AIM To identify genes related to the human testis development by substrate hybridization technique. METHODS A human testis cDNA microarray was constructed and hybridized with probes prepared from human adult and fetal testes and spermatozoa mRNAs by reverse transcription reactions. The differentially expressed genes were sequenced. And a newly identified cullin-3 (CUL-3) transcript variant (d...

Ubiquitin-mediated degradation targets cell cycle regulators for proteolysis. Much of the ubiquitin pathway's substrate specificity is conferred by E3 ubiquitin ligases, and cullins are core components of some E3s. CUL-4A encodes one of six mammalian cullins and is amplified and/or overexpressed in breast cancer, which suggests a role in regulating cell cycle progression. To examine CUL-4A's ph...

Drosophila oogenesis is especially well suited for studying stem cell biology, cellular differentiation, and morphogenesis. The small modifier protein ubiquitin regulates many cellular pathways. Ubiquitin is conjugated to target proteins by a diverse class of enzymes called ubiquitin E3 ligases. Here we characterize the requirement of Cul-5, a key component of a subgroup of Cullin-RING-type ubi...

The cullin family of proteins is involved in the ubiquitin-mediated degradation of cell cycle regulators. Relatively little is known about the function of the CUL-4A cullin, but its overexpression in breast cancer suggests CUL-4A might also regulate the cell cycle. In addition, since other cullins are required for normal development, we hypothesized that CUL-4A is involved in regulating cell cy...

The faithful segregation of chromosomes during meiosis is vital for sexual reproduction. Currently, little is known about the molecular mechanisms regulating the initiation and completion of meiotic anaphase. We show that inactivation of CUL-2, a member of the cullin family of ubiquitin ligases, delays or abolishes meiotic anaphase II with no effect on anaphase I, indicating differential regula...

The cullin CUL-2 is a crucial component of a subclass of multisubunit cullin-RING ubiquitin-ligases. The specificity of CUL-2-based complexes is provided by variable substrate-recognition subunits that bind to specific substrates. In Caenorhabditis elegans, CUL-2 regulates several key processes in cell division and embryonic development, including meiotic progression, anterior-posterior polarit...

A series of mononuclear heteroleptic copper(I) halide complexes, [CuL(PPh3)X] (X = Cl, Br, I), based on 4-(3,5-diphenyl-1H-pyrazol-1-yl)-6-(piperidin-1-yl)pyrimidine (L) and triphenylphosphine, have been synthesized by reaction between CuX (X = Cl, Br, I), L and PPh3 in a molar ratio of 1/1/1 in MeCN solutions. The copper atom, showing the distorted tetrahedral environment, is bound by the N,N-...