Rhomboid proteases reside within cellular membranes, but the advantage of this unusual environment is unclear. We discovered membrane immersion allows substrates to be identified in a fundamentally-different way, based initially upon exposing 'masked' conformational dynamics of transmembrane segments rather than sequence-specific binding. EPR and CD spectroscopy revealed that the membrane restr...

Page 16 REVIEW OF RHOMBOID FLAPS AND THEIR MODERN MODIFICATIONS Figures 1a 1c. Steps employed in the Limberg flap. A B C Introduction Following the formation of a surgical defect, a closure type is chosen to suit the surrounding tissue characteristics and defect size. While primary closure is often the first choice, simple suturing may not be sufficient to appropriately close the defect. Size i...

Scapular winging is a rare debilitating condition that leads to limited functional activity of the upper extremity. It is the result of numerous causes, including traumatic, iatrogenic, and idiopathic processes that most often result in nerve injury and paralysis of either the serratus anterior, trapezius, or rhomboid muscles. Diagnosis is easily made upon visible inspection of the scapula, wit...

OBJECTIVE We aimed to present our experience with rhomboid flap reconstruction, which is a simple technique, in breast cancer patients who underwent breast-conserving surgery. METHODS We reviewed the medical records of 13 patients with breast cancer who underwent rhomboid flap reconstruction. The patients were evaluated for tumor size, safe surgical margin, and other clinical and pathological...

Rhomboid intramembrane proteases are the enzymes that release active epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) ligands in Drosophila and C. elegans, but little is known about their functions in mammals. Here we show that the mammalian rhomboid protease RHBDL4 (also known as Rhbdd1) promotes trafficking of several membrane proteins, including the EGFR ligand TGFα, from the endoplasmic reticulum (E...

In this issue of The EMBO Journal, mechanistic analyses of substrate cleavage by rhomboid intramembrane proteases suggest that catalytic efficiency towards natural, transmembrane substrates is allosterically stimulated by initial substrate interaction with an intramembrane exosite, whose formation depends on rhomboid dimerisation. In the realm of intramembrane proteolysis, dimerisation and allo...