简介：WestudiedstructuralandimmunologicalpropertiesoftheSARS-CoVM(mem-brane)protein,basedoncomparativeanalysesofsequencefeatures,phylogeneticinvestigation,andexperimentalresults.TheMproteinispredictedtocontainatriple-spanningtransmembrane(TM)region,asingleN-glycosylationsitenearitsN-terminusthatisintheexteriorofthevirion,andalongC-terminalregionintheinterior.TheMproteinharborsahighersubstitutionrate(0.6%correlatedtoitssize)amongviralopenreadingframes(ORFs)frompublisheddata.ThefoursubstitutionsdetectedintheMprotein,whichcausenon-synonymouschanges,canbeclassifiedintothreetypes.OneofthemresultsinchangesofpI(isoelectricpoint)andcharge,affectingantigenicity.ThesecondchangeshydrophobicityoftheTMregion,andthethirdonerelatestohydrophilicityoftheinteriorstructure.PhylogenetictreebuildingbasedonthevariationsoftheMproteinappearstosupportthenon-humanoriginofSARS-CoV.Toinvestigateitsimmunogenicity,wesynthesizedeightoligopeptidescovering69.2%oftheentireORFandscreenedthembyusingELISA(enzyme-linkedimmunosorbentassay)withserafromSARSpatients.Theresultsconfirmedourpredictionsonantigenicsites.

简介：Circulargenomes,beingthelargestproportionofsequencedgenomes,playanimportantroleingenomeanalysis.However,traditional2Dcircularmaponlyprovidesanoverviewandannotationsofgenomebutdoesnotofferfeature-basedcomparison.Forremedyingtheseshortcomings,wedeveloped3DGenomeTuner,ahybridofcircularmapandcomparativemaptools.Itscapabilityofviewingcomparisonsbetweenmultiplecircularmapsina3Dspaceoffersgreatbenefitstothestudyofcomparativegenomics.Theprogramisfreelyavailable(underanLGPLlicence)athttp://sourceforge.net/projects/dgenometuner.

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简介：Ithasbeenshownthattheprogressinthedeterminationofmembraneproteinstructuregrowsexponentially,withapproximatelythesamegrowthrateasthatofthewater-solubleproteins.Inordertoinvestigatetheeffectofthis,ontheperformanceofpredictionalgorithmsforbothα-helicalandβ-barrelmembraneproteins,weconductedaprospectivestudybasedonhistoricalrecords.WetrainedseparatehiddenMarkovmodelswithdifferentsizedtrainingsetsandevaluatedtheirperformanceontopologypredictionforthetwoclassesoftransmembraneproteins.Weshowthattheexistingtop-scoringalgorithmsforpredictingthetransmembranesegmentsofα-helicalmembraneproteinsperformslightlybetterthanthatofβ-barreloutermembraneproteinsinallmeasuresofaccuracy.Withthesamerationale,ameta-analysisoftheperformanceofthesecondarystructurepredictionalgorithmsindicatesthatexistingalgorithmictechniquescannotbefurtherimprovedbyjustaddingmorenon-homologoussequencestothetrainingsets.Theupperlimitforsecondarystructurepredictionisestimatedtobenomorethan70%and80%ofcorrectlypredictedresiduesforsinglesequencebasedmethodsandmultiplesequencebasedones,respectively.Therefore,weshouldconcentrateoureffortsonutilizingnewtechniquesforthedevelopmentofevenbetterscoringpredictors.

简介：Werecentlyreportedtheuseofagene-trappingapproachtoisolatecellclonesinwhichareportergenehadintegratedintogenesmodulatedbyT-cellactivation.WehavenowtestedapanelofclonesfromthatreportandidentifiedtheonethatrespondstoavarietyofG-proteincoupledreceptors(GPCR).TheβlactamasetaggedEGR-3JurkatcellwasusedtodissectspecificGPCRsignalinginvivo.ThreeGPCRswerestudied,includingthechemokinereceptorCXCR4(Gicoupled)thatwasendogenouslyexpressed,theplateletactivationfactor(PAF)receptor(Gq-coupled),andβ2adrenergicreceptor(Gs-coupled)thatwasbothstablytransfected.Agonistsforeachreceptoractivatedtranscriptionoftheβ-lactamasetaggedEGR-3gene.InductionofEGR-3throughCXCR4wasblockedbypertussistoxinandPD58059,aspecificinhibitorofMEK(MAPK/ERKkinase).NeitheroftheseinhibitorsblockedisoproterenolorPAF-mediatedactivationofEGR-3.Conversely,β2-andPAF-mediatedEGR-3activationwasblockedbythep38,specificinhibitorSB580.Inaddition,bothβ2-andPAF-mediatedEGR-3activationcouldbesynergisticallyactivatedbyCXCR4activation.ThiscombinedresultindicatesthatEGR-3canbeactivatedthroughdistinctsignaltransductionpathwaysbydifferentGPCRsandthatsignalscanbeintegratedandamplifiedtoefficientlytunethelevelofactivation.