Section edited by Chris Grant
This section incorporates all aspects of cellular and membrane biochemistry, including but not limited to: cell signaling and trafficking, chemical biology of the cell, membrane proteins and energy transduction, and macromolecular chemistry.
Sepsis is a severe condition characterised by the body’s systemic inflammatory response to infection. The specific sepsis-related biomarkers should be used in clinical diagnosis, therapeutic response monitorin...
Corynebacterium urealyticum, a pathogenic, multidrug resistant member of the mycolata, is known as causative agent of urinary tract infections although it is a bacterium of the skin flora. This pathogenic bacteri...
The mechanistic target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1) is a well-conserved serine/threonine protein kinase that controls autophagy as well as many other processes such as protein synthesis, cell growth, and me...
eIF3f is a multifunctional protein capable of interacting with proteins involved in different cellular processes, such as protein synthesis, DNA repair, and viral mRNA edition. In human cells, eIF3f is related...
Aberrant mitochondrial function, including excessive reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, has been implicated in the pathogenesis of human diseases. The use of mitochondrial inhibitors to ascertain the si...
Potassium channels play a fundamental role in resetting the resting membrane potential of excitable cells. Determining the intracellular trafficking and localization mechanisms of potassium channels provides a...
The Arabidopsis thaliana protein atTic20 is a key component of the protein import machinery at the inner envelope membrane of chloroplasts. As a component of the TIC complex, it is believed to form a preprotein-c...
Human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT), the catalytic subunit of telomesase, is responsible for telomere maintenance and its reactivation is implicated in almost 90% human cancers. Recent evidences sho...
Secreted luciferases are highly useful bioluminescent reporters for cell-based assays and drug discovery. A variety of secreted luciferases from marine organisms have been described that harbor an N-terminal s...
During EGFR internalization CIN85 bridges EGFR-Cbl complex, endocytic machinery and fusible membrane through the interactions of CIN85 with c-Cbl, endophilins and phosphatidic acid. These protein-protein and p...
Organic solute carrier partner 1 (OSCP1) is known to facilitate the transport of various organic solutes into cells and reported to play a role in cell growth and cell differentiation. Moreover, OSCP1 is known...
Calciotropic hormones were thought to facilitate calcium transfer through active transcellular or passive paracellular pathway for calcium homeostasis. While calcium transport proteins such as CaBP-28 k, TRPV5...
Autophagy is a cellular response to intracellular pathogens including mycobacteria and is induced by the direct inhibitors of mammalian target of Rapamycin (mTOR), a major negative regulator of autophagy. Auto...
Vesicle fusion is an essential process for maintaining the structure and function of the endomembrane system. Fusion is mediated by t-SNARE (soluble N-ethylmaleimide-sensitive factor attachment protein receptor) ...
Transforming growth factor-betas (TGF-βs), including beta2 (TGF-β2), constitute a superfamily of multifunctional cytokines with important implications in morphogenesis, cell differentiation and tissue remodeli...
Studies have shown that inflammation promoted atherosclerotic progression; however, it remains unclear whether inflammation promoted atherosclerotic progression properties by altering cholesterol metabolism in...
Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) —aspirin, naproxen, nimesulide, and piroxicam— lowered activation of type II cAMP-dependent protein kinase A (PKA-II) in isolated rat adipocytes, decreasing adren...
The androgen receptor (AR) is a member of the nuclear receptor (NR) superfamily of ligand-inducible DNA transcription factors, and is the major mediator of male sexual development, prostate growth and the path...
Receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs) are crucial components of signal transduction systems in multicellular animals. Surprisingly, numerous RTKs have been identified in the genomes of unicellular choanoflagellates...
Presenilin-1 (PS1) is a transmembrane protein first discovered because of its association with familial Alzheimer’s disease. Mice with null mutations in PS1 die shortly after birth exhibiting multiple CNS and ...
Plant sucrose uptake transporters (SUTs) are H+/sucrose symporters related to the major facilitator superfamily (MFS). SUTs are essential for plant growth but little is known about their transport mechanism. Rece...
Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) has a high metastatic feature. N,N ′-Dinitrosopiperazine (DNP) is involved in NPC metastasis, but its mechanism is not clear. The aim of this study is to reveal the pathogenesis of ...
Phosphatase of regenerating liver-3 (PRL-3 or PTP4A3) has been implicated in controlling cancer cell proliferation, motility, metastasis, and angiogenesis. Deregulated expression of PRL-3 is highly correlated ...
STAT1 is an essential transcription factor for interferon-γ-mediated gene responses. A distinct sumoylation consensus site (ψKxE) 702IKTE705 is localized in the C-terminal region of STAT1, where Lys703 is a targe...
Bird species show a high degree of variation in the composition of their preen gland waxes. For instance, galliform birds like chicken contain fatty acid esters of 2,3-alkanediols, while Anseriformes like goose o...
Hyaluronan (HA) is made at the plasma membrane and secreted into the extracellular medium or matrix by phospolipid-dependent hyaluronan synthase (HAS), which is active as a monomer. Since the mechanism by whic...
ATP-binding cassette transporter A1 (ABCA1) mediates the lipidation of exchangeable apolipoproteins, the rate-limiting step in the formation of high density lipoproteins (HDL). We previously demonstrated that ...
Birds clean and lubricate their feathers with waxes that are produced in the uropygial gland, a holocrine gland located on their back above the tail. The type and the composition of the secreted wax esters are...