NGL ‐3‐induced presynaptic differentiation of hippocampal neurons in an afadin‐dependent, nectin‐1‐independent manner
A hippocampal mossy fiber synapse, which is implicated in learning and memory, has a complex structure. We have previously shown using afadin‐deficient mice that afadin plays multiple roles in the structural and functional differentiations of this synapse. We investigated here using a co‐culture system with cultured hippocampal neurons and non‐neuronal COS‐7 cells expressing synaptogenic cell adhesion molecules (CAMs) whether afadin is involved in the presynaptic differentiation of hippocampal synapses. Postsynaptic CAMs NGL‐3 (alias, a Lrrc4b gene product) and neuroligin induced presynaptic differentiation by tr...
Source: Genes to Cells - July 11, 2017 Category: Genetics & Stem Cells Authors: Tomohiko Maruo, Kenji Mandai, Muneaki Miyata, Shotaro Sakakibara, Shujie Wang, Kousyoku Sai, Yu Itoh, Aika Kaito, Takeshi Fujiwara, Akira Mizoguchi, Yoshimi Takai Tags: Original Article Source Type: research
Artificial acceleration of mammalian cell reprogramming by bacterial proteins
The molecular mechanisms of cell reprogramming and differentiation involve various signaling factors. Small molecule compounds have been identified to artificially influence these factors through interacting cellular proteins. Although such small molecule compounds are useful to enhance reprogramming and differentiation and to show the mechanisms that underlie these events, the screening usually requires a large number of compounds to identify only a very small number of hits (e.g., one hit among several tens of thousands of compounds). Here, we show a proof of concept that xenospecific gene products can affect the efficie...
Source: Genes to Cells - July 1, 2017 Category: Genetics & Stem Cells Authors: Takashi Ikeda, Ikuo Uchiyama, Mio Iwasaki, Tetsuhiko Sasaki, Masato Nakagawa, Keisuke Okita, Shinji Masui Tags: Brief Report Source Type: research
Cdk1 ‐interacting protein Cip1 is regulated by the S phase checkpoint in response to genotoxic stress
In this study, we place Cip1, a recently identified Cdk1 inhibitor (CKI), under the regulation of Mec1 and Rad53 in response to genotoxic stress. Cip1 accumulates dramatically in a Mec1‐ and Rad53‐dependent manner upon replication stress. This increase requires the activity of MBF, but not the transcriptional activator kinase Dun1. At the protein level, stabilization of replication stress‐induced Cip1 requires continued de novo protein synthesis. In addition, Cip1 is phosphorylated at an S/TQ motif in a Mec1‐dependent manner. Deletion of Cip1 affects proliferation in hydroxyurea‐containing plates. Significantly, ...
Source: Genes to Cells - July 1, 2017 Category: Genetics & Stem Cells Authors: Ze Zhang, Ping Ren, Ajay A. Vashisht, James A. Wohlschlegel, David G. Quintana, Fanli Zeng Tags: Original Article Source Type: research
Functional analysis of the cyclophilin PpiB role in bacterial cell division
Escherichia coli PpiB is a peptidyl‐prolyl cis/trans isomerase (PPIase, EC: 5.2.1.8) with chaperone activity. Here, we show that the ΔppiB deletion strain and the PpiB over‐expression wild‐type strain are both characterized by defects in cell division involving milder or severe cell filamentation, respectively. Using various PpiB mutants, we show that the PPIase activity of PpiB is necessary for the observed cell filamentation, whereas other structural features apart from the active site are also important for this phenotype. Early divisome components zipA and ftsZ showed decreased expression in ΔppiB cells, wherea...
Source: Genes to Cells - July 1, 2017 Category: Genetics & Stem Cells Authors: Aggeliki Skagia, Chrysoula Zografou, Anastasia Venieraki, Costas Fasseas, Panagiotis Katinakis, Maria Dimou Tags: Original Article Source Type: research
SYCP3 regulates strand invasion activities of RAD51 and DMC1
In this study, we found that SYCP3 significantly suppresses the RAD51‐mediated, but not the DMC1‐mediated, strand invasion reaction by competing with HOP2‐MND1, which is an activator for both RAD51 and DMC1. A SYCP3 mutant with defective RAD51 binding does not inhibit the RAD51‐mediated homologous recombination in human cells. Therefore, SYCP3 may promote the DMC1‐driven homologous recombination by attenuating the RAD51 activity during meiosis.
SYCP3 is a component of the lateral/axial elements in the synaptonemal complex and is essential for meiotic recombination. We found that SYCP3 significantly suppresses th...
