Intrinsic structural disorder in cytoskeletal proteins.

Cytoskeleton, the internal scaffold of the cell, displays an exceptional combination of stability and dynamics. It is composed of three major filamentous networks, microfilaments (actin filaments), intermediate filaments (neurofilaments), and microtubules. Together, they ensure the physical and structural stability of the cell, whereby also mediating its large-scale structural rearrangements, motility, stress response, division, and internal transport. All three cytoskeletal systems are built upon the same basic design: they have a central repetitive scaffold assembled from folded building elements, surrounded and regulated by accessory regions/proteins that regulate its formation and mediate its countless interactions with its environment, serving to send regulatory signals to and from the cytoskeleton. Here, we elaborate on the idea that the opposing features of stability and dynamics are also manifest in the dichotomy of the structural status of its components, the core being highly structured and the accessory proteins/regions being highly disordered, and are responsible for most of the regulatory (post-translational) input promoting adaptive responses and providing dynamics necessary for each of the cytoskeletal systems. This pattern entails special consequences, in which the manifold functional advantages of structural disorder, most pronounced in regulatory and signaling functions, are all exploited by nature. (c) 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc

炭素酸化物の水素化反応に関する触媒開発

富山大学・富理工博甲第193号・RungtiwaKosol・2021/9/28富山大学202

Synonymous Constraint Elements Show a Tendency to Encode Intrinsically Disordered Protein Segments

Synonymous constraint elements (SCEs) are protein-coding genomic regions with very low synonymous mutation rates believed to carry additional, overlapping functions. Thousands of such potentially multi-functional elements were recently discovered by analyzing the levels and patterns of evolutionary conservation in human coding exons. These elements provide a good opportunity to improve our understanding of how the redundant nature of the genetic code is exploited in the cell. Our premise is that the protein segments encoded by such elements might better comply with the increased functional demands if they are structurally less constrained (i.e. intrinsically disordered). To test this idea, we investigated the protein segments encoded by SCEs with computational tools to describe the underlying structural properties. In addition to SCEs, we examined the level of disorder, secondary structure, and sequence complexity of protein regions overlapping with experimentally validated splice regulatory sites. We show that multi-functional gene regions translate into protein segments that are significantly enriched in structural disorder and compositional bias, while they are depleted in secondary structure and domain annotations compared to reference segments of similar lengths. This tendency suggests that relaxed protein structural constraints provide an advantage when accommodating multiple overlapping functions in coding regions. © 2014 Macossay-Castillo et al

Predictors of Attitude towards Preparation for Quality Aging in Undergraduate Students

This correlational study aims at investigating important predictors and predictive percentage of psychological and situational factors on attitude towards preparation for quality aging. Samples were 489 undergraduate students. Results from Multiple Regression Analysis on attitude towards preparation for quality aging in total sample yielded 43.07%. The important predictors were future orientation and self-control, social support, and need for achievement.  The predictive percentage in subgroups range from 34.86% to 47.89%. The interesting findings were found in some subgroups in terms of different predictors from the total sample. The findings from this study could shed light on increasing favorable attitude towards preparation for quality aging in adolescents. Discussion and implications are presented

Biological traits of Quadrastichus mendeli (Hymenoptera, Eulophidae), parasitoid of the eucalyptus gall wasp Leptocybe invasa (Hymenoptera, Eulophidae) in Thailand

Quadrastichus mendeli Kim & La Salle, a parasitoid of Leptocybe invasa Fisher & La Salle, is a uniparental species. This study assessed the biological traits of Q. mendeli in the laboratory at a temperature of 27 ± 1 °C. Diets had a highly significant effect on the mean longevity of female Q. mendeli. Feeding honey solution prolonged the mean longevity of the parasitoid to 4.80 days. The estimated 50% survival period was 3 days. The mean potential fecundity in all ages was 8.85 eggs per female. Age had a highly significant effect on the mean egg load. There was a positive relationship between egg load and female size. The mean of realized fecundity throughout the life span was 2.47 progenies per female. The mean developmental time of Q. mendeli from the egg to adult stage was 27.06 days. The shorter developmental time of Q. mendeli in comparison to its host can be considered a reason for the successful control of L. invasa in Thailand

