[Review of] Toni Morrison. Song of Solomon: The Flight of Afro-American Life

Song of Solomon can only be viewed as a tribute to the artistic and cultural genius of Ms. Toni Morrison. I, as reviewer and want-to-be-rich writer, am studious and intent throughout my reading of her novel. I am amazed, gratified and satisfied. I am fully amazed that she pulls it through; this wealth of characterization and plot. This is a novel of growing into manhood. It is at once the tale of man-to-man relationships and man-to-woman relationships in the Afro-American community where there is an essential struggle simply to be: There is in Song of Solomon mystery, romance and intrigue. The Song catalogues the fundamental struggle for integrity of the Black being in this American land. I am grateful, that Ms. Morrison does not enter into the fabric of this torn garment with stock-issue characters. I am thoroughly satisfied upon completion of the novel, that there is nothing left undone, there is no string untied. Song of Solomon is a masterpiece of fiction

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