Review
Plant Sciences
Barkha Ravi, Christine H. Foyer, Girdhar K. Pandey
Summary: Reactive oxygen species (ROS) and calcium (Ca2+) signalling play important roles in plant growth, development, and defense. They function together with electric signals in directional cell-to-cell systemic signalling and even plant-to-plant communication. However, there is still limited understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying the management of ROS and Ca2+ signals, as well as the synchronous and independent signaling in different cellular compartments. This review focuses on the proteins that may connect different pathways during abiotic stress responses, and highlights the crosstalk between ROS and Ca2+ pathways in cell signaling.
PLANT CELL AND ENVIRONMENT
(2023)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Joachim Muller, Nicoleta Anghel, Dennis Imhof, Kai Hanggeli, Anne-Christine Uldry, Sophie Braga-Lagache, Manfred Heller, Kayode K. Ojo, Luis-Miguel Ortega-Mora, Wesley C. Van Voorhis, Andrew Hemphill
Summary: Neospora caninum, closely related to Toxoplasma gondii, is a parasite that can cause fetal malformations in livestock. The development of calcium-dependent protein kinase 1 inhibitors has shown promise in treating neosporosis. However, some of these inhibitors have adverse effects on fertility in pregnant mouse models and cause embryonic malformations in zebrafish models. Through affinity chromatography and mass spectrometry, it has been found that BKI-1748 interacts not only with specific targets in apicomplexans but also with targets in other eukaryotes, indicating involvement in common essential pathways.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR SCIENCES
(2022)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Michael J. Ziegler, Klaus Yserentant, Valentin Dunsing, Volker Middel, Antoni J. Gralak, Kaisa Pakari, Joern Bargstedt, Christoph Kern, Annett Petrich, Salvatore Chiantia, Uwe Strahle, Dirk-Peter Herten, Richard Wombacher
Summary: The agrochemical mandipropamid (Mandi) has been shown to be a highly efficient chemical inducer of protein proximity (CIP) in cell culture systems and living organisms, with high specificity and orthogonality. It is capable of rapid and efficient protein translocation and network manipulation.
NATURE CHEMICAL BIOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Nicoleta Anghel, Joachim Mueller, Mauro Serricchio, Jennifer Jelk, Peter Buetikofer, Ghalia Boubaker, Dennis Imhof, Jessica Ramseier, Oksana Desiatkina, Emilia Paunescu, Sophie Braga-Lagache, Manfred Heller, Julien Furrer, Andrew Hemphill
Summary: The study investigated a novel ruthenium complex conjugated to 9-(2-hydroxyethyl)-adenine as a potential treatment against Toxoplasma gondii and Trypanosoma brucei. Proteins binding to the complex were identified using differential affinity chromatography followed by shotgun-mass spectrometry. The complex induced distinct ultrastructural modifications in the mitochondrion of the parasites, showing promising potential as a new treatment option.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR SCIENCES
(2021)
Article
Biochemical Research Methods
Jianmei Tao, Shuailong Jia, Meiqin Wang, Zhuobin Huang, Bo Wang, Wenwen Zhang, Yinyu Wei, Wenzhuo Li, Hongliang Jiang, Zhifeng Du
Summary: A comprehensive method combining protein separation and ion mobility mass spectrometry was used to identify the binding proteins of cisplatin in blood, with 39 proteins found to be platinated and involved in complement and coagulation cascade pathways. The study provided a new approach for systematically identifying metal drug binding proteins in blood and gaining insights into the toxicity of platinum anticancer drugs.
JOURNAL OF PROTEOME RESEARCH
(2021)
Article
Engineering, Environmental
Zihao Wan, Yalu Chen, Senhua Hu, Qiaolian Chen, Yuxin Li, Xiuhua Chen, Wenfeng Tan, Yongjun Lin, Kenneth J. Shea, Mingming Liu
Summary: Monitoring transgenic crops is essential, but conventional antibody detection faces challenges with multiple protein variants engineered into important crops. A peptide epitope with high sequence similarity to certain proteins is identified, but lacks the necessary properties for practical applications. Conjugation of the peptide to a synthetic polymer creates a hybrid material that can be used for extraction and detection of transgenic protein variants from water and soil samples.
