Dorsoventral Patterning of the Brain: A Comparative Approach

Rolf Urbach and Gerhard M. Technau

Development of the central nervous system (CNS) involves the transformation of a two‑dimensional epithelial sheet of uniform ectodermal cells, the neuroectoderm, into a highly complex three‑dimensional structure consisting of a huge variety of different neural cell types. Characteristic ...

Drosophila Telomeres: A Variation on the Telomerase Theme

Mary-Lou Pardue and P. Gregory DeBaryshe

In Drosophila, the role of telomerase is carried out by three specialized retrotransposable elements, HeT‑A, TART and Tahre. Telomeres contain long tandem head‑to‑tail arrays of these elements. Within each array, the three elements occur in random, but polarized, order. Some are tr...

Editorial:

The Coronin Family of Proteins

Christoph S. Clemen, Vasily Rybakin and Ludwig Eichinger

The coronins, first described in Dictyostelium discoideum in 1991, have meanwhile been detected in all eukaryotes except plants. They belong to the superfamily of WD40‑repeat proteins and represent a large family of proteins, which are often involved in cytoskeletal functions. Phylogenetic stu...

Electrophysiological Simulation of Developmental Changes in Action Potentials of Cardiomyocytes

Hitomi Itoh

During cardiomyocyte development, early embryonic ventricular cells show spontaneous activity that disappears at a later stage. Dramatic changes in action potential are mediated by developmental changes in individual ionic currents. Hence, reconstruction of the individual ionic currents into an inte...

Entry of Herpesviruses into Cells: The Enigma Variations

Claude Krummenacher, Andrea Carfí, Roselyn J. Eisenberg and Gary H. Cohen

The entry of herpesviruses into their target cells is complex at many levels. Virus entry proceeds by a succession of interactions between viral envelope glycoproteins and molecules on the cell membrane. The process is divided into distinct steps: attachment to the cell surface, interaction wi...

Evolution of Telomere Binding Proteins

Martin P. Horvath

Telomere binding proteins provide essential functions for chromosome maintenance in most eukaryotes and consequently are well suited for analysis in the context of evolution. This review focuses on patterns gleaned from structural and functional characterization of telomere proteins that reveal cont...

Evolutionary and Functional Diversity of Coronin Proteins

Charles-Peter Xavier, Ludwig Eichinger, M. Pilar Fernandez, Reginald O. Morgan and Christoph Clemen

This chapter discusses various aspects of coronin phylogeny, structure and function that are of specific interest. Two sub families of ancient coronins of unicellular pathogens such as Entamoeba, Trypanosoma, Leishmania and Acanthamoeba as well as of Plasmodium, Babesia, and Trichomonas are pr...

Expression of Hox Genes in the Nervous System of Vertebrates

The vertebrate nervous system is a major site of Hox gene expression and function. Studies on the patterns of expression, regulation and function of the vertebrate Hox gene family have played a key role in aiding our understanding of the basic ground plan of the CNS and processes that control how un...

Foundations of E‑Cell Simulation Environment Architecture

Nathan Addy and Koichi Takahashi

The thorough overview of the E‑Cell Simulation Environment in this chapter provides a foundation for understanding the systems biology research that uses the E‑Cell Simulation Environment presented within this book. To begin this inquiry, we open with the most general question possible: ...

From artificial antibodies to nanosprings: the biophysical properties of repeat proteins

Laura S. Itzhaki and Alan R. Lowe

In this chapter we review recent studies of repeat proteins, a class of proteins consisting of tandem arrays of small structural motifs that stack approximately linearly to produce elongated structures. We discuss the observation that, despite lacking the long‑range tertiary interactions that ...

Functional and Mechanistic Insights From Genome‑Wide Studies of Splicing Regulation in the Brain

Jernej Ule and Robert B. Darnell

We review here results arising from the systematic functional analysis of Nova, a neuron‑specific RNA binding protein targeted in an autoimmune neurological disorder associated with cancer. We have developed a combination of biochemical, genetic and bioinformatic methods to generate a global u...

Glycodelin: A Lipocalin with Diverse Glycoform-Dependent Actions

Markku Seppala,* Hannu Koistinen, Riitta Koistinen, Philip CN Chiu, and William SB Yeung

Glycodelin has many names in the literature, such as placental protein 14 (PP14), human placental organ-specific a2-globulin, or progesterone-dependent endometrial protein, based on electrophoretic characteristics, regulation, or tissue of first identification.1-4 After detailed information became...

