Single molecule, real-time (SMRT) sequencing was used to characterize mitochondrial (mt) genome of Ophiocordyceps sinensis and to analyze the mt genome-wide pattern of epigenetic DNA modification. The complete mt genome of O. sinensis, with a size of 157,539 bp, is the fourth largest Ascomycota mt genome sequenced to date. It contained 14 conserved protein-coding genes (PCGs), 1 intronic protei...

Reduced environmental temperature triggers a range of behavioml and physiological responses to maintain body temperature. Brown adipose tissue (BAT) is a major site of thennoregulatory heat production [ 11, and during cold exposure thennogenesis in the tissue is rapidly stimulated, through the release of noradrenaline by the sympathetic nervous system. There is a substantially increased require...

An extracellular protease-producing actinomycete, Streptomyces nogalator strain Ac 80, was isolated from soil. Mutants of the strain designated as Mt C producing protease of higher (3.0 mg tyrosine liberated/min/mg protein) and Mt L of lower (0.9 mg tyrosine liberated/min/mg protein) specific activity as compared to that of the wild type (1.8 mg tyrosine liberated/min/mg protein) were selected....

The metallothionein (MT) gene superfamily consists of metal-binding proteins involved in various metal detoxification and storage mechanisms. The evolution of this gene family in vertebrates has mostly been studied in mammals using sparse taxon or gene sampling. Genomic databases and available data on MT protein function and expression allow a better understanding of the evolution and functiona...

Vascular endothelial cells are constantly exposed to oxidative stress and must be protected by physiological responses. In diabetes mellitus, endothelial cell permeability is impaired and may be increased by high extracellular glucose concentrations. It has been postulated that metallothionein (MT) can protect endothelial cells from oxidative stress with its increased expression by cytokines, t...

Metallothioneins (MTs) have been implicated in the intracellular regulation of essential metals in eukaryotic cells, and increased expression of MT genes has been demonstrated during the growth and proliferation of cells. To explore the expression of MT in somatic cells undergoing growth (hypertrophy) in the kidney in situ, we measured the rates of transcription of the genes for MT-1 and MT-2, ...

In this study, we investigated the expression of activated gelatinase A and membrane-type metalloproteinase (MT-MMP) induced by concanavalin A (ConA) in four highly invasive glioma cell lines (UWR2, UWR3, U251MG, and SNB-19). We also examined gelatinase A and MT-MMP expression in human brain tumor tissues in vivo. Gelatin zymography showed that all four cell lines expressed latent progelatinase...

Cytoplasmic dynein-1 is a minus-end-directed motor protein that transports cargo over long distances and organizes the intracellular microtubule (MT) network. How dynein motor activity is harnessed for these diverse functions remains unknown. Here, we have uncovered a mechanism for how processive dynein-dynactin complexes drive MT-MT sliding, reorganization, and focusing, activities required fo...

Metallothionein (MT) is an inducible protein, with a molecular mass of about 7,000. Although MT can bind with metals such as Zn, Cu, Cd, and Ag, Zn7-MT is commonly induced in the organs except the injection of Cu, Cd or Ag [1]. MT exists as two major isoforms MT-1 and MT-2 in mammalian species, and both MTs vary by a few amino acid residues and have consequently very similar hydrophobicities an...