Source: Genes to Cells - July 1, 2017 Category: Genetics & Stem Cells Authors: Wataru Kobayashi, Noriko Hosoya, Shinichi Machida, Kiyoshi Miyagawa, Hitoshi Kurumizaka Tags: Original Article Source Type: research
Generation of biallelic F0 mutants in medaka using the CRISPR/Cas9 system
This study investigated the generation of F0 knockout medaka using the CRISPR/Cas9 system. To determine whether this editing system induced mutations in the medaka genome at the one‐cell stage, recombinant Cas9 protein, tracrRNA and crRNA for dead end (dnd), which is essential for germ cell development, were injected into one‐cell stage embryos of olvas‐DsRedExpress transgenic medaka. This allowed germ cells to be visualized by DsRed fluorescence. Genomic DNA extracted from embryos at the one‐cell stage was analyzed by sequencing. Predictably, biallelic mutated sequence patterns in the target sites of dnd were foun...
Source: Genes to Cells - July 1, 2017 Category: Genetics & Stem Cells Authors: Rie Sawamura, Natsumi Osafune, Takahiro Murakami, Fumiya Furukawa, Takeshi Kitano Tags: Brief Report Source Type: research
Medaka and zebrafish contactin1 mutants as a model for understanding neural circuits for motor coordination
A spontaneous medaka ro mutant shows abnormal wobbling and rolling swimming behaviors. By positional cloning, we mapped the ro locus to a region containing the gene encoding Contactin1b (Cntn1b), which is an immunoglobulin (Ig)‐superfamily domain‐containing membrane‐anchored protein. The ro mutant had a deletion in the cntn1b gene that introduced a premature stop codon. Furthermore, cntn1b mutants generated by the CRISPR/Cas9 system and trans‐heterozygotes of the CRISPR mutant allele and ro had abnormal swimming behavior, indicating that the cntn1b gene was responsible for the ro‐mutant phenotype. We also establi...
Source: Genes to Cells - June 22, 2017 Category: Genetics & Stem Cells Authors: Miki Takeuchi, Chikako Inoue, Akiko Goshima, Yusuke Nagao, Koichi Shimizu, Hiroki Miyamoto, Takashi Shimizu, Hisashi Hashimoto, Shigenobu Yonemura, Atsuo Kawahara, Yutaka Hirata, Masayuki Yoshida, Masahiko Hibi Tags: Original Article Source Type: research
Erratum
(Source: Genes to Cells)
Source: Genes to Cells - June 13, 2017 Category: Genetics & Stem Cells Tags: Erratum Source Type: research
Issue Information
Front cover: Fireflies are flying and glowing fantastically. Patterns of firefly squids, ‘yakoutake’ (glowing mushrooms; Mycena chlorophos) and ‘ow.urage’ (crystal jelly; Aequorea victoria) are seen on kimono. They share a common mechanism in which a class of chemiluminescent substrate (luciferin) is oxidized and excited by the catalytic function of a class of enzymes (luciferase), and light is emitted as a result. There has been a custom of appreciating the glow of fireflies in Japan since ancient times, however, it was possible only for a short period in early summer. Life scientists today are lucky to admire the...
Source: Genes to Cells - June 13, 2017 Category: Genetics & Stem Cells Tags: Issue Information Source Type: research
Matrin3 binds directly to intronic pyrimidine ‐rich sequences and controls alternative splicing
In this study, we show that Matrin3, an RNA‐binding protein, binds predominantly to intronic regions of pre‐mRNAs. PAR‐CLIP analysis using human neuronal cells showed that Matrin3 recognized pyrimidine‐rich sequences as binding motifs, including the polypyrimidine tract, a splicing regulatory element. Depletion of Matrin3 preferentially increased the inclusion of cassette exons that were adjacent to introns that contained Matrin3‐binding sites, which suggests that Matrin3 is a splicing regulator. (Source: Genes to Cells)
Source: Genes to Cells - June 1, 2017 Category: Genetics & Stem Cells Authors: Yuri Uemura, Takuya Oshima, Munetaka Yamamoto, Charles Jourdan Reyes, Pedro Henrique Costa Cruz, Toshiharu Shibuya, Yukio Kawahara Tags: Original Article Source Type: research
Two zinc finger proteins from Mycobacterium smegmatis: DNA binding and activation of transcription
Single zinc finger domain containing proteins are very few in number. Of numerous zinc finger proteins in eukaryotes, only three of them like GAGA, Superman and DNA binding by one finger (Dof) have single zinc finger domain. Although few zinc finger proteins have been described in eubacteria, no protein with single C4 zinc finger has been described in details in anyone of them. In this article, we are describing two novel C‐terminal C4 zinc finger proteins—Msmeg_0118 and Msmeg_3613 from Mycobacterium smegmatis. We have named these proteins as Mszfp1 (Mycobacterial Single Zinc Finger Protein 1) and Mszfp2 (Mycobacterial...
