昆虫滞育表观遗传调控的研究进展

滞育是昆虫躲避不良环境的一种策略,对延续昆虫种群具有重要意义.特别是昆虫的兼性滞育,能够受环境的周期性季节变化影响,表观遗传可能在其中扮演重要角色.表观遗传是不依赖DNA序列改变所产生的可遗传变异,包括DNA、RNA、蛋白质和染色质水平上的各种表观遗传调控过程,可能参与生物的发育可塑性.昆虫滞育表观遗传调控主要包括两个...     

Kinases and chromatin structure

Chromatin structure is regulated by families of proteins that are able to covalently modify the histones and the DNA, as well as to regulate the spacing of nucleosomes along the DNA. Over the years, these chromatin remodeling factors have been proven to be essential to a variety of processes, including gene expression, DNA replication, and chromosome cohesion. The function of these remodeling factors is regulated by a number of chemical and developmental signals and, in turn, changes in the chromatin structure eventually contribute to the response to changes in the cellular environment. Exciting new research findings by the laboratories of Sharon Dent and Steve Jackson indicate, in two different contexts, that changes in the chromatin structure may, in reverse, signal to intracellular signaling pathways to regulate cell fate. The discoveries clearly challenge our traditional view of ‘epigenetics’, and may have important implications in human health.     

Sensitivity and specificity amplification in signal transduction

Intracellular signal transduction pathways transmit signals from the cell surface to various intracellular destinations, such as cytoskeleton and nucleus through a cascade of protein-protein interactions and activation events, leading to phenotypic changes such as cell proliferation, differentiation, and death. Over the past two decades, numerous signaling proteins and signal transduction pathways have been discovered and characterized. There are two major classes of signaling proteins: phosphoproteins (e.g., mitogen-activated protein kinases) and guanosine triphosphatases (GTPases; e.g., Ras and G proteins). They both function as molecular switches by addition and removal of one or more high-energy phosphate groups. This review discusses developments that seek to quantify the signal transduction processes with kinetic analysis and mathematical modeling of the signaling phosphoproteins and GTPases. These studies have provided insights into the sensitivity and specificity amplification of biological signals in integrated systems.     

Signaling complexes: junctions on the intracellular information super highway.

An enigmatic yet fundamental principle of signal transduction is that parallel signaling pathways assembled from a common repertoire of enzymes are able to propagate diverse physiological responses. A key feature of such a mechanism is that separate signaling pathways are organized into localized transduction units, each tailored to respond optimally to a particular signal. Protein-protein interactions maintained by anchoring, adapter and scaffolding proteins provide the molecular glue that holds these signal transduction units together. A major objective of the signaling community is to ascertain how signals flow through compartmentalized transduction units that contain transmembrane receptors, protein kinases, phosphatases and their substrates.     

Anticancer innovative therapy congress: Highlights from the 10th anniversary edition

During the Tenth Edition of the Annual Congress on “Anticancer Innovative Therapy” [Milan, 23/24 January 2020], experts in the fields of immuno-oncology, epigenetics, tumor cell signaling, and cancer metabolism shared their latest knowledge on the roles of i] epigenetics, and in particular, chromatin modifiers, ii] cancer metabolism, iii] cancer stem cells [CSCs], iv] tumor cell signaling, and iv] the immune system. The novel therapeutic approaches presented included epigenetic drugs, cell cycle inhibitors combined with ICB, antibiotics and other off-label drugs, small-molecules active against CSCs, liposome-delivered miRNAs, tumor-specific CAR-T cells, and T-cell–based immunotherapy. Moreover, important evidence on possible mechanisms of resistance to these innovative therapies were also discussed, in particular with respect to resistance to ICB. Overall, this conference provided scientists and clinicians with a broad overview of future challenges and hopes to improve cancer treatment reasonably in the medium-short term.