Actin Motility: Formin a SCAry Tail

SummaryA new biochemical analysis has revealed that the Rickettsia bacterial protein Sca2 — recently shown to be essential for virulence and actin-dependent motility — assembles actin filaments using a mechanism that functionally resembles the processive elongation tactics used by formins

Gender and Attorney Negotiation Ethics

Few studies of gender differences and legal ethics exist, and of these only a handful focus on gender and negotiation ethics. In light of the paucity of evidence on this topic, we decided to include gender as a component of a broader study of attorney negotiation ethics. This Essay sets forth and discusses our findings and hypotheses regarding gender and negotiation ethics. In Part II we explain the requirements of the professional rules of attorney conduct governing negotiation, and in Part III we discuss the study’s methodology and findings from the larger study. Part IV offers a detailed review of the literature related to the influence of gender on ethical decision-making. The data resulting from this study is presented in Part V, and in Part VI, we discuss potential explanations for our findings in addition to addressing our study’s limitations. In conclusion, Part VII makes several suggestions for further studies on this topic

WASP family members and formin proteins coordinate regulation of cell protrusions in carcinoma cells

We examined the role of the actin nucleation promoters neural Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome protein (N-WASP) and WAVE2 in cell protrusion in response to epidermal growth factor (EGF), a key regulator in carcinoma cell invasion. We found that WAVE2 knockdown (KD) suppresses lamellipod formation and increases filopod formation, whereas N-WASP KD has no effect. However, simultaneous KD of both proteins results in the formation of large jagged protrusions with lamellar properties and increased filopod formation. This suggests that another actin nucleation activity is at work in carcinoma cells in response to EGF. A mammalian Diaphanous–related formin, mDia1, localizes at the jagged protrusions in double KD cells. Constitutively active mDia1 recapitulated the phenotype, whereas inhibition of mDia1 blocked the formation of these protrusions. Increased RhoA activity, which stimulates mDia1 nucleation, was observed in the N-WASP/WAVE2 KD cells and was shown to be required for the N-WASP/WAVE2 KD phenotype. These data show that coordinate regulation between the WASP family and mDia proteins controls the balance between lamellar and lamellipodial protrusion activity