The first and highly conserved step in glutathione (GSH) biosynthesis is formation of gamma-glutamyl cysteine by the enzyme glutamate-cysteine ligase (GshA). However, bioinformatic analysis revealed that many prokaryotic...
Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are conventionally classified as toxic consequences of aerobic life, and the brain is particularly susceptible to ROS-induced oxidative stress and damage owing to its high energy and oxygen ...
Regulation of chromatin structure involves histone posttranslational modifications that can modulate intrinsic properties of the chromatin fiber to change the chromatin state. We used chemically defined nucleosome arrays...
Organophosphate nerve agents are extremely lethal compounds. Rapid in vivo organophosphate clearance requires bioscavenging enzymes with catalytic efficiencies of >10(7) (M-1 min(-1)). Although serum paraoxonase (PON1) i...
The signaling mechanisms leading to the formation of neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs), relevant in infections, sepsis and autoimmune diseases, are poorly understood. Neutrophils are not amenable to studies with conv...
Sublancin is shown to be an S-linked glycopeptide containing a glucose attached to a cysteine residue, establishing a new post-translational modification. The activity of the S-glycosyl transferase was reconstituted in v...
The interactions of the AMPA receptor (AMPAR) auxiliary subunit Stargazin with PDZ domain-containing scaffold proteins such as PSD-95 are critical for the synaptic stabilization of AMPARs. To investigate these interactio...
Identifying mechanisms of drug action remains a fundamental impediment to the development and effective use of chemotherapeutics. Here we describe an RNA interference (RNAi)-based strategy to characterize small-molecule ...