01-06-2013 | Lane DJR; Huang ML-H; Richardson DR, Biochemical Journal, 2013

Does the hormone of iron metabolism, hepcidin, exhibit 'self-control'? Hepcidin is a small, disulfide-rich peptide synthesized by the liver, which plays a keystone role in regulating systemic iron metabolism in mammals. Hepcidin acts by binding and triggering the lysosomal degradation of the ...

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01-06-2013 | Wolin MS, Biochemical Journal, 2013

Observations by Kozieł et al. reported in this issue of the Biochemical Journal suggest the existence of novel regulatory processes associated with new evidence for increased Nox4 (NAPDH oxidase 4) regulation of mitochondrial function in a cultured endothelial cell aging-induced senescence ...

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01-06-2013 | Reeks J; Sokolowski RD; Graham S; Liu H; Naismith JH; White MF, Biochemical Journal, 2013

The competition between viruses and hosts is played out in all branches of life. Many prokaryotes have an adaptive immune system termed 'CRISPR' (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats) which is based on the capture of short pieces of viral DNA. The captured DNA is ...

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17-05-2013 | Nachon F; Carletti E; Ronco C; Trovaslet M; Nicolet Y; Jean L; Renard P, Biochemical Journal, 2013

The multifunctional nature of Alzheimer's disease calls for multi-target directed ligands (MTDLs) able to act on different components of the pathology, like the cholinergic dysfunction and amyloid aggregation. Such MTDLs are usually based on cholinesterase inhibitors (e.g., tacrine or ...

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17-05-2013 | Swalm B; Hallenbeck K; Majer C; Jin L; Scott M; Moyer M; Copeland R; Wigle T, Biochemical Journal, 2013

Histone H3 lysine 27 (H3K27) methylation is an important epigenetic modification that regulates gene transcription. In humans, EZH1 and EZH2 are the only enzymes capable of catalyzing methylation of H3K27. There is great interest in understanding structure-function relationships for EZH2, as ...

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15-05-2013 | Dow JM; Gabel F; Sargent F; Palmer T, Biochemical Journal, 2013

The Tat (twin-arginine translocation) system is a protein targeting pathway utilized by prokaryotes and chloroplasts. Tat substrates are produced with distinctive N-terminal signal peptides and are translocated as fully folded proteins. In Escherichia coli, Tat-dependent proteins often ...

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14-05-2013 | Lee K; Woo J; Hwang J; Hyun C; Cho C; Kim D; Lee E, Biochemical Journal, 2013

Stromal interaction molecule 1 (STIM1) mediates store-operated Ca2+ entry (SOCE) in skeletal muscle. However, the direct role(s) of STIM1 in skeletal muscle, such as Ca2+ release from the sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) for muscle contraction, have not been identified. The times required for the ...

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14-05-2013 | Nomura K; Ono S, Biochemical Journal, 2013

Cyclase-associated protein (CAP) is a conserved regulator of actin filament dynamics. In the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, CAS-1 is an isoform of CAP that is expressed in striated muscle and regulates sarcomeric actin assembly. Here, we report that CAS-2, a second CAP isoform in C. ...

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14-05-2013 | Hyv{o}nen M; Koponen T; Weisell J; Pietil{a} M; Khomutov A; Veps{a}l{a}inen J; Alhonen L; Kein{a}nen T, Biochemical Journal, 2013

We previously showed that the polyamine spermidine is indispensable for differentiation of 3T3-L1 preadipocytes. Here, we studied the mechanism of spermidine function by using polyamine biosynthesis inhibitor α-difluoromethylornithine in combination with the metabolically stable polyamine ...

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13-05-2013 | Berkholz J; Zakrzewicz A; Munz B, Biochemical Journal, 2013

Skeletal and heart muscle specific variant of nascent polypeptide associated complex (skNAC) is a skeletal and heart muscle-specific protein known to be involved in the regulation of sarcomerogenesis. The respective mechanism, however, is largely unknown. Here, we demonstrate that skNAC ...

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