| 1. |
- Abdulkarim, Farhad, et al.
(författare)
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Homologous recombination between the tuf genes of Salmonella typhimurium
- 1996
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Ingår i: Journal of Molecular Biology. - : Elsevier BV. - 0022-2836 .- 1089-8638. ; 260:4, s. 506-522
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The genes coding for the translation factor EF-Tu, tufA and tufB are separated by over 700 kb on the circular chromosome of Salmonella typhimurium. The coding regions of these genes have 99% identity at the nucleotide level in spite of the presumed ancient origin of the gene duplication. Sequence comparisons between S. typhimurium and Escherichiacoli suggest that within each species the two tuf genes are evolving inconcert. Here we show that each of the S. typhimurium tuf genes cantransfer genetic information to the other. In our genetic system thetransfers are seen as non-reciprocal, i.e. as gene conversion events.However, the mechanism of recombination could be reciprocal, with sisterchromosome segregation and selection leading to the isolation of aparticular class of recombinant. The amount of sequence informationtransferred in individual recombination events varies, but can be close tothe entire length of the gene. The recombination is RecABCD-dependent,and is opposed by MutSHLU mismatch repair. In the wild-type, this typeof recombination occurs at a rate that is two or three orders of magnitudegreater than the nucleotide substitution rate. The rate of recombinationdiffers by six orders of magnitude between a recA and a mutS strain.Mismatch repair reduces the rate of this recombination 1000-fold. The rateof recombination also differs by one order of magnitude depending onwhich tuf gene is donating the sequence selected for. We discuss threeclasses of model that could, in principle, account for the sequencetransfers: (1) tuf mRNA mediated recombination; (2) non-allelic reciprocalrecombination involving sister chromosomes; (3) non-allelic geneconversion involving sister chromosomes, initiated by a double-strandbreak close to one tuf gene. Although the mechanism remains to bedetermined, the effect on the bacterial cells is tuf gene sequencehomogenisation. This recombination phenomenon can account for theconcerted evolution of the tuf genes.
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| 2. |
- Abu-Raya, Bahaa, et al.
(författare)
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Antibody and B-cell Immune Responses Against Bordetella Pertussis Following Infection and Immunization
- 2023
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Ingår i: Journal of Molecular Biology. - 0022-2836 .- 1089-8638. ; 435:24
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- Neither immunization nor recovery from natural infection provides life-long protection against Bordetella pertussis. Replacement of a whole-cell pertussis (wP) vaccine with an acellular pertussis (aP) vaccine, mutations in B. pertussis strains, and better diagnostic techniques, contribute to resurgence of number of cases especially in young infants. Development of new immunization strategies relies on a comprehensive understanding of immune system responses to infection and immunization and how triggering these immune components would ensure protective immunity. In this review, we assess how B cells, and their secretory products, antibodies, respond to B. pertussis infection, current and novel vaccines and highlight similarities and differences in these responses. We first focus on antibody-mediated immunity. We discuss antibody (sub)classes, elaborate on antibody avidity, ability to neutralize pertussis toxin, and summarize different effector functions, i.e. ability to activate complement, promote phagocytosis and activate NK cells. We then discuss challenges and opportunities in studying B-cell immunity. We highlight shared and unique aspects of B-cell and plasma cell responses to infection and immunization, and discuss how responses to novel immunization strategies better resemble those triggered by a natural infection (i.e., by triggering responses in mucosa and production of IgA). With this comprehensive review, we aim to shed some new light on the role of B cells and antibodies in the pertussis immunity to guide new vaccine development.
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| 3. |
- Adams, JC, et al.
