transcription factors using meSMiLE-seq.

bioRxiv

November 2024

Laboratory of Systems Biology and Genetics, Institute of Bioengineering, School of Life Sciences, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland.

Transcription factors (TFs) are key players in eukaryotic gene regulation, but the DNA binding specificity of many TFs remains unknown. Here, we assayed 284 mostly poorly characterized, putative human TFs using selective microfluidics-based ligand enrichment followed by sequencing (SMiLE-seq), revealing 72 new DNA binding motifs. To investigate whether some of the 158 TFs for which we did not find motifs preferably bind epigenetically modified DNA (i.

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A long-standing challenge in human regulatory genomics is that transcription factor (TF) DNA-binding motifs are short and degenerate, while the genome is large. Motif scans therefore produce many false-positive binding site predictions. By surveying 179 TFs across 25 families using >1,500 cyclic selection experiments with fragmented, naked, and unmodified genomic DNA - a method we term GHT-SELEX (Genomic HT-SELEX) - we find that many human TFs possess much higher sequence specificity than anticipated.

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Most of the human genome is thought to be non-functional, and includes large segments often referred to as "dark matter" DNA. The genome also encodes hundreds of putative and poorly characterized transcription factors (TFs). We determined genomic binding locations of 166 uncharacterized human TFs in living cells.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study analyzed how specific mutations at Asp187 and Ser188 in the protease cocoonase (CCN) affect its ability to recognize substrates and carry out enzymatic activity.
  • Mutations at Asp187 significantly reduced enzymatic activity, highlighting its key role, while changes at Ser188 had a lesser impact but still contributed to substrate recognition.
  • Substituting Asp187 with other residues resulted in new substrate specificities, suggesting that the structure of the precursors remains stable, which may affect how the enzyme interacts with substrates and its overall catalytic function.
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Ppn2 Polyphosphatase Improves the Ability of to Grow in Mild Alkaline Medium.

J Fungi (Basel)

November 2024

Federal Research Center "Pushchino Scientific Center for Biological Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences", Skryabin Institute of Biochemistry and Physiology of Microorganisms, pr. Nauki 5, Pushchino 142290, Russia.

Inorganic polyphosphates and respective metabolic pathways and enzymes are important factors for yeast active growth in unfavorable conditions. However, particular proteins of polyphosphate metabolism remain poorly explored in this context. Here we report biochemical and transcriptomic characterization of the CRN/PPN2 yeast strain (derived from Ppn1-lacking CRN strain) overexpressing poorly studied Ppn2 polyphosphatase.

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Complementary Packing of α-Helices Revisited.

Methods Mol Biol

November 2024

Institute of Protein Research, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia.

The packing of α-helices in proteins is determined by both the principle of close packing and the chemical nature of side chains. As shown, amphipathic α-helices having continuous hydrophobic stripes on their surfaces can be packed against each other in two main ways referred to here as face-to-face and side-by-side manners. Three types of the minimal hydrophobic stripes produced by the heptad (7-residue), undecatad (11-residue), and 4-residue repeats in the sequence have been analyzed and their role in packing of α-helices has been considered.

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Systemic ALys amyloidosis is a debilitating protein misfolding disease that arises from the formation of amyloid fibrils from C-type lysozyme. We here present a 2.8 Å cryo-electron microscopy structure of an amyloid fibril, which was isolated from the abdominal fat tissue of a patient who expressed the D87G variant of human lysozyme.

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Representatives of the colorless sulfur bacteria of the genus use reduced sulfur compounds in the processes of lithotrophic growth, which is accompanied by the storage of intracellular sulfur. However, it is still unknown how the transformation of intracellular sulfur occurs in representatives. Annotation of the genome of D-402 did not identify any genes for the oxidation or reduction of elemental sulfur.

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