Table of Contents
Interviews
Umut Şahin: SUMOylation in health and diseaseUmut Şahin is an Associate Professor in the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics at Boğaziçi University’s Center for Life Sciences and Technologies. We asked him about his recent paper published in Life Science Alliance (LSA) and his experience in science thus far.
Research Articles
mRNA COVID-19 vaccine booster fosters B- and T-cell responses in immunocompromised patientsImmunocompromised patients poorly respond to two doses of SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccines. However, an additional booster dose elicits a strong humoral and cellular immune response in these subjects.
Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 impairs sumoylationThe HIV type 1 dampens host cell sumoylation in vitro and reduces the expression of UBA2 protein, a subunit of the SUMO E1–activating enzyme. In vivo, infection in patients is associated with diminished global leukocyte sumoylation activity.
pSATdb: a database of mitochondrial common, polymorphic, and unique microsatellitesThe polymorphic microSATellites database (pSATdb) provides information on common, polymorphic, and unique mitochondrial microsatellites.
Leishmania survives by exporting miR-146a from infected to resident cells to subjugate inflammationLeishmania donovani infects and hijacks microRNA import-export machinery of host macrophages and survives by communicating the host-derived miR-146a to neighbouring cells and stops inflammation.
Genome analysis of Legionella pneumophila ST23 from various countries reveals highly similar strainsST23 isolated in Italy are analysed by cgMLST and SNP approaches and they are also compared with ST23 from other countries. They are found to be phylogenetically related independently on year, town, or country of isolation.
Meflin-positive cancer-associated fibroblasts enhance tumor response to immune checkpoint blockadeMeflin/ISLR is the marker of a cancer-associated fibroblast subset that enhances tumor response to immune checkpoint blockade therapy.
AGO1 regulates pericentromeric regions in mouse embryonic stem cellsDepletion of AGO1 in mESCs leads to a redistribution of H3K9me3 and HP1α away from pericentromeric regions and is accompanied by an up-regulation of major satellites transcripts.
LRR-protein RNH1 dampens the inflammasome activation and is associated with COVID-19 severityRNH1 prevents inflammation by inhibiting inflammasome activation through controlling caspase-1 protein levels. In COVID-19 patients, RNH1 expression levels were negatively associated with disease severity and inflammation, suggesting a role for RNH1 in SARS-CoV-2–mediated inflammation and pathology.
Monobodies with potent neutralizing activity against SARS-CoV-2 Delta and other variants of concernBy extensive affinity maturation against the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, we developed a monobody with potent neutralizing activity against SARS-CoV-2 B.1.1 and four other variants of concern.
Transcellular blood–brain barrier disruption in malaria-induced reversible brain edemaWe present how reversible edema can reliably be induced in experimental cerebral malaria and show that it is associated with transcellular blood–brain barrier disruption and delayed microhemorrhages.
Conserved exchange of paralog proteins during neuronal differentiationParalog proteins promote fine tuning of protein complexes. The author identified a specific paralog signature conserved across vertebrate neuronal differentiation. Altering the ratio of SEC23 paralogs in the COPII complex influences neuronal differentiation in a opposite way.
Septins tune lipid kinase activity and PI(4,5)P2 turnover during G-protein–coupled PLC signalling in vivoIn Drosophila photoreceptors, PI(4,5)P2 synthesis during PLC signalling is regulated by PIP5K and septins.
Single serine on TSC2 exerts biased control over mTORC1 activation mediated by ERK1/2 but not AktBoth ERK1/2 and Akt kinases activate mTORC1, but only the former is bidirectionally regulated by the status of serine S1364 on TSC2 that confers input-selective mTORC1 amplification or attenuation.
DNA methylation–independent long-term epigenetic silencing with dCRISPR/Cas9 fusion proteinsLong-term epigenetic gene silencing can be induced independently of DNA methylation by dCas9-KRABd-MeCP2 fusion proteins.
Mre11 exonuclease activity promotes irreversible mitotic progression under replication stressMre11 exonuclease facilitates the processing of stalled replication forks upon mitotic entry, leading to irreversible mitotic progression and mitotic replisome disassembly.
Structure and conformational dynamics of Clostridioides difficile toxin AThis study presents a complete structural model of TcdA holotoxin and sheds new lights into the conformational dynamics of TcdA and its roles in TcdA intoxication.
Spatial proteomics finds CD155 and Endophilin-A1 as mediators of growth and invasion in medulloblastomaSpatial proteomics identifies MAP4K4 as a regulator of the plasma membrane-associated proteome and reveals CD155 and EndoA1 as mediators of proliferation and invasiveness in medulloblastoma cells.
LINE-1 and SINE-B1 mapping and genome diversification in Proechimys species (Rodentia: Echimyidae)Signal distribution of L1 and B1 among chromosomes in five species of Proechimys may represent a strong indication of their role in karyotype diversity of this speciose Neotropical rodent.
