The production of a functional protein does not end with the termination of the growing polypeptide chain. This, while clearly true of all proteins, is particularly obvious in the case of secretory proteins. While all proteins must fold to a functional conformation, and many must assemble into some supramolecular structure, secretory proteins must also make their way across membranes and throug...

OPN (osteopontin) is a highly phosphorylated glycoprotein present in many tissues and body fluids. In urine, OPN is a potent inhibitor of nucleation, growth and aggregation of calcium oxalate crystals, suggesting that it has a role in the prevention of renal stone formation. The role of OPN in nephrolithiasis is, however, somewhat unclear, as it may also be involved in urinary stone formation, ...

Among the human genome, p53 is one of the first tumor suppressor genes to be discovered. It has a wide range of functions covering cell cycle control, apoptosis, genome integrity maintenance, metabolism, fertility, cellular reprogramming and autophagy. Although different possible underlying mechanisms for p53 regulation have been proposed for decades, none of them is conclusive. While much lite...

Tandem mass spectrometry-based proteomics enables high throughput analysis of post-translational modifications (PTMs) on proteins. In current researches of shotgun proteomics, peptides with various PTMs and those without PTMs are often identified together and an overall false discovery rate (FDR) is estimated. However, it is often the case that only a subset of identifications, e.g. those with ...

Unlimited ultrasensitivity in a kinase/phosphatase "futile cycle" has been a paradigmatic example of collective behaviour in multi-enzyme systems. However, its analysis has relied on the Michaelis-Menten reaction mechanism, which remains widely used despite a century of new knowledge. Modifying and demodifying enzymes accomplish different biochemical tasks; the donor that contributes the modify...

Precise modulation of transcription plays a vital role in both development and the response of all higher organisms to their environment. Temporal activation or repression of specific genes is accomplished via a plethora of transcriptional regulators. However, relatively little is known about how the activities of these proteins are controlled. Recent findings indicate that post-translational m...

Post-translational covalent modifications of glutamate receptors remain a hot topic. Early studies have established that this family of receptors, including almost all ionotropic and metabotropic glutamate receptor subtypes, undergoes active phosphorylation at serine, threonine, or tyrosine residues in their intracellular domains. Recent evidence identifies several glutamate receptor subtypes t...

BACKGROUND Leptospirosis, a re-emerging disease of global importance caused by pathogenic Leptospira spp., is considered the world's most widespread zoonotic disease. Rats serve as asymptomatic carriers of pathogenic Leptospira and are critical for disease spread. In such reservoir hosts, leptospires colonize the kidney, are shed in the urine, persist in fresh water and gain access to a new mam...