(författare)
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Characterisation of Drosophila thrombospondin defines an early origin of pentameric thrombospondins
- 2003
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Ingår i: Journal of Molecular Biology. - 1089-8638. ; 328:2, s. 479-494
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Thrombospondins (TSPs) are multidomain oligomers that have complex roles in cell interactions and tissue organisation. The five vertebrate TSPs comprise two subgroups, A and B, that are assembled as trimers or pentamers, respectively. An invertebrate TSP was recently discovered in Drosophila melanogaster, but there is no knowledge of the oligomerisation status or properties of this molecule. We developed by bioinformatics a new dataset containing the single TSP of Drosophila melanogaster and four other newly identified invertebrate TSPs to examine the phylogenetic relationships of TSPs. These analyses clearly indicate pentamerisation as an early attribute of TSPs. We demonstrate experimentally that D. melanogaster TSP is assembled as a pentamer, has heparin-binding activity and is a component of extracellular matrix (ECM). During embryogenesis, the TSP transcript is concentrated at muscle attachment sites and is expressed by a subset of myoblasts and in imaginal discs. These novel results establish TSPs as highly conserved ECM components in both invertebrates and vertebrates and open fresh perspectives on the conservation of structure and biological function within this family
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| 4. |
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| 5. |
- Aisenbrey, Christopher, et al.
(författare)
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Macromolecular Crowding at Membrane Interfaces : Adsorption and Alignment of Membrane Peptides
- 2008
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Ingår i: Journal of Molecular Biology. - : Elsevier. - 0022-2836 .- 1089-8638. ; 375, s. 376-385
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Association of proteins to cellular membranes is involved in various biological processes. Various theoretical models have been developed to describe this adsorption mechanism, commonly implying the concept of an ideal solution. However, due to the two-dimensional character of membrane surfaces intermolecular interactions between the adsorbed molecules become important. Therefore previously adsorbed molecules can influence the adsorption behavior of additional protein molecules and their membrane-associated structure. Using the model peptide LAH4, which upon membrane-adsorption can adopt a transmembrane as well as an in-planar configuration, we carried out a systematic study of the correlation between the peptide concentration in the membrane and the topology of this membrane-associated polypeptide. We could describe the observed binding behavior by establishing a concept, which includes intermolecular interactions in terms of a scaled particle theory.High surface concentration of the peptide shifts the molecules from an in-planar into a transmembrane conformation, a process driven by the reduction of occupied surface area per molecule. In a cellular context, the crowding-dependent alignment might provide a molecular switch for a cell to sense and control its membrane occupancy. Furthermore, crowding might have pronounced effects on biological events, such as the cooperative behavior of antimicrobial peptides and the membrane triggered aggregation of amyloidogenic peptides.
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| 6. |
- Alikhani, Nyosha, et al.
(författare)
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Targeting Capacity and Conservation of PreP Homologues Localization in Mitochondria of Different Species
- 2011
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Ingår i: Journal of Molecular Biology. - : Elsevier BV. - 0022-2836 .- 1089-8638. ; 410:3, s. 400-410
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Mitochondrial presequences and other unstructured peptides are degraded inside mitochondria by presequence proteases (PrePs) identified in Arabidopsis thaliana (AtPreP), humans (hPreP), and yeast (Cym1/Mop112). The presequences of A. thaliana and human PreP are predicted to consist of 85 and 29 amino acids, respectively, whereas the Saccharomyces cerevisiae Cym1/Mop112 presequence contains only 7 residues. These differences may explain the reported targeting of homologous proteins to different mitochondrial subcompartments. Here we have investigated the targeting capacity of the PreP homologues' presequences. We have produced fusion constructs containing N-terminal portions of AtPreP(1-125), hPreP(1-69), and Cym1(1-40) coupled to green fluorescent protein (GFP) and studied their import into isolated plant, mammalian, and yeast mitochondria, followed by mitochondrial subfractionation. Whereas the AtPreP presequence has the capacity to target GFP into the mitochondrial matrix of all three species, the hPreP presequence only targets GFP to the matrix of mammalian and yeast mitochondria. The Cym1/Mop112 presequence has an overall much weaker targeting capacity and only ensures mitochondrial sorting in its host species yeast. Revisiting the submitochondrial localization of Cym1 revealed that endogenous Cym1/Mop112 is localized to the matrix space, as has been previously reported for the plant and human homologues. Moreover, complementation studies in yeast show that native AtPreP restores the growth phenotype of yeast cells lacking Cym1, demonstrating functional conservation.
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| 7. |
- Almstedt, Karin, 1980-, et al.