Hsp70-Mediated Protein Refolding in E-Cell

Bin Hu, Matthias P. Mayer and Masaru Tomita

In this work, we used E‑Cell, a software package aiming at large‑scale modeling with full object‑oriented modeling support, to analyze the 70kDa heat shock protein (Hsp70) chaperone mediated protein folding. We analyzed the kinetic characteristics of this chaperone system during fo...

Hsp90 and Developmental Networks

Suzannah Rutherford, Jennifer R. Knapp and Peter Csermely

The most abundant cytoplasmic chaperone of eukaryotic cells, Hsp90 is a hub in developmental regulatory networks and the first example described of the phenomenon of molecular buffering. As a chaperone for many different signaling proteins, Hsp90 maintains the clarity and strength of communicatio...

HSV as a Vector in Vaccine Development and Gene Therapy

Peggy Marconi, Rafaela Argnani, Alberto L. Epstein and Roberto Manservigi

The very deep knowledge acquired on the genetics and molecular biology of herpes simplex virus (HSV), major human pathogen whose lifestyle is based on a long-term dual interaction with the infected host characterized by the existence of lytic and latent infections, has allowed the development of pot...

Implications of 3D Domain Swapping for Protein Folding, Misfolding and Function

Frederic Rousseau, Joost Schymkowitz and Laura Itzhaki

Three‑dimensional domain swapping is the process by which two identical protein chains exchange a part of their structure to form an intertwined dimer or higher‑order oligomer. The phenomenon has been observed in the crystal structures of a range of different proteins. In this chapter we...

Insect Population Suppression Using Engineered Insects

Luke Alphey, Derric Nimmo, Sinead O'Connell and Nina Alphey

Suppression or elimination of vector populations is a tried and tested method for reducing vector-borne disease, and a key component of integrated control programs. Genetic methods have the potential to provide new and improved methods for vector control. The required genetic technology is simpler t...

Integrin a1b1

Humphrey Gardner

Introduction The integrin a1 subunit was first discovered by Hemler et al as the a component of the Very Late Antigen I (VLA1) expressed on a subset of T cells in the joints of patients with rheumatoid arthritis,1 as well as in a s...

Invasion and Intracellular Survival by Toxoplasma

L. David Sibley, Audra Charron, Sebastian Håkansson and Dana Mordue

Toxoplasma gondii infects a wide range of warm-blooded vertebrates including humans and is one of the world’s most successful parasites. As a member of the phylum Apicomplexa, T. gondii is a model for understanding infection by a variety of related parasites such as Plasmodium and Cryptosporidium. A...

Invertebrate Coronins

Maria Christina Shina and Angelika A. Noegel

Coronins are highly conserved among species, but their function is far from being understood in detail. Here we will introduce members of the family of coronin like proteins from Drosophila melanogaster, Caenorhabditis elegans and the social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum. Genetic data from D. disc...

KIR Genes and Their Role in Spondyloarthropathies

Roberto Díaz-Peña, Miguel Angel Blanco-Gelaz and Carlos López-Larrea

Cellular activity of Natural killer cells (NK cells) is defined by the balance between activating and inhibitory signals coming from their receptors. With respect to this response, Killer immunoglobulin‑like receptors (KIR) are unique because of their diversity and capacity to recognize specif...

Leptin Signal Transduction—A 2008 Update

Walter Becker

Leptin is an adipocyte‑secreted hormone that informs the brain about the status of the body’s energy stores. Leptin controls energy homeostasis through effects on satiety and energy expenditure but also regulates other processes, including reproduction, glycemic control, immune function and wo...

Lipoxins as an Immune‑Escape Mechanism

Fabiana S. Machado and Julio Aliberti

Here, we discuss the mechanisms of repression of signaling pathways that are triggered by Lipoxin (LX) and are responsible for control of pro‑inflammatory response during chronic phase of Toxoplasma gondii infection. We also discuss this mechanism from the perspective of the pathogen, which pi...

Metabolic Management

Sufan Chien

The removal of an organ, which is subjected to an unnatural environment necessitates special management strategies that differ from in vivo management. The normal human body and the bodies of other mammalian animals involve complex neurologic and hormonal regulatory systems. Adequate substrates and ...

Molecular Interaction Network of the Hsp90 Chaperone System

Rongmin Zhao and Walid Houry

Hsp90 is an essential and ubiquitous molecular chaperone that is required for the proper folding of a set of client proteins at a late stage in their folding process. In eukaryotes, cytoplasmic Hsp90 is absolutely essential for cell viability under all growth conditions. The functional cycle of t...