Past Issues in 2018

Diverse cytoplasmic and nuclear proteins dynamically change their molecular functions by O-linked β-N-acetylglucosamine (O-GlcNAc) modification on serine and/or threonine residues. Evaluation of the O-GlcNAcylation level of a specific protein, however, needs multiple and time-consuming steps if using conventional methods (e.g., ...

Pyrene Fluorescent Assay is established to monitor the dynamic actin nucleation, elongation, capping and disassembly in vitro. This technique provides an easy handle procedure and straightforward visual data analysis. By coupling actin purification and polymerization assays in this protocol, the readers could quickly get the affordable ...

In order to study the mechanism underlying the Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) fusion process we have performed assays using phospholipid liposomes and a truncated form of E2 protein, E2₆₆₁ (amino acids 384-661 of the HCV polyprotein) lacking the transmembrane region. E2₆₆₁ has been previously generated by using the baculovirus ...

The Human Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (HER) family of receptor tyrosine kinases consists of four, single pass, transmembrane receptor homologs (HER1-4) that act to regulate many critical processes in normal and tumor cells. HER2 is overexpressed in many tumors, and the deregulated proliferation of cancerous cells is driven by cooperation with ...

In nearly all subfields of biomedical sciences, there are phenotypes that are currently classified by expert visual scoring. In research applications, these classifications require the experimenter to be blinded to the treatment group in order to avoid unintentional bias in scoring. Currently, many labs either use laborious and tedious methods to ...

Zebrafish have become an increasingly important model organism in the field of wound healing and regenerative medicine, due to their high regenerative capacity coupled with high-resolution imaging in living animals. In a recent study, we described multiple physical and chemical methods to induce notochord injury that led to highly specific ...

To enable cells to move forward, cell surface integrins are internalized into an endosomal compartment and subsequently intracellularly transported to be re-exposed at a new site on the cell membrane. Leukocytes are the fastest migrating cell type in the human body, which express the leukocyte-specific integrin LFA-1. Here, we describe a flow ...

To be able to migrate, leukocyte needs to re-use its adhesion molecules to move forward. These adhesion molecules are called integrins and are intracellularly transported via endocytosis and exocytosis in order to translocate to a new site on the cell membrane. The intracellular transportation is regulated by different small GTPases including ...

To track recent thymic emigrants (RTEs) or study T cell development in the thymus, intra-thymic injection of a cellular tag or precursor cells for various T cell lineages is often desired. However, the traditional surgical approach to expose the thymus for intra-thymic injection is time-consuming and can cause a high level of pain and stress to ...

Maize ear rot is a worldwide fungal disease mainly caused by Fusarium verticillioides and Fusarium graminearum. Maize planted in the field was inoculated with Fusarium verticillioides at the filling stage, 15 days after pollination. Two milliliters of spore suspension with a concentration of 5 x 10⁶/ml was ...

Bacillus subtilis (B. subtilis) is a model Gram-positive organism used to study a variety of physiological states and stress responses, one of which is the development of competence. Competence refers to the physiological state of a cell which allows it to be transformed naturally. Through induction of competence, the efficiency ...

In this protocol, we describe a simple microscopy-based method to assess the interaction of a microtubule-associated protein (MAP) with microtubules. The interaction between MAP and microtubules is typically assessed by a co-sedimentation assay, which measures the amount of MAP that co-pellets with microtubules by centrifugation, followed by ...

Homologous genes, including paralogs and orthologs, are genes that share sequence homologies within or between different species. Homologous genes originate from a common origin through speciation, genetic duplication or horizontal gene transfer. Estimation of the sequence divergence of homologous genes help us to understand divergence time, which ...

Various environmental stresses or artificial reagents can trigger unfolded protein accumulation in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) due to the folding capacity of the ER being exceeded. This is termed ER stress, and triggers the unfolded protein response (UPR). Assays for activation of the UPR in plants include Tunicamycin (Tm)- or dithiothreitol ...