(författare)
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Unfolding a folding disease: folding, misfolding and aggregation of the marble brain syndrome-associated mutant H107Y of human carbonic anhydrase II
- 2004
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Ingår i: Journal of Molecular Biology. - Oxford : Elsevier. - 0022-2836 .- 1089-8638. ; 342:2, s. 619-633
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Most loss-of-function diseases are caused by aberrant folding of important proteins. These proteins often misfold due to mutations. The disease marble brain syndrome (MBS), known also as carbonic anhydrase II deficiency syndrome (CADS), can manifest in carriers of point mutations in the human carbonic anhydrase II (HCA II) gene. One mutation associated with MBS entails the His107Tyr substitution. Here, we demonstrate that this mutation is a remarkably destabilizing folding mutation. The loss-of-function is clearly a folding defect, since the mutant shows 64% of CO2 hydration activity compared to that of the wild-type at low temperature where the mutant is folded. On the contrary, its stability towards thermal and guanidine hydrochloride (GuHCl) denaturation is highly compromised. Using activity assays, CD, fluorescence, NMR, cross-linking, aggregation measurements and molecular modeling, we have mapped the properties of this remarkable mutant. Loss of enzymatic activity had a midpoint temperature of denaturation (Tm) of 16 °C for the mutant compared to 55 °C for the wild-type protein. GuHCl-denaturation (at 4 °C) showed that the native state of the mutant was destabilized by 9.2 kcal/mol. The mutant unfolds through at least two equilibrium intermediates; one novel intermediate that we have termed the molten globule light state and, after further denaturation, the classical molten globule state is populated. Under physiological conditions (neutral pH; 37 °C), the His107Tyr mutant will populate the molten globule light state, likely due to novel interactions between Tyr107 and the surroundings of the critical residue Ser29 that destabilize the native conformation. This intermediate binds the hydrophobic dye 8-anilino-1-naphthalene sulfonic acid (ANS) but not as strong as the molten globule state, and near-UV CD reveals the presence of significant tertiary structure. Notably, this intermediate is not as prone to aggregation as the classical molten globule. As a proof of concept for an intervention strategy with small molecules, we showed that binding of the CA inhibitor acetazolamide increases the stability of the native state of the mutant by 2.9 kcal/mol in accordance with its strong affinity. Acetazolamide shifts the Tm to 34 °C that protects from misfolding and will enable a substantial fraction of the enzyme pool to survive physiological conditions.
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| 8. |
- Andersen, Birgit, et al.
(författare)
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A recruited protease is involved in catabolism of pyrimidines.
- 2008
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Ingår i: Journal of Molecular Biology. - : Elsevier BV. - 1089-8638 .- 0022-2836. ; 379:2, s. 243-250
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In nature, the same biochemical reaction can be catalyzed by enzymes having fundamentally different folds, reaction mechanisms and origins. For example, the third step of the reductive catabolism of pyrimidines, the conversion of N-carbamyl-beta-alanine to beta-alanine, is catalyzed by two beta-alanine synthase (beta ASase, EC 3.5.1.6) subfamilies. We show that the "prototype" eukaryote beta ASases, such as those from Drosophila melanogaster and Arabidopsis thaliana, are relatively efficient in the conversion of N-carbamyl-beta A compared with a representative of fungal beta ASases, the yeast Saccharomyces kluyveri beta ASase, which has a high K(m) value (71 mM). S. kluyveri beta ASase is specifically inhibited by dipeptides and tripeptides, and the apparent K(i) value of glycyl-glycine is in the same range as the substrate K(m). We show that this inhibitor binds to the enzyme active center in a similar way as the substrate. The observed structural similarities and inhibition behavior, as well as the phylogenetic relationship, suggest that the ancestor of the fungal beta ASase was a protease that had modified its profession and become involved in the metabolism of nucleic acid precursors.
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| 9. |
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| 10. |
- Andersson, C. Evalena, et al.
(författare)
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Activation of Ribokinase by Monovalent Cations
- 2002
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Ingår i: Journal of Molecular Biology. - : Elsevier BV. - 0022-2836 .- 1089-8638. ; 315:3, s. 409-419
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)
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