Current Genomics - Volume 7, Issue 4, 2006

Spatial and temporal control of proteome expression is critical for cellular homeostasis. The ability to regulate polypeptide synthesis allows the cell to rapidly respond to changes in its environment. Under stress conditions, capdependent translation initiation is downregulated and alternative mechanisms of translation initiation are favoured for the production of critical proteins that ultimately determine whether the cell is able Read More

Brain system is composed of enormous numbers of diversified single neurons. Therefore assessing epigenetic and genetic regulation in the nucleus of single neurons is a new challenge for understanding neuronal commitment, differentiation and maturation. As differentiated neurons are, in nature, postmitotic, neither the genome nor its epigenetic modifications are easy to evaluate fully. The cloning of mammalian cells, whic Read More

Biology as a whole has entered a new era in which data analysis plays a prominent role; but in the field of evolutionary genomics, data analysis has so far yielded little of value. This relative failure has been due in large part to methodological problems. Frequently, researchers have not sufficiently considered alternative hypotheses, leading to a kind of “computer-assisted storytelling”. Moreover, there has been widespre Read More

Most proteins required for chloroplast function are encoded in the nuclear genome and have to be translocated into the organelle upon synthesis on cytosolic ribosomes. The translocation is facilitated by a proteinaceous machinery located in the outer and inner chloroplast membrane, the Toc and Tic complexes (translocon at the outer/inner chloroplast membrane). In the past years, many components of these complexes -incl Read More

Glutamate receptors are the principal neurotransmitter receptors in the central nervous system and categorized into ionotopic glutamate receptors (iGluRs) and metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGluRs). iGluRs internally contain ligand-gated ion-channels, and mGluRs are a class of G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) that possess a seven transmembrane region. iGluRs are considered to diverge as ligand-gated channel prote Read More

Antigenic differences between normal and malignant cells of the cancer patient form the rationale for clinical immunotherapeutic strategies. Because the antigenic phenotype of neoplastic cells varies widely among different cells within the same malignant cell-population, immunization with a vaccine that stimulates immunity to the broad array of tumor antigens expressed by the cancer cells is likely to be more efficacio Read More

The molecular biology of aging has always been of extreme interest to researchers. Recent advances made through studies of model systems have greatly increased efforts to elucidate the mechanisms involved in aging. It now appears that in yeast there are two pathways controlling aging: i) the generation of extrachromosomal rDNA circles (ERCs) through the antagonistic action of Sir2p and Fob1p; and ii) the stress response Read More