Search results for "INTERACTION"

A putative antiviral role of plant cytidine deaminases

2014

[Background]: A mechanism of innate antiviral immunity operating against viruses infecting mammalian cells has been described during the last decade. Host cytidine deaminases (e.g., APOBEC3 proteins) edit viral genomes, giving rise to hypermutated nonfunctional viruses; consequently, viral fitness is reduced through lethal mutagenesis. By contrast, sub-lethal hypermutagenesis may contribute to virus evolvability by increasing population diversity. To prevent genome editing, some viruses have evolved proteins that mediate APOBEC3 degradation. The model plant Arabidopsis thaliana genome encodes nine cytidine deaminases ( AtCDAs), raising the question of whether deamination is an antiviral mec…

The effect of visual motion stimulus characteristics on vection and visually induced motion sickness

2019

Abstract Several factors contribute to the likelihood of experiencing illusory sensations of self-motion (i.e., vection) in Virtual Reality (VR) applications. VR users can also experience adverse effects such as disorientation, oculomotor issues, or nausea known as visually induced motion sickness (VIMS). The goal of the present study was to systematically investigate three characteristics of visual motion stimuli—speed, density, and axis of rotation—and how they relate to both vection and VIMS. Two experiments were conducted. In Experiment 1, a stereoscopic stimulus containing a star field of white spheres on a black background was presented to 21 participants. The stimulus contained linea…

Reinforcement learning in synthetic gene circuits.

2020

Synthetic gene circuits allow programming in DNA the expression of a phenotype at a given environmental condition. The recent integration of memory systems with gene circuits opens the door to their adaptation to new conditions and their re-programming. This lays the foundation to emulate neuromorphic behaviour and solve complex problems similarly to artificial neural networks. Cellular products such as DNA or proteins can be used to store memory in both digital and analog formats, allowing cells to be turned into living computing devices able to record information regarding their previous states. In particular, synthetic gene circuits with memory can be engineered into living systems to al…

2015

Protein-protein interaction (PPI) networks are associated with multiple types of biases partly rooted in technical limitations of the experimental techniques. Another source of bias are the different frequencies with which proteins have been studied for interaction partners. It is generally believed that proteins with a large number of interaction partners tend to be essential, evolutionarily conserved and involved in disease. It has been repeatedly reported that proteins driving tumor formation have a higher number of PPI partners. However, it has been noticed before that the degree distribution of PPI networks is biased towards disease proteins, which tend to have been studied more often …

Hidden complexity in membrane permeabilization behavior of antimicrobial polycations.

2021

A promising alternative to classical antibiotics are antimicrobial peptides and their synthetic mimics (smAMPs) that supposedly act directly on membranes. For a more successful design of smAMPs, we need to know how the type of interaction with the membrane determines the type of membrane perturbation. How this, in turn, transfers into selectivity and microbial killing activity is largely unknown. Here, we characterize the action of two smAMPs: MM:CO (a copolymer of hydrophobic cyclooctyl subunits and charged β-monomethyl-α-aminomethyl subunits) and the highly charged poly-NM (a homopolymer of α-aminomethyl subunits). By thorough characterization of vesicle leakage experiments, we elucidate …

2021

Parvoviruses are small single-stranded (ss) DNA viruses, which replicate in the nucleoplasm and affect both the structure and function of the nucleus. The nuclear stage of the parvovirus life cycle starts at the nuclear entry of incoming capsids and culminates in the successful passage of progeny capsids out of the nucleus. In this review, we will present past, current, and future microscopy and biochemical techniques and demonstrate their potential in revealing the dynamics and molecular interactions in the intranuclear processes of parvovirus infection. In particular, a number of advanced techniques will be presented for the detection of infection-induced changes, such as DNA modification…

2015

Purpose: The aim of this study was to investigate the interaction and co-localization of novel interacting proteins with the Leber congenital amaurosis (LCA) associated protein aryl hydrocarbon receptor interacting protein-like 1 (AIPL1). Methods: The CytoTrapXR yeast two-hybrid system was used to screen a bovine retinal cDNA library. A novel interaction between AIPL1 and members of the family of EB proteins was confirmed by directed yeast two-hybrid analysis and co-immunoprecipitation assays. The localization of AIPL1 and the EB proteins in cultured cells and in retinal cryosections was examined by immunofluorescence microscopy and cryo-immunogold electron microscopy. Results: Yeast two-hy…

Visualizing Human Protein‐Protein Interactions and Subcellular Localizations on Cell Images Through CellMap

2020

Visualizing protein data remains a challenging and stimulating task. Useful and intuitive visualization tools may help advance biomolecular and medical research; unintuitive tools may bar important breakthroughs. This protocol describes two use cases for the CellMap (http://cellmap.protein.properties) web tool. The tool allows researchers to visualize human protein-protein interaction data constrained by protein subcellular localizations. In the simplest form, proteins are visualized on cell images that also show protein-protein interactions (PPIs) through lines (edges) connecting the proteins across the compartments. At a glance, this simultaneously highlights spatial constraints that prot…

Impact of ethanol on the perception of wine odorant mixtures

2007

International audience; Several studies have focused on perceptual interactions in binary odor mixtures, but few on more complex mixtures. The aroma of wine is an example of a complex odor mixture. Our aim was to assess the impact of ethanol on the perception of mixtures of Woody (whiskey lactone) and Fruity (isoamyl acetate) odorants commonly found, physico-chemically and perceptually, in wine. Physico-chemically, reduced whiskey lactone volatility was observed in hydro-alcoholic solutions. Perceptually, a synergy effect by the Woody on the Fruity odor was observed in aqueous solutions, which disappeared with the addition of ethanol. Conversely, the Woody odor was masked in both aqueous an…

A systematic review of immersive virtual reality applications for higher education: Design elements, lessons learned, and research agenda

2019

Abstract Researchers have explored the benefits and applications of virtual reality (VR) in different scenarios. VR possesses much potential and its application in education has seen much research interest lately. However, little systematic work currently exists on how researchers have applied immersive VR for higher education purposes that considers the usage of both high-end and budget head-mounted displays (HMDs). Hence, we propose using systematic mapping to identify design elements of existing research dedicated to the application of VR in higher education. The reviewed articles were acquired by extracting key information from documents indexed in four scientific digital libraries, whi…