Billions of pounds of bisphenol A (BPA) are produced annually around the globe for the manufacture of numerous consumer products, including polycarbonate food and water containers, the protective resin linings of food cans, thermal printing paper, and dental fillings. BPA exposure during nervous system development has been associated with learning...
Recombinant human calpain-5 was expressed in insect cells using a baculovirus system. The expressed calpain-5 was purified by both traditional chromatography and by affinity-column chromatography. Both methods yielded active protease. Calpain-5 displayed very limited hydrophobicity. This indicated that calpain-5 is not a membrane binding protein. Calpain-5 had pI of 8.3....
Cnidarians and their symbiotic dinoflagellates form a productive mutualism that shapes marine environments. In this symbiosis, dinoflagellate species from the family Symbiodiniacea reside within cnidarian host gastrodermal cells and provide the host with photosynthetically fixed carbon in exchange for host metabolites. This nutritional exchange allows both partners to thrive in...
The aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AHR) is a ligand activated transcription factor that is a member of the basic helix-loop-helix PER-ARNT-SIM (bHLH/PAS) protein family of cellular sensors. The AHR is conserved across multiple animal phyla and is required for proper vertebrate development. A structurally diverse group of chemicals, including polycyclic aromatic...
Cutaneous melanoma remains the deadliest form of skin cancer, with a
diagnosis of metastasis indicating a median survival rate of less than a year. Solar ultraviolet (UV) radiation, especially childhood sun exposure, is an important etiological risk factor of melanoma. Previous studies determined that mice selectively lacking the nuclear hormone...
EF-hand proteins are a conserved family of proteins that are modulated by divalent cations and regulate diverse cellular activities. In the present study we characterized the molecular determinants of myosin regulatory light chain (RLC) interaction with several subunits of the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA)-type glutamate receptor. Myosin RLC is an EF-hand protein...
Skin is the largest organ in the body that protects the organism from environmental, chemical and physical traumas of each passing day. The protective skin epidermal permeability barrier (EPB) is formed within the exterior layers of the epidermis, which are regularly sloughed off and repopulated by movement of inner cells....
The integumentary system is the largest organ system of the body that comprises of skin and its appendages such as hair follicles, sebaceous and sweat glands. Skin is divided into three distinct structural layers: the epidermis, dermis and hypodermis. The epidermis originates from the ectoderm and is composed of four...
Molecular genetic and enzymological techniques have been employed to study secondary metabolite biosynthesis. These investigations have focused on two projects: the cloning and heterologous expression of biosynthetic gene clusters from unculturable marine organisms and the characterization of individual enzymes involved in the biosynthesis of the antifungal agent blasticidin S. The...