Role of hormone-sensitive lipase in beta-adrenergic remodeling of white adipose tissue

Free fatty acids (FFA) are important extracellular and intracellular signaling molecules and are thought to be involved in beta-adrenergic-induced remodeling of adipose tissue, which involves a transient inflammatory response followed by mitochondrial biogenesis and increased oxidative capacity. This work examined the role of hormone-sensitive lipase (HSL), a key enzyme of acylglycerol metabolism, in white adipose tissue (WAT) remodeling using genetic inactivation or pharmacological inhibition. Acute treatment with the beta(3)-adrenergic agonist CL-316,243 (CL) induced expression of inflammatory markers and caused extravasation of myeloid cells in WAT of wild-type (WT) mice. HSL-knockout (KO) mice had elevated inflammatory gene expression in the absence of stimulation, and acute injection of CL did not further recruit myeloid cells, nor did it further elevate inflammatory gene expression. Acute pharmacological inhibition of HSL with BAY 59-9435 (BAY) had no effect on inflammatory gene expression in WAT or in cultured 3T3-L1 adipocytes. However, BAY prevented induction of inflammatory cytokines by beta-adrenergic stimulation in WAT in vivo and in cultured 3T3-L1 adipocytes. Chronic CL treatment stimulated mitochondrial biogenesis, expanded oxidative capacity, and increased lipid droplet fragmentation in WT mice, and these effects were significantly impaired in HSL-KO mice. In contrast to HSL-KO mice, mice with defective signaling of Toll-like receptor 4, a putative FFA receptor, showed normal beta-adrenergic-induced remodeling of adipose tissue. Overall, results reveal the importance of HSL activity in WAT metabolic plasticity and inflammation.     

Building Ribosomes: Even More Expensive Than Expected?

Recent quantitative analyses of ribosomal protein trafficking in HeLa cells have revealed a prominent and unexpected role for the proteasome in regulating the availability of ribosomal proteins for subunit assembly.     

The early adaptive evolution of calmodulin

Interaction between gene duplication and natural selection in molecular evolution was investigated utilizing a phylogenetic tree constructed by the parsimony procedure from amino acid sequences of 50 calmodulin- family protein members. The 50 sequences, belonging to seven protein lineages related by gene duplication (calmodulin itself, troponin-C, alkali and regulatory light chains of myosin, parvalbumin, intestinal calcium-binding protein, and glial S-100 phenylalanine-rich protein), came from a wide range of eukaryotic taxa and yielded a denser tree (more branch points within each lineage) than in earlier studies. Evidence obtained from the reconstructed pattern of base substitutions and deletions in these ancestral loci suggests that, during the early history of the family, selection acted as a transforming force on expressed genes among the duplicates to encode molecular sites with new or modified functions. In later stages of descent, however, selection was a conserving force that preserved the structures of many coadapted functional sites. Each branch of the family was found to have a unique average tempo of evolutionary change, apparently regulated through functional constraints. Proteins whose functions dictate multiple interaction with several other macromolecules evolved more slowly than those which display fewer protein-protein and protein-ion interactions, e.g., calmodulin and next troponin-C evolved at the slowest average rates, whereas parvalbumin evolved at the fastest. The history of all lineages, however, appears to be characterized by rapid rates of evolutionary change in earlier periods, followed by slower rates in more recent periods. A particularly sharp contrast between such fast and slow rates is found in the evolution of calmodulin, whose rate of change in earlier eukaryotes was manyfold faster than the average rate over the past 1 billion years. In fact, the amino acid replacements in the nascent calmodulin lineage occurred at residue positions that in extant metazoans are largely invariable, lending further support to the Darwinian hypothesis that natural selection is both a creative and a conserving force in molecular evolution.      

Release of growth hormone from ox pituitary slices after pronase treatment

Proteolytic enzymes have been used both to modify properties of the cell membrane and to dissociate cells from many tissues including pituitary (4, 5, 12). Exposure of secretory tissues to pronase can alter their secretory response. Thus incubation of pancreatic islets of Langerhans in the presence of low concentrations of pronase increased the subsequent release of insulin in the presence of stimulatory and nonstimulatory glucose concentrations (7). The purpose of the present investigation was to determine whether low concentrations of pronase have the same stimulatory effect on the release of a pituitary hormone, growth hormone. Such an effect on hormone release could be of some importance in view of the development of dissociated cell systems as models for the study of the control of hormone release (4, 5).     

Cracking pre‐40S ribosomal subunit structure by systematic analyses of RNA–protein cross‐linking

Understanding of eukaryotic ribosome synthesis has been slowed by a lack of structural data for the pre‐ribosomal particles. We report rRNA‐binding sites for six late‐acting 40S ribosome synthesis factors, three of which cluster around the 3′ end of the 18S rRNA in model 3D structures. Enp1 and Ltv1 were previously implicated in ‘beak’ structure formation during 40S maturation—and their binding sites indicate direct functions. The kinase Rio2, putative GTPase Tsr1 and dimethylase Dim1 bind sequences involved in tRNA interactions and mRNA decoding, indicating that their presence is incompatible with translation. The Dim1‐ and Tsr1‐binding sites overlap with those of homologous Escherichia coli proteins, revealing conservation in assembly pathways. The primary binding sites for the 18S 3′‐endonuclease Nob1 are distinct from its cleavage site and were unaltered by mutation of the catalytic PIN domain. Structure probing indicated that at steady state the cleavage site is likely unbound by Nob1 and flexible in the pre‐rRNA. Nob1 binds before pre‐rRNA cleavage, and we conclude that structural reorganization is needed to bring together the catalytic PIN domain and its target.