Explore the vast range of titles available.

The centrosome, a cytoplasmic organelle formed by cylinder-shaped centrioles surrounded by a microtubule-organizing matrix, is a hallmark of animal cells. The centrosome is conserved and essential for the development of all animal species described so far. Here, we show that planarians, and possibly other flatworms, lack centrosomes. In planarians, centrioles are only assembled in terminally differentiating ciliated cells through the acentriolar pathway to trigger the assembly of cilia. We identified a large set of conserved proteins required for centriole assembly in animals and note centrosome protein families that are missing from the planarian genome. Our study uncovers the molecular architecture and evolution of the animal centrosome and emphasizes the plasticity of animal cell biology and development.

The highly conserved protein γ-tubulin is required for microtubule nucleation in vivo. When viewed in the electron microscope, a highly purified γtubulin complex from Xenopus consisting of at least seven different proteins is seen to have an open ring structure. This complex acts as an active microtubulenucleating unit which can cap the minus ends of microtubules in vitro.

Replication proteins encoded by bacteriophage T4 generate DNA replication forks that can pass a molecule of Escherichia coli RNA polymerase moving in the same direction as the fork in vitro . The RNA polymerase ternary transcription complex remains bound to the DNA and retains a transcription bubble after the fork passes. The by-passed ternary complex can resume faithful RNA synthesis, suggesting that the multisubunit RNA polymerase of E. coli has evolved to retain its transcript after DNA replication, allowing partially completed transcripts to be elongated into full-length RNA molecules.

We have demonstrated elsewhere that a precisely placed, stalled Escherichia coli RNA polymerase ternary transcription complex (polymerase-RNA-DNA) stays on the DNA template after passage of a DNA replication fork. Moreover, the bypassed complex remains competent to resume elongation of its bound RNA chain. But the simplicity of our experimental system left several important questions unresolved: in particular, might the observation be relevant only to the particular ternary complex that we studied, and can the finding be generalized to a transcribing instead of a stalled RNA polymerase? To address these issues, we have created three additional ternary transcription complexes and examined their fates after passage of a replication fork. In addition, we have examined the fate of moving RNA polymerase molecules during DNA replication. The results suggest that our previous finding applies to all transcription intermediates of the E. coli RNA polymerase.

A well-characterized set of proteins encoded by bacteriophage T4 replicates DNA in vitro and generates replication forks that can pass nucleo-somes. The histone octamers remain associated with newly replicated DNA even in the presence of excess DNA competitor, and intact nucleosomes re-form on the two daughter DNA helices. It is concluded that nucleosomes are designed to open up transiently to allow the passage of a replication fork without histone displacement.

NYC is a B lymphoma cell line derived from B/W mice. Upon fusion of NYC cells with a plasmacytoma, which itself produces no immunoglobulin, the resulting NYCH hybridoma cells are Mott cells; i.e., they contain large intracellular vesicles filled with immunoglobulin, the so-called Russell bodies. When NYCH.κ, a variant of NYCH that had lost the ability to produce heavy chain, was transfected with a heavy-chain construct, this concentration of immunoglobulin in the intracellular vesicles occurred only when the transfected immunoglobulin heavy chain had the same variable region as NYC. Moreover, unlike conventional Mott cells, the hybrid cells secrete immunoglobulin at a normal rate.

To study the properties of the extracellular insulin-binding domain of the human insulin receptor (hIR), we have expressed portions of the parent molecule in mammalian cells. Receptor cDNAs encoding the entire hIR ectodomain, the α subunit of the hIR alone, or a portion of the α subunit containing the cysteine-rich region were placed within an expression vector and in turn used to transfect CHO cells. Only cells expressing mRNA for the entire hIR ectodomain secreted hIR-related protein, suggesting that the truncated versions of this domain are unstable. The ectodomain molecules were extensively glycosylated, properly processed heterotetramers. Further, they bound insulin with an affinity similar to that of the intact hIR. In the electron microscope the secreted ectodomains appeared as discrete globular structures. After incubation with roughly equimolar quantities of insulin, the ectodomains associated to form loops or branched and folded linear macroarrays. However, these structures were not restricted to the specific ligand, insulin, since epidermal growth factor also produced the effect. Nevertheless, it seems that the receptor ectodomains can exist in two structural states. The conversion of the singular to the aggregated state may somehow be associated with transmembrane communication and activation of the biological response.

Cell-to-cell spread of tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) is presumed to occur through plant intercellular connections, the plasmodesmata. Viral movement is an active process mediated by a specific virus-encoded P30 protein. P30 has at least two functions, to cooperatively bind single-stranded nucleic acids and to increase plasmodesmatal permeability. Here, we visualized P30 complexes with single-stranded DNA and RNA. These complexes are long, unfolded, and very thin (1.5 to 2.0 nm in diameter). Unlike TMV virions (300 × 18 nm), the complexes are compatible in size with the P30-induced increase in plasmodesmatal permeability (2.4 to 3.1 nm), making them likely candidates for the structures involved in the cell-to-cell movement of TMV. Mutational analysis using single and double deletion mutants of P30 revealed three regions potentially important for the protein function. Amino acid residues 65 to 86 possibly are required for correct folding of the active protein, and the regions between amino acid residues 112 to 185 and 185 to 268 potentially contain two independently active single-stranded nucleic acid binding domains designated binding domains A and B, respectively.

Induction of Agrobacterium tumefaciens vir gene expression by wounded plant cells results in production of a free transferable single-stranded (ss) copy of T-DNA, the T-strand. One of the Vir proteins, the VirE2 polypeptide, is a ssDNA-binding protein. In the present work, interaction of nopaline-specific VirE2 protein (Mr 69,000) with ssDNA was studied by using nitrocellulose filter binding, gel retardation, and electron microscopy techniques. The VirE2 protein was found to bind to ssDNA molecules with strong cooperativity, forming VirE2-ssDNA complexes with a binding site of 28-30 nucleotides. The VirE2-ssDNA complexes are stable at high salt concentrations and resistant to exonucleolytic activity. When examined under the electron microscope, the VirE2 protein converted collapsed free ssDNA molecules into unfolded and extended structures. The structure and properties of VirE2-ssDNA complexes predict possible functions in Agrobacterium virulence to (i) protect the T-strands from cellular nucleases and (ii) facilitate transfer of the T-strands through bacterial membranes possibly by specific interaction with putative membrane pores formed in plant-induced Agrobacterium cells.