BACKGROUND Cardiomyocyte hypertrophy is of central importance in the development of congestive heart failure. Whether proteins secreted from the myocardium itself contribute to myocardial hypertrophy is largely unknown. METHODS AND RESULTS We performed a genetic yeast secretion trap screen using a murine cardiac cDNA library and identified 54 cardiac proteins that contained a secretion signal...

In this work, we report the expression and secretion of the leaderless two-peptide (EntL50A and EntL50B) bacteriocin enterocin L50 from Enterococcus faecium L50 by the methylotrophic yeast Pichia pastoris X-33. The bacteriocin structural genes entL50A and entL50B were fused to the Saccharomyces cerevisiae gene region encoding the mating pheromone alpha-factor 1 secretion signal (MFalpha1(s)) an...

G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) regulate a wide variety of physiological processes and are important pharmaceutical targets for drug discovery. Here, we describe a unique concept based on yeast cell-surface display technology to selectively track eligible peptides with agonistic activity for human GPCRs (Cell Wall Trapping of Autocrine Peptides (CWTrAP) strategy). In our strategy, individua...

Secretory vesicles accumulate adjacent to the contact site between the two cells of a yeast mating pair before they fuse, but there is no direct evidence that secretion is required to complete fusion. In this study, temperature-sensitive secretion (sec(ts)) mutants were used to investigate the role of secretion in yeast cell fusion. Cell fusion arrested less than 5 minutes after inhibiting secr...

In 2003 and 2004, Þeld studies were conducted at three sites in Zhejiang Province in China to assess the impacts ofBacillus thuringiensis(Bt)Berliner riceexpressing a fusedgeneof cry1Ab and cry1Ac on nontarget planthoppers and leafhoppers. Populations in Bt plots were sampled with yellow sticky card traps, Malaise traps, and a vacuum-suction machine, and compared with samples from non-Bt contro...

In contrast to the enormous advances made regarding mechanisms of conventional protein secretion, mechanistic insights into the unconventional secretion of proteins are lacking. Acyl coenzyme A (CoA)-binding protein (ACBP; AcbA in Dictyostelium discoideum), an unconventionally secreted protein, is dependent on Golgi reassembly and stacking protein (GRASP) for its secretion. We discovered, surpr...

Adult mosquito collections were conducted for 12 weeks in two residential areas in Kuala Lumpur. The CDC light traps were compared using dry ice and yeast as sources of carbon dioxide attractants for mosquitoes. The efficacy of the dry ice baited trap was significant over yeast generated CO2 trap. The predominant species obtained were Culex quinquefasciatus, Stegomyia albopicta and Armigeres su...

OBJECTIVE Mutations in the ACP5 gene, which encodes tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase (TRAP), cause the immuno-osseous disorder spondyloenchondrodysplasia, which includes as disease features systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and a type I interferon (IFN) signature. Our aims were to identify TRAP substrates, determine the consequences of TRAP deficiency in immune cells, and assess whether ACP...

The success of Staphylococcus aureus as a pathogen can largely be attributed to the plethora of genetic regulators encoded within its genome that temporally regulate its arsenal of virulence determinants throughout its virulence lifestyle. Arguably the most important of these is the two-component, quorum-sensing system agr. Over the last decade, the controversial presence of a second quorum-sen...