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Some of the material in is restricted to members of the community. By logging in, you may be able to gain additional access to certain collections or items. If you have questions about access or logging in, please use the form on the Contact Page.
Lycopene is an unsaturated carotenoid that provides fruits and vegetables with a natural red pigment. Lycopene is predominately found in tomatoes, watermelon, papaya, and grapefruit. Lycopene has eleven linear conjugated bonds allowing...
Muscle contraction is regulated at the thin filament level by tropomyosin (Tm) and the troponin complex (Tn). Tm is an α-helical coiled coil protein that forms a continuous strand on the actin filament through end-end interactions with...
The striated muscle Z-line is a complex network of proteins in which N-terminal domains of titin interact with the actin filament cross-linker alpha-actinin, and other proteins to establish and maintain the structural integrity of the...
Parvalbumin (PV), a soluble protein of skeletal muscle that facilitates muscular relaxation, is expressed across many phyla and has highly conserved Ca2+ binding sites. These features make it ideal for comparisons among organisms that...
Many proteins in the nucleus are involved in the regulation of DNA-templated events. Numerous studies have linked changes in the chromatin structure and the transcriptional program of a cell in response to a stimulus or during...
Unraveling the detailed molecular mechanisms involved in muscle contraction is a prerequisite for understanding the molecular basis of muscular disorders. Troponin (Tn) plays a key role in muscle regulation, and it is composed of three...
The centrosome is the microtubule organizing center (MTOC) in higher eukaryotes. During meiosis, proper duplication and separation of the centrosomes are necessary for accurate chromosome segregation and leads to the production of...
In male hamsters mating behavior is dependent on sufficient androgens and chemosensory input from the main olfactory and vomeronasal systems, whose central pathways contain cell bodies and fibers of gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH)...
ABSTRACT Osteoarthritis (OA) is a disease that is characterized by the progressive degradation and loss of articular cartilage. The etiology of OA is complex; however, it is well known that advanced age is a major risk factor for...
We describe a cryo-electron microscopy 3D image reconstruction of relaxed myosin II-containing thick filaments from the flight muscle of the giant waterbug Lethocerus indicus. The relaxed thick filament structure is a key element of...
Biomechanics and the Ontogeny of Feeding in the American Alligator (Alligator Mississippiensis): Reconciling Factors Contributing to Intraspecific Niche Differentiation in a Large Bodied Vertebrate
As vertebrates attain a larger body size, the relative growth of various body parts results in differential rates of growth across the organism and may result in substantial impacts on mechanical performance. To deal with this problem, ...
Creatine kinase (CK) catalyzes the reversible transfer of the gamma-terminal phosphate of MgATP to the guanidine creatine (Cr) forming MgADP and phosphocreatine (PCr). The CK reaction plays a central role in both temporal and spatial ATP...
Fundulus heteroclitus, or mummichogs, are small (6-10 cm) teleost fish that are common in salt marshes, bays and estuaries along the East Coast of North America. The distribution of this species is such that populations in the extreme...
A previous animal study conducted in our lab showed that blueberry, a rich source of polyphenols, was able to increase whole-body BMD in ovariectomized (OVX) rat model. In addition, blueberry, as low as 5% in the diet, was able to...
Striated muscle contraction is regulated by troponin complex which consist of three subunits: troponin C (TnC) binds to calcium, troponin I (TnI) inhibits actomyosin ATPase activity and troponin T (TnT) anchors the complex to the thin...
Signaling through the notch pathway originates upon interaction between the notch receptor and one of its two ligand proteins, delta or serrate. Extracellular binding of either ligand protein induces the release of the notch...
The free energy yield from ATP hydrolysis is directly related to the [ATP]/ ([ADP] [Pi]) ratio within any given cell, and it has long been clear that cells can not maintain functionality when this ratio undergoes a significant change....
Electron microscopy is an important technique for observing macromolecular structures, such as DNA and viruses, which would be too small to see under light microscopy. This type of microscopy utilizes electrons as its illumination source...
Muscle plays a primary role in movement of the body of multicellular organs. A study of muscle contraction at a molecular level will provide understanding of muscular malfunction, as well as insights into the basic mechanism of...
Nucleosome distributions are critically important in regulating access to the eukaryotic genome. Cells with different physiologies have strikingly similar nucleosome distributions. Few studies in human cells have measured genome-wide...
Parvalbumin (PV) is an intracellular cation binding protein containing the helix-loop-helix divalent binding domain characteristic of the large EF hand super family of proteins. Parvalbumin was the first EF hand protein to be...
Understanding the ultimate and proximate mechanisms of spadefoot tadpole developmental polyphenism is the first step in gaining a mechanistic and evolutionary understanding of the factors responsible for the control and evolution of...
Screening for effects of small molecules on cells grown in culture is a well-established method for drug discovery and testing, and faster throughput at lower cost is needed especially for lipophilic materials. Small-molecule arrays...
Insect flight muscle (IFM) is the preferred model system for visualizing actin-myosin interactions due to its highly ordered lattice of actin and myosin filaments. Electron tomography (ET) of fast-frozen, actively contracting Lethocerus...
We use a lipid monolayer system to prepare paracrystalline rafts of F-actin with two different cross-linking proteins, α-actinin and villin. α-Actinin cross-links F-actin into relatively loose networks throughout cells, while villin...
Molecular interactions form the basis for all cellular functions ranging from nutrient sequestration to signal transduction. While specific interactions have been extensively studied in the biomolecular context, the importance of non...
Structural Characterizaton of Rv0008C: An Integral Membrane Protein from Mycobacterium Tuberculosis by Solution Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy
Tuberculosis, an infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis, has been a leading cause of death in the world infecting over one third of the world population (WHO 1999). A detailed structural understanding of the membrane...
Parvalbumin is an abundant divalent cation binding protein of fast vertebrate skeletal muscle. Its proposed function is to sequester calcium after contraction, thus facilitating relaxation. Calcium and magnesium equilibrium dissociation...
Protein function is acutely sensitive to temperature. Investigations of enzymes have demonstrated that the thermal adaptation of proteins is achieved through adjustments in conformational flexibility that lead to changes in protein...
The mammalian olfactory bulb (OB) has a vast population of dopamine (DA) neurons, whose function is to increase odor discrimination through mostly inhibitory synaptic mechanisms. However, it is not well understood whether there is more...
Introduction: Finfish is one of the Big Eight allergenic foods in the United States (U.S.). Economic-driven finfish substitution or adulteration and unintentional cross-contamination not only violate food regulations (e.g., labeling) but...
Some of the material in is restricted to members of the community. By logging in, you may be able to gain additional access to certain collections or items. If you have questions about access or logging in, please use the form on the Contact Page.
