The highly conserved amino-terminal region of the protein encoded by the v-myb oncogene functions as a DNA-binding domain.

The retroviral oncogene v-myb encodes a 45,000 Mr nuclear protein (p45v-myb) that is predominantly associated with the chromatin of transformed cells. It has previously been shown that p45v-myb, when released from chromatin by salt-treatment, binds to DNA. To analyse the biochemical properties of p45v-myb in more detail we have expressed the v-myb coding region in Escherichia coli. Our results demonstrate that bacterially expressed myb protein has an intrinsic DNA-binding activity. Using two alternative strategies, (i) inhibition of DNA-binding by monoclonal antibodies and (ii) analysis of DNA-binding activities of partially deleted forms of the bacterial myb protein, we show that the DNA-binding domain is located in the amino-terminal region of the v-myb protein. This region has been highly conserved between myb genes of different species. Our results are therefore consistent with the hypothesis that DNA-binding is an important aspect of myb protein function.     

Rearrangement at the 5'' end of amplified c-myc in human COLO 320 cells is associated with abnormal transcription.

The proto-oncogene c-myc is amplified in sublines of human COLO 320 cells carrying either homogeneously staining chromosomal regions or double minutes. COLO 320 cells carrying homogeneously staining chromosomal regions have 15 to 20 copies of an apparently normal c-myc allele and 1 to 2 copies of an abnormal c-myc allele lacking exon 1 and express high levels of a normal c-myc mRNA 2.5 kilobases in size. COLO 320 cells carrying double minutes have about 25 copies each of the normal allele and the abnormal allele but express preferentially an abnormal c-myc mRNA 2.2 kilobases in size. Nucleotide sequence analyses revealed that the break point of rearrangement resulting in the loss of exon 1 in the abnormal allele lies within a region frequently rearranged in human and murine B-cell tumors.     

Exchange of Cytosolic Content between T Cells and Tumor Cells Activates CD4 T Cells and Impedes Cancer Growth

Background

T cells are known to participate in the response to tumor cells and react with cytotoxicity and cytokine release. At the same time tumors established versatile mechanisms for silencing the immune responses. The interplay is far from being completely understood. In this study we show contacts between tumor cells and lymphocytes revealing novel characteristics in the interaction of T cells and cancer cells in a way not previously described.

Methods/ Findings

Experiments are based on the usage of a hydrophilic fluorescent dye that occurs free in the cytosol and thus transfer of fluorescent cytosol from one cell to the other can be observed using flow cytometry. Tumor cells from cell lines of different origin or primary hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cells were incubated with lymphocytes from human and mice. This exposure provoked a contact dependent uptake of tumor derived cytosol by lymphocytes – even in CD4⁺ T cells and murine B cells – which could not be detected after incubation of lymphocytes with healthy cells. The interaction was a direct one, not requiring the presence of accessory cells, but independent of cytotoxicity and TCR engagement.Electron microscopy disclosed 100-200nm large gaps in the cell membranes of connected cells which separated viable and revealed astonishing outcome. While the lymphocytes were induced to proliferate in a long term fashion, the tumor cells underwent a temporary break in cell division. The in vitro results were confirmed in vivo using a murine acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) model. The arrest of tumor proliferation resulted in a significant prolonged survival of challenged mice.

Conclusions

The reported cell-cell contacts reveal new characteristics i.e. the enabling of cytosol flow between the cells including biological active proteins that influence the cell cycle and biological behaviour of the recipient cells. This adds a completely new aspect in tumor induced immunology.     

A web services choreography scenario for interoperating bioinformatics applications

Background  

Very often genome-wide data analysis requires the interoperation of multiple databases and analytic tools. A large number of genome databases and bioinformatics applications are available through the web, but it is difficult to automate interoperation because: 1) the platforms on which the applications run are heterogeneous, 2) their web interface is not machine-friendly, 3) they use a non-standard format for data input and output, 4) they do not exploit standards to define application interface and message exchange, and 5) existing protocols for remote messaging are often not firewall-friendly. To overcome these issues, web services have emerged as a standard XML-based model for message exchange between heterogeneous applications. Web services engines have been developed to manage the configuration and execution of a web services workflow.     

Oncogenic point mutations in the Myb DNA-binding domain alter the DNA-binding properties of Myb at a physiological target gene

The oncoprotein v-Myb of avian myeloblastosis virus (AMV) transforms myelomonocytic cells by deregulating specific target genes. Previous work has shown that the oncogenic potential of v-Myb was activated by truncation of N- and C-terminal sequences of c-Myb and was further increased by amino acid substitutions in the DNA-binding domain and other parts of the protein. We have analyzed the activation of the chicken lysozyme gene which is strongly activated by c-Myb but not by its oncogenic counterpart v-Myb. We report that Myb acts on two different cis-regulatory elements, the promoter and an enhancer located upstream of the gene. Interestingly, the activation of the enhancer was abolished by the oncogenic amino acid substitutions. We demonstrated that a single Myb-binding site is responsible for the activation of the lysozyme enhancer by Myb and showed that the v-Myb protein of AMV was unable to bind to this site. Our data demonstrate for the first time that oncogenic activation of Myb alters its DNA-binding specificity at a physiological Myb target gene.     

Immobilized pH gradient-driven paper-based IEF: a new method for fractionating complex peptide mixtures before MS analysis

Introduction  

The vast difference in the abundance of different proteins in biological samples limits the determination of the complete proteome of a cell type, requiring fractionation of proteins and peptides before MS analysis.