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Regulation of Hippo signalling by p38 signalling

The Hippo signalling pathway has a crucial role in growth control during development, and its dysregulation contributes to tumorigenesis. Recent studies uncover multiple upstream regulatory inputs into Hippo signalling, which affects phosphorylation of the transcriptional coactivator Yki/YAP/TAZ by Wts/Lats. Here we identify the p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway as a new upstr...

Apoptosis: from Signalling Pathways to Therapeutic Tools

Apoptosis or programmed cell death is a gene regulated phenomenon which is important in both physiological and pathological conditions. It is characterized by distinct morphological features including chromatin condensation, cell and nuclear shrinkage, membrane blebbing and oligonucleosomal DNA fragmentation. Although, two major apoptotic pathways including 1) the death receptor (extrinsic) and...

I-7: Maternal Signalling to the Placenta

Background: Though it is well established that maternal blood-borne signals influence highly the growth of the placenta, the mechanisms are not known. In vitro trophoblast culture models are limited by an inability to reconstruct the polarised bilayer of the human hemochorial placenta. We have used a first trimester villous tissue explant system to investigate how growth factors interact with p...

Spatiotemporal control of cAMP signalling processes by anchored signalling complexes.

Ligand-induced changes in cAMP concentration vary in duration, amplitude and extension into the cell. cAMP microdomains are shaped by adenylate cyclases that form cAMP as well as PDEs (phosphodiesterases) that degrade cAMP. Various extracellular signals converge on the cAMP/PKA (protein kinase A) pathway through ligand binding to GPCRs (G-protein-coupled receptors) and the cAMP/PKA pathway is t...

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