The distinctive triskelion shape of clathrin allows assembly into polyhedral lattices during the process of clathrin-coated vesicle formation. We have used random and site-directed mutagenesis of the yeast clathrin heavy chain gene (CHC1) to characterize regions which determine Chc trimerization and binding to the clathrin light chain (Clc) subunit. Analysis of the mutants indicates that mutati...

Influenza A virus (IAV) remains an important human pathogen largely because of antigenic drift, the rapid emergence of antibody escape mutants that precludes durable vaccination. The most potent neutralizing antibodies interact with cognate epitopes in the globular "head" domain of hemagglutinin (HA), a homotrimeric glycoprotein. The H1 HA possesses five distinct regions defined by a large numb...

Recently, a new class of broadly neutralizing anti-influenza virus antibodies that target the stalk domain of the viral hemagglutinin was discovered. As such, induction, isolation, characterization, and quantification of these novel antibodies has become an area of intense research and great interest. Since most of these antibodies bind to conformational epitopes, the structural integrity of he...

Nuclear export of unspliced and incompletely spliced human immunodeficiency virus type 1 mRNA is mediated by the viral Rev protein. Rev binds to a structured RNA motif known as the Rev-response element (RRE), which is present in all Rev-dependent transcripts, and thereby promotes entry of the ribonucleoprotein complex into the nuclear-export pathway. Recent evidence indicates that a dimerizatio...

As a transient receptor potential (TRP) superfamily member, polycystic kidney disease 2-like-1 (PKD2L1) is also called TRPP3 and has similar membrane topology as voltage-gated cation channels. PKD2L1 is involved in hedgehog signaling, intestinal development, and sour tasting. PKD2L1 and PKD1L3 form heterotetramers with 3:1 stoichiometry. C-terminal coiled-coil-2 (CC2) domain (G699-W743) of PKD2...

Bacteriophage T4 fibritin is a triple-stranded, parallel, segmented alpha-helical coiled-coil protein. Earlier we showed that the C-terminal globular domain (foldon) of fibritin is essential for correct trimerization and folding of the protein. We constructed the chimerical fusion protein W31 in which the fibritin foldon sequence is followed by the small globular non-alpha-helical protein gp31 ...

The heat shock response is a universal homeostatic cell autonomous reaction of organisms to cope with adverse environmental conditions. In mammalian cells, this response is mediated by the heat shock transcription factor Hsf1, which is monomeric in unstressed cells and upon activation trimerizes, and binds to promoters of heat shock genes. To understand the basic principle of Hsf1 activation we...

Embedding Ag single atoms onto densely arrayed Cu nanopyramids could optimize the *CO adsorption strength toward direct propanediol production via a one-step concerted trimerization mechanism.

Human heat shock transcription factor 1 (HSF1) promotes the expression of stress-responsive genes and is a critical factor for the cellular protective response to proteotoxic and other stresses. In response to stress, HSF1 undergoes a transition from a repressed cytoplasmic monomer to a homotrimer, accumulates in the nucleus, binds DNA, and activates target gene transcription. Although these st...