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING JOURNAL
(2023)
Article
Microbiology
Christopher W. Hamm, Daxton R. Butler, Matthew T. Cabeen
Summary: Bacterial survival depends on appropriate responses to diverse stressors. The environmental model bacterium Bacillus subtilis uses stressosomes to sense environmental stressors and enact the general stress response. Different RsbR paralogs show distinct response magnitude and timing, and can distinguish among stressors.
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Mengting Pan, Yunming Liu, Xiaofang Zheng, Meijuan Zhou, Changjun You, Xiaoxia Dai
Summary: The study utilized a chemical proteomic method to identify and quantify CTP-binding proteins in human cells, revealing their roles in various biological processes. This approach could be widely applicable for profiling CTP-binding proteins in other biological samples.
CHINESE CHEMICAL LETTERS
(2021)
Article
Plant Sciences
Sarah J. Smith, Heather Goodman, Johan T. M. Kroon, Adrian P. Brown, William J. Simon, Stephen Chivasa
Summary: ATP is crucial in plant growth and stress response, and this study identified three Arabidopsis proteins that bind to ATP, involved in responding to cell death-activating toxins.
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Nicolai Bjodstrup Palstrom, Rune Matthiesen, Lars Melholt Rasmussen, Hans Christian Beck
Summary: The human plasma proteome reflects the physiological state of the cardiovascular system and has been used to analyze plasma biomarkers for cardiovascular diseases for decades. However, current plasma biomarkers only address a limited subset of cardiovascular diseases, and there is an urgent need for biomarkers for diseases with increasing incidence like heart failure and abdominal aortic aneurysm. Recent advancements in technologies for analyzing the human plasma proteome are addressing the complexity and facilitating the discovery of novel biomarkers for cardiovascular diseases.
Article
Neurosciences
Wenzhong Yang, Xueyan Zhou, Xin Wang, Jingyun Lee, Dan Wu, Peiqing Sun, Cristina M. Furdui, Tao Ma
Summary: AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) plays a crucial role in maintaining cellular energy balance and dysregulation of its signaling is linked to neuronal diseases. This study identified proteins sensitive to suppression of AMPK alpha isoforms, potentially informing future research on therapeutic targets for neurological disorders.
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Masaharu Kawano, Syunsuke Murakawa, Kenji Higashiguchi, Kenji Matsuda, Tomonori Tamura, Itaru Hamachi
Summary: The covalent inhibition of proteins has attracted attention in drug discovery, and a new lysine-targeted electrophile called ArNASA shows promise in expanding the range of covalently druggable proteins. Modification of the NASA warhead structure results in the development of ArNASA derivatives that exhibit improved stability and reduced off-target reactions. These findings highlight the importance of enriching the current arsenal of lysine-reactive warheads.
JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY
(2023)
Review
Immunology
Pengpeng Xia, Xingduo Ji, Li Yan, Siqi Lian, Ziyue Chen, Yi Luo
Summary: S100 proteins are small proteins that are only expressed in vertebrates and play a crucial role in various biological processes. Among them, S100A8, S100A9, and S100A12 are important in resisting microbial infection and maintaining immune homeostasis. They can chelate metal nutrients of pathogens, inhibit pathogen growth, initiate inflammatory signal transduction, induce cytokine expression, and participate in immune regulation. They can also serve as disease markers for screening and detecting related diseases.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Dia A. Ghose, Kaitlyn E. Przydzial, Emily M. Mahoney, Amy E. Keating, Michael T. Laub
Summary: The evolution of novel functions in biology relies on gene duplication and divergence, creating large paralogous protein families. However, the specificity of these paralogs to their interaction partners can be sensitive to mutation. Through deep mutational scanning, it was demonstrated that a family of bacterial signaling proteins exhibits marginal specificity, with individual substitutions leading to substantial cross-talk between pathways. These findings suggest that the evolution of bacterial signaling proteins is constrained by sequence space crowding, and that evolution selects for good enough rather than optimized phenotypes in paralogs.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
(2023)
Review
Plant Sciences
Claudia-Nicole Meisrimler, Claudia Allan, Sophie Eccersall, Richard J. Morris
Summary: Pathogens use effectors to disrupt plant defense mechanisms and target pathways for nonbiological stress adaptation, promoting infection. Research in this area is still in its early stages, but helps to establish connections between effector targets and pathogenic lifestyles.
