The plasma membrane is implicated in a variety of functions, whose coordination necessitates highly dynamic organization of its constituents into domains of distinct protein and lipid composition. Eisosomes, at least partially, mediate this lateral plasma membrane compartmentalization. In this work, we show that the Nce102 homologue of Aspergillus nidulans colocalizes with eisosomes and plays a...

Sphingolipids are regulators of mitochondria-mediated cell death in higher eukaryotes. Here, we investigate how changes in sphingolipid metabolism and downstream intermediates of sphingosine impinge on mitochondrial function. We found in yeast that within the sphingolipid degradation pathway, the production via Dpl1p and degradation via Hfd1p of hexadecenal are critical for mitochondrial functi...

Ergosterol depletion independently inhibits two aspects of yeast mating: pheromone signaling and plasma membrane fusion. In signaling, ergosterol participates in the recruitment of Ste5 to a polarized site on the plasma membrane. Ergosterol is thought to form microdomains within the membrane by interacting with the long acyl chains of sphingolipids. We find that although sphingolipid-free ergos...

Sphingolipids regulate cellular processes that are critically important in cell's fate and function in cancer development and progression. This fact underlies the basics of the novel cancer therapy approach. The pharmacological manipulation of the sphingolipid metabolism in cancer therapeutics necessitates the detailed understanding of the pathway. Two computational systems biology tools are us...

Fabry disease (FD) is a rare X-linked lysosomal storage disorder manifesting as progressive multi-organ accumulation of sphingolipids due to deficiency in the enzyme α-Galactosidase A. Sphingolipid can take place all cardiac cell types which manifests left ventricular hypertrophy, microvascular ischaemia, conduction abnormalities, arrhythmia, heart failure, and valvular disease. The use advance...

Sphingolipids and their metabolites have been thought crucial for cell growth and cell cycle progression, membrane and protein trafficking, signal transduction, and formation of lipid rafts; however, recent studies in trypanosomes point to the dispensability of sphingolipids in some of these processes. In this study, we explore the requirements for de novo sphingolipid biosynthesis in the insec...

BACKGROUND Congenital diaphragmatic hernia is a severe congenital anomaly with significant mortality and morbidity, for instance chronic lung disease. Sphingolipids have shown to be involved in lung injury, but their role in the pathophysiology of chronic lung disease has not been explored. We hypothesized that sphingolipid profiles in tracheal aspirates could play a role in predicting the mort...

The three-membered RUNX gene family includes RUNX1, a major mutational target in human leukemias, and displays hallmarks of both tumor suppressors and oncogenes. In mouse models, the Runx genes appear to act as conditional oncogenes, as ectopic expression is growth suppressive in normal cells but drives lymphoma development potently when combined with over-expressed Myc or loss of p53. Clues to...

TNF alpha administration mimics ischemic preconditioning and neutralizing antibodies to TNF alpha and IL-1 beta abolish exercise-induced preconditioning. However, the pharmacology of TNF alpha's cardioprotective effects and associated downstream signaling events has not been delineated. We evaluated the temporal and dose specific requirements of TNF alpha to function as a preconditioning mimeti...

Lysosomes are cellular stomachs. They degrade macromolecules and release their components as nutrients into the cytosol. Digestion of sphingolipids and other membrane lipids occurs at luminal intraendosomal vesicles and IMs (intraendosomal membranes). Sphingolipid and membrane digestion needs catabolic hydrolases with the help of lipid-binding proteins [SAPs (sphingolipid activator proteins)] a...