Search results for "Genome"
showing 10 items of 1913 documents
The Hammerhead Ribozyme: A Long History for a Short RNA
2017
Small nucleolytic ribozymes are a family of naturally occurring RNA motifs that catalyse a self-transesterification reaction in a highly sequence-specific manner. The hammerhead ribozyme was the first reported and the most extensively studied member of this family. However, and despite intense biochemical and structural research for three decades since its discovery, the history of this model ribozyme seems to be far from finished. The hammerhead ribozyme has been regarded as a biological oddity typical of small circular RNA pathogens of plants. More recently, numerous and new variations of this ribozyme have been found to inhabit the genomes of organisms from all life kingdoms, although th…
Isolation and Characterization of Two Klebsiella pneumoniae Phages Encoding Divergent Depolymerases
2020
The emergence of multidrug-resistant bacteria is a major global health concern. The search for new therapies has brought bacteriophages into the spotlight, and new phages are being described as possible therapeutic agents. Among the bacteria that are most extensively resistant to current antibiotics is Klebsiella pneumoniae, whose hypervariable extracellular capsule makes treatment particularly difficult. Here, we describe two new K. pneumoniae phages, &pi
Correction to ‘Secondary structure determination of conserved SARS-CoV-2 RNA elements by NMR spectroscopy’
2021
The current pandemic situation caused by the Betacoronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (SCoV2) highlights the need for coordinated research to combat COVID-19. A particularly important aspect is the development of medication. In addition to viral proteins, structured RNA elements represent a potent alternative as drug targets. The search for drugs that target RNA requires their high-resolution structural characterization. Using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, a worldwide consortium of NMR researchers aims to characterize potential RNA drug targets of SCoV2. Here, we report the characterization of 15 conserved RNA elements located at the 5' end, the ribosomal frameshift segment and the 3'-un…
Mitochondrially encoded cysteine predicts animal lifespan
2007
Summary The role of genetic factors in the determination of lifespan is undisputed. However, numerous successful efforts to identify individual genetic modulators of longevity have not yielded yet a quantitative measure to estimate the lifespan of a species from scratch, merely based on its genomic constitution. Here, we report on a meta-examination of genome sequences from 248 animal species with known maximum lifespan, including mammals, birds, fish, insects, and helminths. Our analysis reveals that the frequency with which cysteine is encoded by mitochondrial DNA is a specific and phylogenetically ubiquitous molecular indicator of aerobic longevity: long-lived species synthesize respirat…
Structure and Dynamics of RNA Guanine Quadruplexes in SARS-CoV-2 Genome. Original Strategies against Emerging Viruses
2021
Guanine quadruplex (G4) structures in the viral genome have a key role in modulating viruses' biological activity. While several DNA G4 structures have been experimentally resolved, RNA G4s are definitely less explored. We report the first calculated G4 structure of the RG-1 RNA sequence of SARS-CoV-2 genome, obtained by using a multiscale approach combining quantum and classical molecular modeling and corroborated by the excellent agreement between the corresponding calculated and experimental circular dichroism spectra. We prove the stability of the RG-1 G4 arrangement as well as its interaction with G4 ligands potentially inhibiting viral protein translation.
Effect of ATP Binding and Hydrolysis on Dynamics of Canine Parvovirus NS1▿ †
2010
ABSTRACT The replication protein NS1 is essential for genome replication and protein production in parvoviral infection. Many of its functions, including recognition and site-specific nicking of the viral genome, helicase activity, and transactivation of the viral capsid promoter, are dependent on ATP. An ATP-binding pocket resides in the middle of the modular NS1 protein in a superfamily 3 helicase domain. Here we have identified key ATP-binding amino acid residues in canine parvovirus (CPV) NS1 protein and mutated amino acids from the conserved A motif (K406), B motif (E444 and E445), and positively charged region (R508 and R510). All mutations prevented the formation of infectious viruse…
Genomic determinants of protein folding thermodynamics in prokaryotic organisms.
2004
Here we investigate how thermodynamic properties of orthologous proteins are influenced by the genomic environment in which they evolve. We performed a comparative computational study of 21 protein families in 73 prokaryotic species and obtained the following main results. (i) Protein stability with respect to the unfolded state and with respect to misfolding are anticorrelated. There appears to be a trade-off between these two properties, which cannot be optimized simultaneously. (ii) Folding thermodynamic parameters are strongly correlated with two genomic features, genome size and G+C composition. In particular, the normalized energy gap, an indicator of folding efficiency in statistical…
Structure-based analyses of Salmonella RcsB variants unravel new features of the Rcs regulon
2021
18 páginas, 7 figuras, 2 tablas
Characterization of aCandida albicansgene encoding a putative transcriptional factor required for cell wall integrity
2003
After screening a Candida albicans genome database the product of an open reading frame (ORF) (CA2880) with 49% homology to the product of Saccharomyces cerevisiae YPL133c, a putative transcriptional factor, was identified. The disruption of the C. albicans gene leads to a major sensitivity to calcofluor white and Congo red, a minor sensitivity to sodium dodecyl sulfate, a major resistance to zymolyase, and an alteration of the chemical composition of the cell wall. For these reasons we called it CaCWT1 (for C. albicans cell wall transcription factor). CaCwt1p contains a putative Zn(II) Cys(6) DNA binding domain characteristic of some transcriptional factors and a PAS domain. The CaCWT1 gen…
The cold shock response of the psychrotrophic bacterium Pseudomonas fragi involves four low-molecular-mass nucleic acid-binding proteins
1997
The psychrotrophic bacterium Pseudomonas fragi was subjected to cold shocks from 30 or 20 to 5 degrees C. The downshifts were followed by a lag phase before growth resumed at a characteristic 5 degrees C growth rate. The analysis of protein patterns by two-dimentional gel electrophoresis revealed overexpression of 25 or 17 proteins and underexpression of 12 proteins following the 30- or 20-to-5 degrees C shift, respectively. The two downshifts shared similar variations of synthesis of 20 proteins. The kinetic analysis distinguished the induced proteins into cold shock proteins (Csps), which were rapidly but transiently overexpressed, and cold acclimation proteins (Caps), which were more or …