Linking functions: an additional role for an intrinsically disordered linker domain in the transcriptional coactivator CBP

The multi-domain transcriptional coactivators CBP/p300 integrate a multitude of signaling inputs, interacting with more than 400 proteins via one or more of their globular domains. While CBP/p300 function is typically considered in terms of these structured domains, about half of the protein consists of intrinsically disordered regions (IDRs) of varying length. However, these IDRs have only been thought of as linkers that allow flexible spatial arrangement of the structured domains, but recent studies have shown that similar IDRs mediate specific and critical interactions in other proteins. To examine the roles of IDRs in CBP, we performed yeast-two-hybrid screenings of placenta and lung cancer cDNA libraries, which demonstrated that the long IDR linking the KIX domain and bromodomain of CBP (termed ID3) can potentially bind to several proteins. The RNA-binding Zinc-finger protein 106 (ZFP106) detected in both libraries was identified as a novel substrate for CBP-mediated acetylation. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy combined with cross-linking experiments and competition-binding assays showed that the fully disordered isolated ID3 transiently interacts with an IDR of ZFP106 in a fashion that disorder of both regions is maintained. These findings demonstrate that beside the linking function, ID3 can also interact with acetylation substrates of CBP

Structural characterization of intrinsically disordered proteins by NMR spectroscopy.

Recent advances in NMR methodology and techniques allow the structural investigation of biomolecules of increasing size with atomic resolution. NMR spectroscopy is especially well-suited for the study of intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) and intrinsically disordered regions (IDRs) which are in general highly flexible and do not have a well-defined secondary or tertiary structure under functional conditions. In the last decade, the important role of IDPs in many essential cellular processes has become more evident as the lack of a stable tertiary structure of many protagonists in signal transduction, transcription regulation and cell-cycle regulation has been discovered. The growing demand for structural data of IDPs required the development and adaption of methods such as 13C-direct detected experiments, paramagnetic relaxation enhancements (PREs) or residual dipolar couplings (RDCs) for the study of 'unstructured' molecules in vitro and in-cell. The information obtained by NMR can be processed with novel computational tools to generate conformational ensembles that visualize the conformations IDPs sample under functional conditions. Here, we address NMR experiments and strategies that enable the generation of detailed structural models of IDPs

Psycho-Situational Path Model of Ambidextrous Preparation for Quality Aging in College Students

During the period of old age, everyone wishes to have good quality of living. However, only the ones who have been well-prepared at the younger age could make this wish comes true. This study aims at investigating the psychosocial antecedents of the preparation of quality aging based on ambidextrous approach. Samples were 489 undergraduate students. Path analysis with latent model revealed a good fit. The findings revealed that psychological latent trait (future orientation and self-control, need for achievement, mental health, and core self-evaluation) and situational latent variable (perceived modeling, social support, and social norm) directly affected the preparation for quality aging  (present quality of life, knowledge acquisition, and knowledge usage) via the psychological latent state R2 of 0.606 latent (attitude towards preparation, and locus of control of preparation) with the. Discussion and implications are offered

In vitro biosynthetic studies of bottromycin expand the enzymatic capabilities of the YcaO superfamily

The bottromycins belong to the ribosomally synthesized and posttranslationally modified peptide (RiPP) family of natural products. Bottromycins exhibit unique structural features, including a hallmark macrolactamidine ring and thiazole heterocycle for which divergent members of the YcaO superfamily have been biosynthetically implicated. Here we report the in vitro reconstitution of two YcaO proteins, BmbD and BmbE, responsible for the ATP-dependent cyclodehydration reactions that yield thiazoline- and macrolactamidine-functionalized products, respectively. We also establish the substrate tolerance for BmbD and BmbE and systematically dissect the role of the follower peptide, which we show serves a purpose similar to canonical leader peptides in directing the biosynthetic enzymes to the substrate. Lastly, we leverage the expanded capabilities of YcaO proteins to conduct an extensive bioinformatic survey to classify known YcaO chemistry. This analysis predicts new functions remain to be uncovered within the superfamily