Arf (ADP-ribosylation factor) GTP-binding proteins function in cells to regulate membrane traffic and structure. Arfs accomplish this task through modification of membrane lipids and the recruitment of proteins, including coat proteins and actin, to membrane surfaces. Arf1 and Arf6 are the most divergent and most studied human Arf proteins that localize predominantly to the Golgi complex and pl...

The unusual bacteriophage PRD1 features a membrane beneath its icosahedral protein coat. The crystal structure of the major coat protein, P3, at 1.85 A resolution reveals a molecule with three interlocking subunits, each with two eight-stranded viral jelly rolls normal to the viral capsid, and putative membrane-interacting regions. Surprisingly, the P3 molecule closely resembles hexon, the equi...

Coat proteins appear to play a general role in intracellular protein trafficking by coordinating a membrane budding event with cargo selection. Here we show that the AP-2 adaptor, a clathrin-associated coat-protein complex that nucleates clathrin-coated vesicle formation at the cell surface, can also initiate the assembly of normal polyhedral clathrin coats on dense lysosomes under physiologica...

Bacillus subtilis spores can germinate with a 1:1 chelate of Ca and dipicolinic acid (DPA), a compound present at high levels in the spore core. Using a genetic screen to identify genes encoding proteins that are specifically involved in spore germination by Ca -DPA, three mutations were identified. One was in the gene encoding the cortex lytic enzyme, CwlJ, that was previously shown to be esse...

The exosporium-defective phenotype of a transposon insertion mutant of Bacillus cereus implicated ExsY, a homologue of B. subtilis cysteine-rich spore coat proteins CotY and CotZ, in assembly of an intact exosporium. Single and double mutants of B. cereus lacking ExsY and its paralogue, CotY, were constructed. The exsY mutant spores are not surrounded by an intact exosporium, though they often ...

The seed coat serves as a multifunctional organ with a role in protection and for the supply of nutrients to the embryo sac during development. The composition of the legume seed coat differs from other seed tissues in many ways including its protein composition. An abundant 24 kDa protein (SC24) has been purified and identified from soybean (Glycine max [L.] Merr) seed hulls. The corresponding...

Most plant viruses depend on vectors for their survival and spread. Most vectors are piercing-sucking insects that transmit plant viruses in either the circulative virus (CV) or noncirculative virus (NCV). NCV are carried on the lining cuticle of vectors stylets. CVs cross the vectors’ gut, move internally to the salivary glands (SG), cross the SG membranes to be ejected upon feeding. Transmiss...

Clathrin-mediated endocytosis involves a coordinated series of molecular events regulated by interactions among a variety of proteins and lipids through specific domains. One such domain is the Eps15 homology (EH) domain, a highly conserved protein-protein interaction domain present in a number of proteins distributed from yeast to mammals. Several lines of evidence suggest that the yeast EH do...