Repressor in Biological News

The evolution of gene regulation

... manner, on the other hand, are kept inactive by a repressor that is removed only when the gene is needed. ... key fits the lock to this protein, to detach the repressor from the lactase gene: a lactose molecule, as a ... genetic codes that are only released from their repressor when needed." The "use-it-or-lose-it" principle ...

Evolution of fruit size in tomato

... sequencing of this locus reveals that the wild type protein codes for a repressor of cell division. When the control sequence is mutated, the repressor protein is not expressed or only very little, leading to higher cell ...

Xie Lab uncovers molecular machinery related to stem cell fate

... participate in stem cell misregulation and the development of tumors." "Our studies have established the role of BAM as a protein translational repressor using biochemical and genetic tests," said Ting Xie, Ph.D., Investigator and senior author on the paper. "Translational control is very important in ...

6 young ASU faculty earn NSF Career awards

... is involved in embryonic development, angiogenesis and cancer), which partially unfolds upon binding and bends the DNA by 26 degrees; and the lac repressor headpiece (part of a much larger bacterial protein), which folds upon binding and bends the DNA by 36 degrees. Computer simulations will give ...

A study reveals how cells communicate to activate the cell division machinery

... elucidated the relationship between Notch and Wnt/Wingless in the control of proliferation and the development of the fly wing. In fact, Notch has a repressor function, that is to say, when it is activated the cell division machinery is arrested. Only when Wnt/Wingless starts to work is Notch silenced, ...

New technique yields more detailed picture of chromatin structure

... the chromosomes. A bacterial protein, the Lac repressor, recognizes and binds to the Lac operator in living cells. The researchers combined a Lac repressor protein with another protein that fluoresces green under blue light. This engineered protein adhered to the chromosomes in regions containing the Lac ...

Root or shoot? EAR calls the shots

... plant to have its genome unlocked and is loved by plant biologists for its short generation time. She discovered that BODENLOS, a transcriptional repressor that silences auxin-responsive genes, relies on its EAR domain to recruit the co-repressor TOPLESS to help with the job. While auxins are found ...

3 Columbia University Medical Center faculty elected to Institute of Medicine

... work focuses primarily on transcriptional regulation of lymphocyte development. A major focus of her current work is an unusual transcriptional repressor called Blimp-1 (B lymphocyte induced maturation protein). Her studies on Blimp-1 are revealing important aspects of regulation in both B and T cells. ...

Bioinformatics reveals new gene regulation system

... transcription factor that bound it, the repressor nature of the signal, and other genes also ... sequence, which lies just outside of the gene. repressor signals commonly work by allowing other proteins ... duo predicted that the NrdR-box functioned as a repressor sequence. Next, the researchers identified the ...

A simple feedback resistor switch keeps latent HIV from awakening

... Certain bacterial viruses manage this problem by encoding intricate repressor circuits that efficiently block transcription. But animal viruses, specifically HIV, appear to lack similar repressor circuits. In a new study, published online in the open access journal PLoS ...

Genome sequencing reveals key to viable ethanol production

... break down some of that wood. A product of that tiny reaction is a sugar called laminaribiose that diffuses into the cell. There it deactivates a repressor for two genes, which wake up and start pumping out the two triggers the full production of wood-degrading enzymes CelC and LicA. Wu’s paper shows ...

Researchers identify a key regulator for skin stem cells

... to differentiate into multiple types of tissues, one challenge they face is maintaining the stem cells in their immature state. The newly identified repressor switch could provide part of the answer. Led by Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator Elaine Fuchs, the researchers published discovery ...

Molecular 'on/off switch' controls immune defenses against viruses

... is normally regulated, however, hadn't been known. In the current study, UT Southwestern researchers found that RIG-I and LGP2 each contain a repressor domain, a sort of docking site that controls the actions of each protein. The domain is the key site that regulates the ability of RIG-I to bind to ...

Genetic snooze button governs timing of spring flowers

... Arabidopsis, don't flower in the fall season because they possess a gene that blocks flowering," Amasino explains. "The meristem is where the repressor (gene) is expressed and is where it is shut off." The key to initiating flowering, according to the Wisconsin group's studies, is the ability of ...

Study identifies new role for breast cancer susceptibility gene

... or CtIP was the gene for a secreted factor, called ANG1, that enhances blood vessel growth and maturation. The researchers found that a defect in a repressor complex formed by BRCA1, CtIP, and another known transcription repressor, ZBRK1, released the gene for ANG1 from repression and promoted survival of ...

Dying of excitement

... than those with the normal allele. The mutation changed a binding site for the activating transcription factor AP-2 into a binding site for the repressor GCF2 -- a swap that inhibited promoter activity in transfected rat brain cells. Whether the mutant promoter decreases EAAT2 expression in the human ...

Free-energy theory borne out in large-scale protein folding

... the off-ramps that might lead to misfolding ?are vitally important," Wittung-Stafshede said. Rice's studies were carried out on monomeric lactose repressor protein, or MLAc, a variant of the protein used by E. coli to regulate expression of the proteins that transport and metabolize lactose. MLAc ...

At long last, scientists figure out how plants grow

... and auxin binds to yet another protein that represses the expression of a particular set of genes. And it's this complex of auxin, SCF(TIR1) and the repressor that signals enzymes to destroy the repressor, thereby turning on the repressed gene. "The key interaction is between TIR1 and the repressor," ...