Family as One of the Key Determinants of Media Education of Young School-age Children

The attitude of parents influences formation of children’s attitude to life. It is even more noticeable when speaking about media. The proposed contribution shows partial results of research carried out as a part of VEGA project No. 1/0913/15: Media literacy of young school-age children in the context of family and school cooperation. The character of the empirical research was diagnostic and quantitative-qualitative. The aim of the research was to examine media education performed in formal and non-formal ways among young schoolaged children in Slovakia. 28 schools from all over Slovakia were examined in the presented research. The contribution focuses mainly on findings from questionnaires given to parents and other focus groups, i.e. pupils

Molecular Architecture and Functional Model of the Complete Yeast ESCRT-I Heterotetramer

SummaryThe endosomal sorting complex required for transport-I (ESCRT-I) complex, which is conserved from yeast to humans, directs the lysosomal degradation of ubiquitinated transmembrane proteins and the budding of the HIV virus. Yeast ESCRT-I contains four subunits, Vps23, Vps28, Vps37, and Mvb12. The crystal structure of the heterotetrameric ESCRT-I complex reveals a highly asymmetric complex of 1:1:1:1 subunit stoichiometry. The core complex is nearly 18 nm long and consists of a headpiece attached to a 13 nm stalk. The stalk is important for cargo sorting by ESCRT-I and is proposed to serve as a spacer regulating the correct disposition of cargo and other ESCRT components. Hydrodynamic constraints and crystallographic structures were used to generate a model of intact ESCRT-I in solution. The results show how ESCRT-I uses a combination of a rigid stalk and flexible tethers to interact with lipids, cargo, and other ESCRT complexes over a span of ∼25 nm

A Genomic-Based Approach Combining In Vivo Selection in Mice to Identify a Novel Virulence Gene in Leishmania

Parasites of the genus Leishmania cause a variety of human diseases that range from destructive skin lesions caused by L. major to visceral infections of the liver and spleen caused by L. donovani that result in death. The Leishmania genes responsible for these different pathologies are not known. In the present study, we used a comparative genome-based approach to introduce and over-express L. donovani genes in L. major to determine whether this results in increased virulence of L. major in visceral organs of infected mice. Through this approach, a novel gene termed Li1040 was identified that is potentially involved in protein transport and was shown to increase pathogenesis in the visceral organs in mice. The Li1040 gene may therefore represent a Leishmania virulence gene that has the potential to regulate the pathology of infection in the mammalian host. These observations help to define how Leishmania causes fatal infections in humans and therefore provide a parasite-specific target for therapy

Atmospheric Plasma Deposition: A New Pathway in the Design of Conducting Polymer-Based Anodes for Hydrogen Fuel Cells

International audienceIn this study, we explored thin films of nanofibrous functionalized conducting plasma Polyaniline (pPANI) with platinum deposited by an atmospheric plasma deposition process for the potential design of anodes for hydrogen fuel cell applications. We observed that the incorporation of such a polymer, characterized by both electronic and ionic conductivity, associated with a catalyst in a 3D porous network, could lead to an increased probability of the three-phase contact to occur. In this context, aniline was mixed with functionalized platinum nanoparticles and used as the precursor. The role of these functionalized nanoparticles was not only to act as the catalyst for fuel cell purposes, but also as nucleation sites promoting the formation of the nanofibrous pPANI thin film during the plasma polymerization. The morphology of the thin film was analyzed by scanning electron microscopy and the efficiency, in terms of energy conversion, was assessed in a single fuel cell test bench

Neuronal Functions of ESCRTs

The endosomal sorting complexes required for transport (ESCRTs) regulate protein trafficking from endosomes to lysosomes. Recent studies have shown that ESCRTs are involved in various cellular processes, including membrane scission, microRNA function, viral budding, and the autophagy pathway in many tissues, including the nervous system. Indeed, dysfunctional ESCRTs are associated with neurodegeneration. However, it remains largely elusive how ESCRTs act in post-mitotic neurons, a highly specialized cell type that requires dynamic changes in neuronal structures and signaling for proper function. This review focuses on our current understandings of the functions of ESCRTs in neuronal morphology, synaptic plasticity, and neurodegenerative diseases

ESCRT ubiquitin-binding domains function cooperatively during MVB cargo sorting

Ubiquitin (Ub) sorting receptors facilitate the targeting of ubiquitinated membrane proteins into multivesicular bodies (MVBs). Ub-binding domains (UBDs) have been described in several endosomal sorting complexes required for transport (ESCRT). Using available structural information, we have investigated the role of the multiple UBDs within ESCRTs during MVB cargo selection. We found a novel UBD within ESCRT-I and show that it contributes to MVB sorting in concert with the known UBDs within the ESCRT complexes. These experiments reveal an unexpected level of coordination among the ESCRT UBDs, suggesting that they collectively recognize a diverse set of cargo rather than act sequentially at discrete steps

MVB-12, a Fourth Subunit of Metazoan ESCRT-I, Functions in Receptor Downregulation

