Deletions of SKY1 or PTK2 in the Saccharomyces cerevisiae trk1Deltatrk2Delta mutant cells exert dual effect on ion homeostasis

Sky1p and Ptk2p are protein kinases that regulate ion transport across the plasma membrane of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. We show here that deletion of SKY1 or PTK2 in trk1,2Delta cells increase spermine tolerance, implying Trk1,2p independent activity. Unexpectedly, trk1,2Deltasky1Delta and trk1,2Deltaptk2Delta cells display hypersensitivity to LiCl. These cells also show increased tolerance to low pH and improved growth in low K(+), as demonstrated for deletion of PMP3 in trk1,2Delta cells. We show that Sky1p and Pmp3p act in different pathways. Hypersensitivity to LiCl and improved growth in low K(+) are partly dependent on the Nha1p and Kha1p antiporters and on the Tok1p channel. Finally, Dhh1p, a RNA helicase was demonstrated to improve growth of trk1,2Deltasky1Delta cells in low K(+). Overexpression of Dhh1p improves the ability of trk1,2Delta cells to grow in low K(+) while dhh1Delta cells are sensitive to spermine and salt ions. A model that integrates these results to explain the mechanism of ion transport across the plasma membrane is proposed.     

Directed targeting of chromatin to the nuclear lamina is mediated by chromatin state and A-type lamins

Nuclear organization has been implicated in regulating gene activity. Recently, large developmentally regulated regions of the genome dynamically associated with the nuclear lamina have been identified. However, little is known about how these lamina-associated domains (LADs) are directed to the nuclear lamina. We use our tagged chromosomal insertion site system to identify small sequences from borders of fibroblast-specific variable LADs that are sufficient to target these ectopic sites to the nuclear periphery. We identify YY1 (Ying-Yang1) binding sites as enriched in relocating sequences. Knockdown of YY1 or lamin A/C, but not lamin A, led to a loss of lamina association. In addition, targeted recruitment of YY1 proteins facilitated ectopic LAD formation dependent on histone H3 lysine 27 trimethylation and histone H3 lysine di- and trimethylation. Our results also reveal that endogenous loci appear to be dependent on lamin A/C, YY1, H3K27me3, and H3K9me2/3 for maintenance of lamina-proximal positioning.     

Serum apolipoproteins C-I and C-III are reduced in stomach cancer patients: results from MALDI-based peptidome and immuno-based clinical assays

Finding new peptide biomarkers for stomach cancer in human sera that can be implemented into a clinically practicable prediction method for monitoring of stomach cancer. We studied the serum peptidome from two different biorepositories. We first employed a C8-reverse phase liquid chromatography approach for sample purification, followed by mass-spectrometry analysis. These were applied onto serum samples from cancer-free controls and stomach cancer patients at various clinical stages. We then created a bioinformatics analysis pipeline and identified peptide signature discriminating stomach adenocarcinoma patients from cancer-free controls. Matrix Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization-Time of Flight (MALDI-TOF) results from 103 samples revealed 9 signature peptides; with prediction accuracy of 89% in the training set and 88% in the validation set. Three of the discriminating peptides discovered were fragments of Apolipoproteins C-I and C-III (apoC-I and C-III); we further quantified their serum levels, as well as CA19-9 and CRP, employing quantitative commercial-clinical assays in 142 samples. ApoC-I and apoC-III quantitative results correlated with the MS results. We then employed apoB-100-normalized apoC-I and apoC-III, CA19-9 and CRP levels to generate rules set for stomach cancer prediction. For training, we used sera from one repository, and for validation, we used sera from the second repository. Prediction accuracies of 88.4% and 74.4% were obtained in the training and validation sets, respectively. Serum levels of apoC-I and apoC-III combined with other clinical parameters can serve as a basis for the formulation of a diagnostic score for stomach cancer patients.     

Primordial germ cell migration in the chick and mouse embryo: the role of the chemokine SDF-1/CXCL12

As in many other animals, the primordial germ cells (PGCs) in avian and reptile embryos are specified in positions distinct from the positions where they differentiate into sperm and egg. Unlike in other organism however, in these embryos, the PGCs use the vascular system as a vehicle to transport them to the region of the gonad where they exit the blood vessels and reach their target. To determine the molecular mechanisms governing PGC migration in these species, we have investigated the role of the chemokine stromal cell-derived factor-1 (SDF-1/CXCL12) in guiding the cells towards their target in the chick embryo. We show that sdf-1 mRNA is expressed in locations where PGCs are found and towards which they migrate at the time they leave the blood vessels. Ectopically expressed chicken SDF-1alpha led to accumulation of PGCs at those positions. This analysis, as well as analysis of gene expression and PGC behavior in the mouse embryo, suggest that in both organisms, SDF-1 functions during the second phase of PGC migration, and not at earlier phases. These findings suggest that SDF-1 is required for the PGCs to execute the final migration steps as they transmigrate through the blood vessel endothelium of the chick or the gut epithelium of the mouse.     

