Search results for "gene family"

Murine Model of Cytomegalovirus Latency and Reactivation

2008

Efficient resolution of acute cytopathogenic cytomegalovirus infection through innate and adaptive host immune mechanisms is followed by lifelong maintenance of the viral genome in host tissues in a state of replicative latency, which is interrupted by episodes of virus reactivation for transmission. The establishment of latency is the result of aeons of co-evolution of cytomegaloviruses and their respective host species. Genetic adaptation of a particular cytomegalovirus to its specific host is reflected by private gene families not found in other members of the cytomegalovirus group, whereas basic functions of the viral replicative cycle are encoded by public gene families shared between …

Diversity and Evolution of the Phenazine Biosynthesis Pathway

2010

ABSTRACT Phenazines are versatile secondary metabolites of bacterial origin that function in biological control of plant pathogens and contribute to the ecological fitness and pathogenicity of the producing strains. In this study, we employed a collection of 94 strains having various geographic, environmental, and clinical origins to study the distribution and evolution of phenazine genes in members of the genera Pseudomonas , Burkholderia , Pectobacterium , Brevibacterium , and Streptomyces . Our results confirmed the diversity of phenazine producers and revealed that most of them appear to be soil-dwelling and/or plant-associated species. Genome analyses and comparisons of phylogenies inf…

The Echinoid hbox12/pmar1/micro1 multigene family: expression, functions and evolution

2017

Common antigenic determinant on ductular cells of normal pancreas, on mucosal cells of the gastrointestinal tract and on CEA

1990

CEA is widely used as a human tumour marker and was first defined by Gold and Freedman in 1965 as an antigenic component in cancers derived from gastrointestinal tract epithelium. It is a member of a large family of immunologically related glycoproteins that vary in size and tissue distribution. Studies with c-DNA clones for CEA and NCA reveal that this family consist only of a limited number of different proteins with variable glycosylation, due to post-transcriptional modifications. The complete gene family includes about 10 closely related genes. Recently it was published that in contrast to mRNA coding for CEA, mRNA coding for NCA was expressed predominantly in cancerous tissues. A mono…

The aristaless (Arx) gene: one gene for many "interneuronopathies".

2009

The ARX (Aristaless-related (X-linked) homeobox) gene is not only present in arthropods and their ancestors, but also in vertebrates including humans (ARX orthologs). The gene is composed of 5 coding exons and it is expressed predominantly in foetal and adult brain and skeletal muscle. In this review we report on our experience and review the existing literature on the genotype and phenotype heterogeneity associated with ARX abnormalities in humans ranging from severe neuronal migration defects (e.g., lissencephaly), to mild forms of X-linked mental retardation without apparent brain abnormalities. The ARX-related disorders are reviewed focusing on their clinical features and on the role of…

Study of the aminopeptidase N gene family in the lepidopterans Ostrinia nubilalis (Hübner) and Bombyx mori (L.): Sequences, mapping and expression

2010

Aminopeptidases N (APNs) are a class of ectoenzymes present in lepidopteran larvae midguts, involved in the Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) toxins mode of action. In the present work, seven aminopeptidases have been cloned from the midgut of Ostrinia nubilalis, the major Lepidopteran corn pest in the temperate climates. Six sequences were identified as APNs because of the presence of the HEXXH(X)18E and GAMEN motifs, as well as the signal peptide and the GPI-anchor sequences. The remaining sequence did not contain the two cellular targeting signals, indicating it belonged to the puromycin-sensitive aminopeptidase (PSA) family. An in silico analysis allowed us to find orthologous sequences in Bo…

Stimulation of Fe-S cluster insertion into apoFNR by Escherichia coli glutaredoxins 1, 2 and 3 in vitro.

2004

Abstract The oxygen sensor fumarate nitrate reductase regu-lator (FNR) of Escherichia coli contains in the active (anaerobic)state a [4Fe–4S] 2þ cluster which is lost after exposure to O 2 .Inaerobically prepared apoFNR, or in FNR obtained by treatmentof [4Fe–4S] FNR with O 2 in vitro, intramolecular cysteinedisulfides are found, including the cysteine residues which serveas ligands for the Fe–S cluster. It is shown here that thereconstitution of [4Fe–4S] FNR from this form of aerobicapoFNR was preceded by a long lag phase when glutathione wasused as the reducing agent. Addition of E. coli glutaredoxins(Grx) 1, 2 or 3 decreased the lag phase greatly and stimulatedthe reconstitution rate slig…

Polyamine Oxidase 5 loss-of-function mutations in Arabidopsis thaliana trigger metabolic and transcriptional reprogramming and promote salt stress to…

2017

The family of polyamine oxidases (PAO) in Arabidopsis (AtPAO1-5) mediates polyamine (PA) back-conversion, which reverses the PA biosynthetic pathway from spermine, and its structural isomer thermospermine (tSpm), into spermidine and then putrescine. Here, we have studied the involvement of PA back-conversion in Arabidopsis salinity tolerance. AtPAO5 is the Arabidopsis PAO gene member most transcriptionally induced by salt stress. Two independent loss-of-function mutants (atpao5-2 and atpao5-3) were found to exhibit constitutively higher tSpm levels, with associated increased salt tolerance. Using global transcriptional and metabolomic analyses, the underlying mechanisms were studied. Stimul…

The swinholide biosynthesis gene cluster from a terrestrial cyanobacterium, Nostoc sp. strain UHCC 0450

2017

ABSTRACT Swinholides are 42-carbon ring polyketides with a 2-fold axis of symmetry. They are potent cytotoxins that disrupt the actin cytoskeleton. Swinholides were discovered from the marine sponge Theonella sp. and were long suspected to be produced by symbiotic bacteria. Misakinolide, a structural variant of swinholide, was recently demonstrated to be the product of a symbiotic heterotrophic proteobacterium. Here, we report the production of swinholide A by an axenic strain of the terrestrial cyanobacterium Nostoc sp. strain UHCC 0450. We located the 85-kb trans -AT polyketide synthase (PKS) swinholide biosynthesis gene cluster from a draft genome of Nostoc sp. UHCC 0450. The swinholide …

Conserved synteny of mammalian imprinted genes in chicken, frog, and fish genomes

2006

Conservation of synteny of mammalian imprinted genes between chicken and human suggested that highly conserved gene clusters were selected long before these genes were recruited for genomic imprinting in mammals. Here we have applied in silico mapping of orthologous genes in pipid frog, zebrafish, spotted green and Japanese pufferfish to show considerable conservation of synteny in lower vertebrates. More than 400 million years ago in a common ancestor of teleost fish and tetrapods, ‘preimprinted’ chromosome regions homologous to human 6q25, 7q21, 7q32, 11p15, and 15q11→q12 already contained most present-day mammalian imprinted genes. Interestingly, some imprinted gene orthologues which are…