Source: Genes to Cells - June 1, 2017 Category: Genetics & Stem Cells Authors: Subho Ghosh, Dipankar Chatterji Tags: Original Article Source Type: research
Roles of afadin in functional differentiations of hippocampal mossy fiber synapse
A hippocampal mossy fiber synapse has a complex structure and is implicated in learning and memory. In this synapse, the mossy fiber boutons attach to the dendritic shaft by puncta adherentia junctions and wrap around a multiply‐branched spine, forming synaptic junctions. We have recently shown using transmission electron microscopy, immunoelectron microscopy and serial block face‐scanning electron microscopy that atypical puncta adherentia junctions are formed in the afadin‐deficient mossy fiber synapse and that the complexity of postsynaptic spines and mossy fiber boutons, the number of spine heads, the area of pos...
Source: Genes to Cells - June 1, 2017 Category: Genetics & Stem Cells Authors: Xiaoqi Geng, Tomohiko Maruo, Kenji Mandai, Irwan Supriyanto, Muneaki Miyata, Shotaro Sakakibara, Akira Mizoguchi, Yoshimi Takai, Masahiro Mori Tags: Original Article Source Type: research
In vitro site ‐specific recombination mediated by the tyrosine recombinase XerA of Thermoplasma acidophilum
In this study, we identified two XerA‐binding sites (dif1 and dif2) in the Thermoplasma acidophilum chromosome. In vitro site‐specific recombination assays showed that dif2, but not dif1, serves as a target site for XerA‐mediated chromosome resolution. Mutational analysis indicated that not only the core consensus sequence of dif2, but also its flanking regions play important roles in the recognition and recombination reactions mediated by XerA.
XerA resolves a plasmid dimer with the Peak 2 sequence to monomers. (Source: Genes to Cells)
Source: Genes to Cells - May 30, 2017 Category: Genetics & Stem Cells Authors: Minji Jo, Yasuto Murayama, Yasuhiro Tsutsui, Hiroshi Iwasaki Tags: Original Article Source Type: research
Meikin ‐associated polo‐like kinase specifies Bub1 distribution in meiosis I
In meiosis I, sister chromatids are captured by microtubules emanating from the same pole (mono‐orientation), and centromeric cohesion is protected throughout anaphase. Shugoshin, which is localized to centromeres depending on the phosphorylation of histone H2A by Bub1 kinase, plays a central role in protecting meiotic cohesin Rec8 from separase cleavage. Another key meiotic kinetochore factor, meikin, may regulate cohesion protection, although the underlying molecular mechanisms remain elusive. Here, we show that fission yeast Moa1 (meikin), which associates stably with CENP‐C during meiosis I, recruits Plo1 (polo‐l...
Source: Genes to Cells - May 12, 2017 Category: Genetics & Stem Cells Authors: Seira Miyazaki, Jihye Kim, Yuya Yamagishi, Tadashi Ishiguro, Yuki Okada, Yuji Tanno, Takeshi Sakuno, Yoshinori Watanabe Tags: Original Article Source Type: research
Neuron ‐specific knockdown of the Drosophila fat induces reduction of life span, deficient locomotive ability, shortening of motoneuron terminal branches and defects in axonal targeting
Mutations in FAT4 gene, one of the human FAT family genes, have been identified in Van Maldergem syndrome (VMS) and Hennekam lymphangiectasia‐lymphedema syndrome (HS). The FAT4 gene encodes a large protein with extracellular cadherin repeats, EGF‐like domains and Laminin G‐like domains. FAT4 plays a role in tumor suppression and planar cell polarity. Drosophila contains a human FAT4 homologue, fat. Drosophila fat has been mainly studied with Drosophila eye and wing systems. Here, we specially knocked down Drosophila fat in nerve system. Neuron‐specific knockdown of fat shortened the life span and induced the defect...
Source: Genes to Cells - May 9, 2017 Category: Genetics & Stem Cells Authors: Aya Nakamura, Ryo Tanaka, Kazushige Morishita, Hideki Yoshida, Yujiro Higuchi, Hiroshi Takashima, Masamitsu Yamaguchi Tags: Brief Report Source Type: research
