Dataset Information

Tales of tails in transporters.

ABSTRACT: Cell nutrition, detoxification, signalling, homeostasis and response to drugs, processes related to cell growth, differentiation and survival are all mediated by plasma membrane (PM) proteins called transporters. Despite their distinct fine structures, mechanism of function, energetic requirements, kinetics and substrate specificities, all transporters are characterized by a main hydrophobic body embedded in the PM as a series of tightly packed, often intertwined, ?-helices that traverse the lipid bilayer in a zigzag mode, connected with intracellular or extracellular loops and hydrophilic N- and C-termini. Whereas longstanding genetic, biochemical and biophysical evidence suggests that specific transmembrane segments, and also their connecting loops, are responsible for substrate recognition and transport dynamics, emerging evidence also reveals the functional importance of transporter N- and C-termini, in respect to transport catalysis, substrate specificity, subcellular expression, stability and signalling. This review highlights selected prototypic examples of transporters in which their termini play important roles in their functioning.

SUBMITTER: Mikros E

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6597760 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Tales of tails in transporters.

Mikros Emmanuel E Diallinas George G

Open biology 20190619 6

Cell nutrition, detoxification, signalling, homeostasis and response to drugs, processes related to cell growth, differentiation and survival are all mediated by plasma membrane (PM) proteins called transporters. Despite their distinct fine structures, mechanism of function, energetic requirements, kinetics and substrate specificities, all transporters are characterized by a main hydrophobic body embedded in the PM as a series of tightly packed, often intertwined, α-helices that traverse the lip ...[more]

PMID: 31213137

Similar Datasets

Project description:Schistosomes are obligate helminths responsible for over 218 million cases of human schistosomiasis in 78 countries around the world. Infection occurs when free-swimming cercariae penetrate human skin and initiate developmental progression into parasitic obligate worms that consume red blood cells. Transcriptomic studies of infectious cercariae reveal abundant mRNAs associated with energy metabolism and host invasion. However, the cercaria is mostly transcriptionally quiescent, suggesting that most mRNAs are primed prior to cercarial escape from the snail host. The use of transcriptomics to understand protein expression presumes that transcription and translation are functionally coupled and the cercarial stage has categorically been treated as a single unit for -omic analysis. Per contra, the relationship between transcription and translation in infectious cercariae has not been described. To understand the correlation between transcription and translation in cercariae, we separately measured nascent translation levels in cercarial heads, cercarial tails and in the developing schistosomula, the next stage of its life cycle. The loss of the cercarial tail is essential for the transformation from a cercaria to a schistosomulum. We observed that translation was initially limited and the translation rate accelerated during the first 72-hours after tail loss. When we tested nascent translation in cercarial heads, cercarial tails, whole cercariae, and 4-hour schistosomula, we found that translation is significantly upregulated in the cercarial tail when compared to the cercarial head and that translation was undetectable in heads using immunofluorescent image quantification (p = .0005). These data represent a major shift in how we understand the cercarial stage. The cercarial head is mostly transcriptionally and translationally quiescent while being sufficient for progression into a schistosomulum. In addition, transcription and translation are not linked in Schistosoma mansoni cercaria. Thus, our current conceptual approach of treating the cercaria as a single functional unit for -omic studies may be insufficient to understand cercarial development.

Dataset Information

Tales of tails in transporters.

Publications

Tales of tails in transporters.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets