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- Itel, F., et al.
(författare)
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CO2 permeability of cell membranes is regulated by membrane cholesterol and protein gas channels
- 2012
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Ingår i: Faseb Journal. - : Wiley. - 0892-6638 .- 1530-6860. ; 26:12, s. 5182-5191
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Recent observations that some membrane proteins act as gas channels seem surprising in view of the classical concept that membranes generally are highly permeable to gases. Here, we study the gas permeability of membranes for the case of CO2, using a previously established mass spectrometric technique. We first show that biological membranes lacking protein gas channels but containing normal amounts of cholesterol (30-50 mol% of total lipid), e.g., MDCK and tsA201 cells, in fact possess an unexpectedly low CO2 permeability (PCO2) of similar to 0.01 cm/s, which is 2 orders of magnitude lower than the PCO2 of pure planar phospholipid bilayers (similar to 1 cm/s). Phospholipid vesicles enriched with similar amounts of cholesterol also exhibit PCO2 approximate to 0.01 cm/s, identifying cholesterol as the major determinant of membrane PCO2. This is confirmed by the demonstration that MDCK cells depleted of or enriched with membrane cholesterol show dramatic increases or decreases in PCO2, respectively. We demonstrate, furthermore, that reconstitution of human AQP-1 into cholesterol-containing vesicles, as well as expression of human AQP-1 in MDCK cells, leads to drastic increases in PCO2, indicating that gas channels are of high functional significance for gas transfer across membranes of low intrinsic gas permeability.-Itel, F., Al-Samir, S., Oberg, F., Chami, M., Kumar, M., Supuran, C. T., Deen, P. M. T., Meier, W., Hedfalk, K., Gros, G., Endeward, V. CO2 permeability of cell membranes is regulated by membrane cholesterol and protein gas channels. FASEB J. 26, 5182-5191 (2012). www.fasebj.org
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| 2. |
- Franke, Barbara, et al.
(författare)
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Molecular basis for the fold organization and sarcomeric targeting of the muscle atrogin MuRF1
- 2014
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Ingår i: Open Biology. - London, United Kingdom : The Royal Society Publishing. - 2046-2441. ; 4
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- MuRF1 is an E3 ubiquitin ligase central to muscle catabolism. It belongs to the TRIM protein family characterized by a tripartite fold of RING, B-box and coiled-coil (CC) motifs, followed by variable C-terminal domains. The CC motif is hypothesized to be responsible for domain organization in the fold as well as for high-order assembly into functional entities. But data on CC from this family that can clarify the structural significance of this motif are scarce. We have characterized the helical region from MuRF1 and show that, contrary to expectations, its CC domain assembles unproductively, being the B2- and COS-boxes in the fold (respectively flanking the CC) that promote a native quaternary structure. In particular, the C-terminal COS-box seemingly forms an α-hairpin that packs against the CC, influencing its dimerization. This shows that a C-terminal variable domain can be tightly integrated within the conserved TRIM fold to modulate its structure and function. Furthermore, data from transfected muscle show that in MuRF1 the COS-box mediates the in vivo targeting of sarcoskeletal structures and points to the pharmacological relevance of the COS domain for treating MuRF1-mediated muscle atrophy.
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