Background: COUP-TF interacting protein 2 [(Ctip2), also known as Bcl11b] is an important regulator of skin homeostasis, and is overexpressed in head and neck cancer. Ctip2(ep-/-) mice, selectively ablated for Ctip2 in epidermal keratinocytes, exhibited impaired terminal differentiation and delayed epidermal permeability barrier (EPB) establishment during development, similar to what...
Mouse incisors grow continuously throughout life with enamel deposition uniquely on the outer, or labial, side of the tooth. Asymmetric enamel deposition is due to the presence of enamel-secreting ameloblasts exclusively within the labial epithelium of the incisor. We have previously shown that mice lacking the transcription factor BCL11B/CTIP2 (BCL11B...
Cells of the ventrolateral dermomyotome delaminate and migrate into the limb buds where they give rise to all muscles of the limbs. The migratory cells proliferate and form myoblasts, which withdraw from the cell cycle to become terminally differentiated myocytes. The myogenic lineage colonizes pre-patterned regions to form muscle anlagen...
Correction
17 Oct 2012: Eng D, Ma HY, Xu J, Shih HP, Gross MK, et al. (2012) Correction: Loss of Abdominal Muscle in Pitx2 Mutants Associated with Altered Axial Specification of Lateral Plate Mesoderm. PLOS ONE 7(10): 10.1371/annotation/c980d5a1-1899-4d30-af7b-573d4049cf4b
The pseudo-glycosyltransferase VldE catalyzes non-glycosidic C-N coupling between an unsaturated cyclitol and a saturated aminocyclitol with the conservation of the stereochemical configuration of the substrates to form validoxylamine A 7'-phosphate, the biosynthetic precursor of the antibiotic validamycin A. To study the molecular basis of its mechanism, the three-dimensional structures of...
Background: Ctip2 is crucial for epidermal homeostasis and protective barrier formation in developing mouse embryos. Selective ablation of Ctip2 in epidermis leads to increased transepidermal water loss (TEWL), impaired epidermal proliferation, terminal differentiation, as well as altered lipid composition during development. However, little is known about the role of Ctip2...
Chmp2b is closely related to Vps2, a key component of the yeast protein complex that creates the intralumenal vesicles of multivesicular bodies. Dominant negative mutations in Chmp2b cause autophagosome accumulation and neurodegenerative disease. Loss of Chmp2b causes failure of dendritic spine maturation in cultured neurons. The homeobox gene Lbx1 plays...
Many Gram-negative bacteria use the type II secretion (T2S) pathway to deliver proteins that contribute to disease in humans, animals, and plants. Vibrio cholerae, the causative agent of the life-threatening diarrheal disease cholera, utilizes the T2S system for translocation of at least 19 proteins, including the large hexameric protein cholera...
Coibamide A is an N-methyl-stabilized depsipeptide that was isolated from a marine cyanobacterium as part of an International Cooperative Biodiversity Groups (ICBG) program based in Panama. Previous testing of coibamide A in the NCI in vitro 60 cancer cell line panel revealed a potent anti-proliferative response and "COMPARE-negative" profile indicative...
The ascomycete fungus Tolypocladium inflatum, a pathogen of beetle larvae, is best known as the producer of the immunosuppressant drug cyclosporin. The draft genome of T. inflatum strain NRRL 8044 (ATCC 34921), the isolate from which cyclosporin was first isolated, is presented along with comparative analyses of the biosynthesis of...
The decrease in proline transport by the proline porter ProP in a Delta proQ strain has been well documented; however, the reason for this phenotype remains undefined. Previous studies have speculated that ProQ facilitates translation of proP mRNA. Here, we demonstrate that ProQ is enriched in the polysome fractions of...