Pearsonhong1694
Heterodimeric motor organization of kinesin-II is essential for its function in anterograde IFT in ciliogenesis. However, the underlying mechanism is not well understood. In addition, the anterograde IFT velocity varies significantly in different organisms, but how this velocity affects ciliary length is not clear. We show that in Chlamydomonas motors are only stable as heterodimers in vivo, which is likely the key factor for the requirement of a heterodimer for IFT. Second, chimeric CrKinesin-II with human kinesin-II motor domains functioned in vitro and in vivo, leading to a ~ 2.8 fold reduced anterograde IFT velocity and a similar fold reduction in IFT injection rate that supposedly correlates with ciliary assembly activity. However, the ciliary length was only mildly reduced (~15%). Modeling analysis suggests a nonlinear scaling relationship between IFT velocity and ciliary length that can be accounted for by limitation of the motors and/or its ciliary cargoes, e.g. tubulin.Genetic analyses and systematic mutagenesis have revealed that synonymous, non-synonymous and intronic mutations frequently alter the inclusion levels of alternatively spliced exons, consistent with the concept that altered splicing might be a common mechanism by which mutations cause disease. However, most exons expressed in any cell are highly-included in mature mRNAs. Here, by performing deep mutagenesis of highly-included exons and by analysing the association between genome sequence variation and exon inclusion across the transcriptome, we report that mutations only very rarely alter the inclusion of highly-included exons. This is true for both exonic and intronic mutations as well as for perturbations in trans. Therefore, mutations that affect splicing are not evenly distributed across primary transcripts but are focussed in and around alternatively spliced exons with intermediate inclusion levels. These results provide a resource for prioritising synonymous and other variants as disease-causing mutations.Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are often associated with polysomes, indicating coding potential. However, only a handful of endogenous proteins encoded by putative lncRNAs have been identified and assigned a function. Here, we report the discovery of a putative gastrointestinal-tract-specific lncRNA (LINC00675) that is regulated by the pioneer transcription factor FOXA1 and encodes a conserved small protein of 79 amino acids which we termed FORCP (FOXA1-Regulated Conserved Small Protein). FORCP transcript is undetectable in most cell types but is abundant in well-differentiated colorectal cancer (CRC) cells where it functions to inhibit proliferation, clonogenicity, and tumorigenesis. The epitope-tagged and endogenous FORCP protein predominantly localizes to the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). In response to ER stress, FORCP depletion results in decreased apoptosis. Our findings on the initial characterization of FORCP demonstrate that FORCP is a novel, conserved small protein encoded by a mis-annotated lncRNA that regulates apoptosis and tumorigenicity in well-differentiated CRC cells.Research careers are typically envisioned as a single path in which a scientist starts as a member of a team working under the guidance of one or more experienced scientists and, if they are successful, ends with the individual leading their own research group and training future generations of scientists. Here we study the author contribution statements of published research papers in order to explore possible biases and disparities in career trajectories in science. We used Bayesian networks to train a prediction model based on a dataset of 70,694 publications from PLoS journals, which included 347,136 distinct authors and their associated contribution statements. This model was used to predict the contributions of 222,925 authors in 6,236,239 publications, and to apply a robust archetypal analysis to profile scientists across four career stages junior, early-career, mid-career and late-career. All three of the archetypes we found - leader, specialized, and supporting - were encountered for early-career and mid-career researchers. Junior researchers displayed only two archetypes (specialized, and supporting), as did late-career researchers (leader and supporting). Scientists assigned to the leader and specialized archetypes tended to have longer careers than those assigned to the supporting archetype. We also observed consistent gender bias at all stages the majority of male scientists belonged to the leader archetype, while the larger proportion of women belonged to the specialized archetype, especially for early-career and mid-career researchers.Subcellular lumen formation by single-cells involves complex cytoskeletal remodelling. We have previously shown that centrosomes are key players in the initiation of subcellular lumen formation in Drosophila melanogaster, but not much is known on the what leads to the growth of these subcellular luminal branches or makes them progress through a particular trajectory within the cytoplasm. Here, we have identified that the spectraplakin Short-stop (Shot) promotes the crosstalk between MTs and actin, which leads to the extension and guidance of the subcellular lumen within the tracheal terminal cell (TC) cytoplasm. Shot is enriched in cells undergoing the initial steps of subcellular branching as a direct response to FGF signalling. An excess of Shot induces ectopic acentrosomal luminal branching points in the embryonic and larval tracheal TC leading to cells with extra-subcellular lumina. These data provide the first evidence for a role for spectraplakins in single-cell lumen formation and branching.The interferon-inducible transmembrane (IFITM) proteins belong to the Dispanin/CD225 family and inhibit diverse virus infections. IFITM3 reduces membrane fusion between cells and virions through a poorly characterized mechanism. Mutation of proline-rich transmembrane protein 2 (PRRT2), a regulator of neurotransmitter release, at glycine-305 was previously linked to paroxysmal neurological disorders in humans. Here, we show that glycine-305 and the homologous site in IFITM3, glycine-95, drive protein oligomerization from within a GxxxG motif. Mutation of glycine-95 (and to a lesser extent, glycine-91) disrupted IFITM3 oligomerization and reduced its antiviral activity against Influenza A virus. An oligomerization-defective variant was used to reveal that IFITM3 promotes membrane rigidity in a glycine-95-dependent and amphipathic helix-dependent manner. Furthermore, a compound which counteracts virus inhibition by IFITM3, Amphotericin B, prevented the IFITM3-mediated rigidification of membranes. read more Overall, these data suggest that IFITM3 oligomers inhibit virus-cell fusion by promoting membrane rigidity.