Are You Your Friends’ Friend? Poor Perception of Friendship Ties Limits the Ability to Promote Behavioral Change

Persuasion is at the core of norm creation, emergence of collective action, and solutions to ‘tragedy of the commons’ problems. In this paper, we show that the directionality of friendship ties affect the extent to which individuals can influence the behavior of each other. Moreover, we find that people are typically poor at perceiving the directionality of their friendship ties and that this can significantly limit their ability to engage in cooperative arrangements. This could lead to failures in establishing compatible norms, acting together, finding compromise solutions, and persuading others to act. We then suggest strategies to overcome this limitation by using two topological characteristics of the perceived friendship network. The findings of this paper have significant consequences for designing interventions that seek to harness social influence for collective action.     

Studies of the response of peach and nectarine plants to gibberellin biosynthesis inhibitors in a hydroponic system

In small rooted peach and nectarine plants grown in a hydroponic system, low paclobutrazol (PBZ) levels applied to the roots suppressed shoot and root development, but to a different degree. A much stronger retarding effect was observed on the shoot, with a very limited effect on roots, resulting in a reduced shoot:root ratio. The effect of the inhibitor on the roots was a rapid increase in root diameter, with increased root branching upon recovery from the inhibiting effect. Root thickening, a typical response to PBZ, was detected also in nectarines when only the top was treated with the inhibitor, indicating a basal movement of PBZ, thus contradicting the accepted notion that its translocation is only acropetal. Root thickening was the earliest detected morphological response to PBZ, being observed already 3 days after exposure to the retardant. The return to a normal diameter was abrupt. Uniconazol (UNI) had a much stronger retarding effect on peach plants than did similar concentrations of PBZ. Reduced top growth resulted in a reduction in water consumption.Abbreviations PBZ paclobutrazol - UNI uniconazol - GA Gibberellin - GBI gibberellin biosynthesis inhibitor - ABA abscisic acid This research was supported by Grant no. 1-779-84 from the US-Israel Binational Agricultural Research and Development Fund (BARD).Contribution from the Agricultural research organization, The Volcani Center, Bet Dagan, Israel. No. 1506-E, 1994 series.     

The Butyrylcholinesterase K Variant Confers Structurally Derived Risks for Alzheimer Pathology?

