Hammerhead ribozymes are small catalytic RNA molecules that can be designed to specifically cleave other RNAs. These ribozymes have exhibited low efficiency when examined inside cells, perhaps in part because of their sensitivity to intracellular RNases. In an effort to better understand intracellular degradation of small, foreign RNAs and to develop more stable ribozymes, the ability of Escher...

Apoptosis is an evolutionary conserved cell death mechanism, which requires activation of initiator and effector caspases. The Drosophila initiator caspase Dronc, the ortholog of mammalian Caspase-2 and Caspase-9, has an N-terminal CARD domain that recruits Dronc into the apoptosome for activation. In addition to its role in apoptosis, Dronc also has non-apoptotic functions such as compensatory...

1. The degradative pathway of melamine (1,3,5-triazine-2,4,6-triamine) was examined in Pseudomonas sp. strain A. 2. The bacterium grew with melamine, ammeline, ammelide, cyanuric acid or NH+4 as sole source of nitrogen, and each substrate was entirely metabolized. Utilization of ammeline, ammelide, cyanuric acid or NH+4 was concomitant with growth. But with melamine as substrate, a transient in...

Saccharomyces cerevisiae can utilize allantoin as a sole nitrogen source by degrading it to ammonia, "CO(2)," and glyoxylate. We have previously shown that synthesis of the allantoin degradative enzymes is contingent upon the presence of allophanate, the last intermediate in the pathway. The reported repression of arginase by ammonia prompted us to ascertain whether or not the allantoin degrada...

Recent reports have suggested a role for microtubules in the endocytic process and pointed out the role for actin filaments for the early steps of apical endocytosis in polarized epithelial cells. However, these studies do not address the respective contribution of these two types of filaments along the endocytic pathway. In addition, several studies failed to demonstrate the role for actin fil...

Aims: The aims were to test whether Parvibaculum lavamentivorans degraded commercial linear alkylbenzenesulphonate (LAS) surfactant via x-oxygenation and b-oxidation to sulphophenylcarboxylates (SPCs), whether the organism was widespread and reisolable, and whether the degradative community used the 4-sulphocatechol 1,2-dioxygenase to cleave the aromatic ring from LAS. Methods and Results: Hete...