Cytomegalovirus sticks it to MHC

Cytomegalovirus sticks it to MHC

V iruses have numerous tricks for dodging the immune system. Stagg et al. reveal a key detail in one of these stratagems, identifying a protein that enables cyto-megalovirus to shut down an antiviral defense. Cytomegalovirus, which most people contract at some point in their lives, eludes immune system surveillance by targeting the protein MHC I. When we're sick, MHC I captures bits of viral pr...

Zap1 Sticks It to Candida Biofilms

Microbes have a variety of strategies to protect themselves from environmental assaults, whether they are clinging to bare rock on windy cliffs or dwelling within multicellular organisms like humans. One such strategy is to join forces and form biofilms, communities of microbial cells and their sticky secreted extracellular matrix that can adhere to a variety of surfaces. This method is used by...

Cohesin sticks to it during meiosis

Cohesin sticks to it during meiosis C ohesin doesn’t shirk its duties during mammalian meiosis after all. Llano et al. reveal that the protein complex forms part of a structure that enables homologous chromosomes to pair up. During mitosis, the cohesin complex holds sister chromatids together with a ring-like structure. During meiosis in yeast, cohesin has an additional function in forming axia...

Characterization of a murine cytomegalovirus class I major histocompatibility complex (MHC) homolog: comparison to MHC molecules and to the human cytomegalovirus MHC homolog.

Both human and murine cytomegaloviruses (HCMV and MCMV) down-regulate expression of conventional class I major histocompatibility complex (MHC) molecules at the surfaces of infected cells. This allows the infected cells to evade recognition by cytotoxic T cells but leaves them susceptible to natural killer cells, which lyse cells that lack class I molecules. Both HCMV and MCMV encode class I MH...

Constitutive MHC Class II Expression Human Cytomegalovirus Disrupts