The K variant of butyrylcholinesterase (BChE-K, 20% incidence) is a long debated risk factor for Alzheimer disease (AD). The A539T substitution in BChE-K is located at the C terminus, which is essential both for BChE tetramerization and for its capacity to attenuate β-amyloid (Aβ) fibril formation. Here, we report that BChE-K is inherently unstable as compared with the “usual” BChE (BChE-U), resulting in reduced hydrolytic activity and predicting prolonged acetylcholine maintenance and protection from AD. A synthetic peptide derived from the C terminus of BChE-K (BSP-K), which displayed impaired intermolecular interactions, was less potent in suppressing Aβ oligomerization than its BSP-U counterpart. Correspondingly, highly purified recombinant human rBChE-U monomers suppressed β-amyloid fibril formation less effectively than dimers, which also protected cultured neuroblastoma cells from Aβ neurotoxicity. Dual activity structurally derived changes due to the A539T substitution can thus account for both neuroprotective characteristics caused by sustained acetylcholine levels and elevated AD risk due to inefficient interference with amyloidogenic processes.Butyrylcholinesterase (BChE),³ the secondary acetylcholine (ACh)-hydrolyzing enzyme, is associated with the neurofibrillary tangles and amyloid plaques characteristic of Alzheimer disease (AD) (1), which suggests that it functions as a potential AD modulator. BChE activity increases in the AD brain (2–4), where it co-localizes with β-amyloid (Aβ) fibrils (5, 6). Aβ is a 39–42-amino-acid amphiphilic peptide, derived from the transmembrane domain and extracellular region of the Aβ precursor protein (7). At high concentrations, Aβ acquires a β-sheet structure, becomes insoluble, and accumulates in neurotoxic oligomers and fibrils (8) to become the main constituent of plaques in the brain of AD patients. Recent hypotheses attribute causal roles in AD to presenilin (9), oxidative stress (10), metals (11), double hit origin (12), or mitochondrial damage (13). The alternative theories state that Aβ represents a bystander or even a protector rather than the causative factor of disease and that Aβ amyloidogenesis is secondary to other pathogenic events (14). Nevertheless, a wealth of evidence demonstrates a pivotal role for Aβ in the pathogenesis of AD, yielding the amyloid cascade hypothesis (15). According to this hypothesis, the pathological accumulation of Aβ in the brain leads to oxidative stress, neuronal destruction, and finally, the clinical syndrome of AD. It is within this context that we have studied the interactions of the Kalow variant (BChE-K) with Aβ.The C terminus of BChE functions as a tetramerization domain (16, 17) and is responsible for its quaternary organization. Four BChE monomers are held together by the aromatic interactions of seven highly conserved aromatic residues, termed the tryptophan amphiphilic tetramerization domain (WAT) (16, 17). The WAT domain interacts with proline-rich attachment domains, either via proline-rich membrane anchor in brain neurons (18) or, in neuromuscular junctions, with cholinesterase-associated collagen Q (19). In the serum, BChE tetramerization is supported by an analogous 17-mer proline-rich peptide derived from lamellipodin (20).Analyzing the quaternary organization of cholinesterases is a complicated task. To date, all biologically relevant crystal structures of cholinesterases have been truncated forms that lack the C terminus of the protein (21), apart from a more recent study of full-length BChE that yielded crystal packing, which did not allow C-terminal interactions among subunits and lacked electron densities in the C terminus region, indicating structural disorder Protein Data Bank (PDB) code 1VZJ (22). Of note, the crystal structure of the homologous C terminus of tetrameric synaptic acetylcholinesterase (AChE-S) could only be determined based on synthetic peptides derived from the sequence of the AChE-S tail and stabilized with a proline-rich attachment domain (23).In addition to the “usual” (BChE-U) form, BChE has nearly 40 genomic variants. The most common is BChE-K, with allelic frequencies of 0.13–0.21. BChE-K includes a single nucleotide polymorphism at position 1699 (single nucleotide polymorphism data base (dbSNP) ID: rs1803274; alleles, A/G). This leads to an alanine-to-threonine substitution at position 539, 36 residues upstream to the C terminus of BChE (24), within the tetramerization domain that we previously found to attenuate amyloid fibril formation (25).Ample evidence supports the importance of alanine-to-threonine substitutions and their relevance to amyloidogenic processes, protein stability, and quaternary organization (supplemental Table ST1). Point mutations at the dimer interface of light chain immunoglobulins decrease their stability so that the A34T polymorphism in this protein leads to systemic amyloidosis (26). An A25T mutant of the tetrameric human protein Transthyretin (TTR), associated with central nervous system amyloidosis, is prone to aggregation and exhibits drastically reduced tertiary and quaternary structural stabilities (27). The thermodynamic stability profile of the A25T TTR mutant shows that both monomers and tetramers of this variant are highly destabilized. In addition, A25T TTR tetramers dissociate very rapidly (about 1200-fold faster than the dissociation of wild-type TTR), reflecting a high degree of kinetic destabilization of their quaternary structure. These factors together probably contribute to the high propensity of A25T TTR to aggregate in vitro.The capacity of serum BChE-K to hydrolyze butyrylthiocholine was reported to be reduced by 30% relative to BChE-U, for yet unclear reasons (24). The reduced hydrolytic activity of BChE-K predicts that BChE-K carriers would potentially sustain improved cholinergic transmission as compared with BChE-U carriers and has been shown to correlate with preserved performance of attention and reduced rates of cognitive decline (28). However, BChE-K carriers are refractory to cholinesterase inhibitor therapy, the current leading treatment of AD (29). This raised the question whether BChE-K functions as an AD risk or protection factor. Genotype studies are controversial, with some showing increased risk of AD for homozygote BChE-K carriers (e.g. Ref. 30), whereas others suggest a protective effect (e.g. Ref. 31). A recent meta-analysis concluded that on average, BChE-K is neither a risk factor nor a protection factor for AD (32). Based on our previous findings of the arrest of Aβ fibril formation by BChE and considering the accumulation of monomeric BChE in the most severe AD cases (33), we used a variety of chemical techniques to study the effect of the A539T substitution on BChE stability and tetramerization on the one hand and on its potency in attenuating Aβ oligomerization and fibril formation on the other.