Many congratulations to Madan to be awarded the prestigious the Royal Society Francis Crick Medal and Lecture 2016. Madan will deliver the prize lecture in December 2016. Here is the detailed information as shown in the LMB website. You can get more information about the Royal Society Awards Francis Crick Medal here.
G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) allosterically activate heterotrimeric G proteins and trigger GDP release. Given that there are 800 human GPCRs and 16 different Ga genes, this raises the question of whether a universal allosteric mechanism governs Ga activation. Here we show that different GPCRs interact with and activate Ga proteins through a highly conserved mechanism. Comparison of Ga with the small G protein Ras reveals how the evolution of short segments that undergo disorder-to-order transitions can decouple regions important for allosteric activation from receptor binding specificity. This might explain how the GPCR–Ga system diversified rapidly, while conserving the allosteric activation mechanism. The paper by Tilman Flock et al can be viewed here.
The proteasome controls the concentrations of most proteins in eukaryotic cells. It recognizes its protein substrates through ubiquitin tags and initiates degradation at disordered regions within the substrate. Here we show that the proteasome has pronounced preferences for the amino acid sequence of the regions at which it initiates degradation. Specifically, proteins in which the initiation regions have biased amino acid compositions show longer half-lives in yeast than proteins with unbiased sequences in the regions. The relationship is also observed on a genomic scale in mouse cells. These preferences affect the degradation rates of proteins in vitro, can explain the unexpected stability of natural proteins in yeast and may affect the accumulation of toxic proteins in disease. We propose that the proteasome’s sequence preferences provide a second component to the degradation code and may fine-tune protein half-life in cells.The paper by Susan Fishbain, Sreenivas Chavali et al can be viewed here.
Proteins adopt defined structures and are crucial to most cellular functions. Their misfolding and aggregation is associated with numerous degenerative human disorders such as type II diabetes, Huntington’s or Alzheimer’s diseases. Here, we aim to understand why cells promote the formation of protein foci. Comparison of two amyloid-b-peptide variants, mostly insoluble but differently recruited by the cell (inclusion body versus diffused), reveals small differences in cell fitness and proteome response. We suggest that the levels of oxidative stress act as a sensor to trigger protein recruitment into foci. Our data support a common cytoplasmic response being able to discern and react to the specific properties of polypeptides. The paper by Natalia Sanchez de Groot can be viewed here.
Two studies provide insights into the distinct strategies used by prokaryotes and eukaryotes to pause translation in
order to facilitate cotranslational targeting of membrane proteins to the translocon. The review by Alexey Morgunov can be viewed here.