After ligand binding and endocytosis, cell surface receptors can continue to signal from endosomal compartments until sequestered from the cytoplasm. An important mechanism for receptor downregulation in vivo is via the inward budding of receptors into intralumenal vesicles to form specialized endosomes called multivesicular bodies (MVBs) that subsequently fuse with lysosomes, degrading their cargo. This process requires four heterooligomeric protein complexes collectively termed the ESCRT machinery. In yeast, ESCRT-I is a heterotetrameric complex comprised of three conserved subunits and a fourth subunit for which identifiable metazoan homologs were lacking. Using C. elegans, we identify MVB-12, a fourth metazoan ESCRT-I subunit. Depletion of MVB-12 slows the kinetics of receptor downregulation in vivo, but to a lesser extent than inhibition of other ESCRT-I subunits. Consistent with these findings, targeting of MVB-12 to membranes requires the other ESCRT-I subunits, but MVB-12 is not required to target the remaining ESCRT-I components. Both endogenous and recombinant ESCRT-I are stable complexes with a 1:1:1:1 subunit stoichiometry. MVB-12 has two human homologs that co-localize and co-immunoprecipitate with the ESCRT-I component TSG101. Thus, MVB-12 is a conserved core component of metazoan ESCRT-I that regulates its activity during MVB biogenesis

PalC, One of Two Bro1 Domain Proteins in the Fungal pH Signalling Pathway, Localizes to Cortical Structures and Binds Vps32

PalC, distantly related to Saccharomyces cerevisiaeperipheral endosomal sorting complexes required for transport III (ESCRT-III) component Bro1p and one of six Aspergillus nidulanspH signalling proteins, contains a Bro1 domain. Green fluorescent protein (GFP)-tagged PalC is recruited to plasma membrane-associated punctate structures upon alkalinization, when pH signalling is active. PalC recruitment to these structures is dependent on the seven transmembrane domain (7-TMD) receptor and likely pH sensor PalH. PalC is a two-hybrid interactor of the ESCRT-III Vps20/Vps32 subcomplex and binds Vps32 directly. This binding is largely impaired by Pro439Phe, Arg442Ala and Arg442His substitutions in a conserved region mediating interaction of Bro1p with Vps32p, but these substitutions do not prevent cortical punctate localization, indicating Vps32 independence. In contrast, Arg442Δ impairs Vps32 binding and prevents PalC-GFP recruitment to cortical structures. pH signalling involves a plasma membrane complex including the 7-TMD receptor PalH and the arrestin-like PalF and an endosomal membrane complex involving the PalB protease, the transcription factor PacC and the Vps32 binding, Bro1-domain-containing protein PalA. PalC, which localizes to cortical structures and can additionally bind a component of ESCRT-III, has the features required to bridge these two entities. A likely S. cerevisiaeorthologue of PalC has been identified, providing the basis for a unifying hypothesis of gene regulation by ambient pH in ascomycetes

SProtP: A Web Server to Recognize Those Short-Lived Proteins Based on Sequence-Derived Features in Human Cells

Protein turnover metabolism plays important roles in cell cycle progression, signal transduction, and differentiation. Those proteins with short half-lives are involved in various regulatory processes. To better understand the regulation of cell process, it is important to study the key sequence-derived factors affecting short-lived protein degradation. Until now, most of protein half-lives are still unknown due to the difficulties of traditional experimental methods in measuring protein half-lives in human cells. To investigate the molecular determinants that affect short-lived proteins, a computational method was proposed in this work to recognize short-lived proteins based on sequence-derived features in human cells. In this study, we have systematically analyzed many features that perhaps correlated with short-lived protein degradation. It is found that a large fraction of proteins with signal peptides and transmembrane regions in human cells are of short half-lives. We have constructed an SVM-based classifier to recognize short-lived proteins, due to the fact that short-lived proteins play pivotal roles in the control of various cellular processes. By employing the SVM model on human dataset, we achieved 80.8% average sensitivity and 79.8% average specificity, respectively, on ten testing dataset (TE1-TE10). We also obtained 89.9%, 99% and 83.9% of average accuracy on an independent validation datasets iTE1, iTE2 and iTE3 respectively. The approach proposed in this paper provides a valuable alternative for recognizing the short-lived proteins in human cells, and is more accurate than the traditional N-end rule. Furthermore, the web server SProtP (http://reprod.njmu.edu.cn/sprotp) has been developed and is freely available for users

Calculation of the relative metastabilities of proteins in subcellular compartments of Saccharomyces cerevisiae

[abridged] Background: The distribution of chemical species in an open system at metastable equilibrium can be expressed as a function of environmental variables which can include temperature, oxidation-reduction potential and others. Calculations of metastable equilibrium for various model systems were used to characterize chemical transformations among proteins and groups of proteins found in different compartments of yeast cells. Results: With increasing oxygen fugacity, the relative metastability fields of model proteins for major subcellular compartments go as mitochondrion, endoplasmic reticulum, cytoplasm, nucleus. In a metastable equilibrium setting at relatively high oxygen fugacity, proteins making up actin are predominant, but those constituting the microtubule occur with a low chemical activity. A reaction sequence involving the microtubule and spindle pole proteins was predicted by combining the known intercompartmental interactions with a hypothetical program of oxygen fugacity changes in the local environment. In further calculations, the most-abundant proteins within compartments generally occur in relative abundances that only weakly correspond to a metastable equilibrium distribution. However, physiological populations of proteins that form complexes often show an overall positive or negative correlation with the relative abundances of proteins in metastable assemblages. Conclusions: This study explored the outlines of a thermodynamic description of chemical transformations among interacting proteins in yeast cells. The results suggest that these methods can be used to measure the degree of departure of a natural biochemical process or population from a local minimum in Gibbs energy.Comment: 32 pages, 7 figures; supporting information is available at http://www.chnosz.net/yeas