Showing papers in "Current Opinion in Genetics & Development in 1994"

TL;DR: Recent advances have shown that in two MAP kinase pathways (the mating response pathway in the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe, and receptor tyrosine kinase signalling), the small GTP binding protein ras p21 links membrane events to kinase pathway activation.

TL;DR: Findings indicate that phosphorylation of TCFs occurs in response to activation of the MAP kinase pathway, and that regulation of TCF activity is an important mechanism by which the serum response element responds to growth factor signals.

TL;DR: The three-dimensional structures of several SH2 and SH3 domains have been determined by NMR and X-ray crystallography, and the molecular basis of their specificity is beginning to be unveiled.

TL;DR: Cloning of C. elegans genes has shown that two of them encode proteins with similarity to vertebrate cell death genes and has revealed that nematodes and mammals share a common pathway for programmed cell death.

TL;DR: Critical progress in the determination of the role of BMPs in bone development has been accomplished by systematic study of skeletal mutations such as short ear and brachypodism in mice and augurs well for the resolution of the molecular basis of morphogenesis of bone and cartilage.

TL;DR: The Myc oncoprotein dimerizes with its partner, Max, to bind DNA, activate transcription, and promote cell proliferation, as well as programmed cell death.

TL;DR: DNA methylation plays an important role in the regulation of gene expression during development by affecting DNA-protein interactions, thus altering the accessibility of genes to trans-acting factors in the cell.

TL;DR: Paradigms in the cell death pathway suggest the pathways of cell proliferation and cell death may be tightly coupled, an idea that may have dramatic implications for models of oncogene co-operation and carcinogenesis.

TL;DR: Investigations published within the past few years demonstrate that position-effect variegation is caused by multiple mechanisms, and that direct tests of hypotheses are possible with numerous model systems.

TL;DR: Explorations into the regulatory mechanisms underlying epidermal genes have underscored the importance of transcription factors AP-1 and AP-2, retinoic acid receptors, and POU proteins in human skin diseases.

TL;DR: It is suggested that introns, once established in eukaryotic genomes, might have explored new genetic space and acquired functions which provided a positive pressure for their expansion, and that there are now two types of information produced by eUKaryotic genes--mRNA and iRNA--and that this was a critical step in the development of multicellular organisms.

TL;DR: A number of regulatory molecules for Rho-like proteins have been identified and some of these may cross-talk with the Ras signalling pathway.

TL;DR: Recent increases in the amount of sequence data available for various species and more precise knowledge of the chromosomal locations of those sequences reveal that some features of molecular evolution vary around the genome.

TL;DR: A chain of specific protein-protein interactions is responsible for signal transduction, and components of the pathway are highly conserved between flies, nematodes and mammals, and constitute a primary signaling device in most cell types.

TL;DR: The molecular mechanisms introducing epigenetic modifications that lead to differential silencing of some autosomal alleles depending on their parental legacy are still largely unknown, but recent results from studies of endogenously imprinted genes and particular transgenes make DNA methylation a strong candidate.

TL;DR: These papers have revealed restricted patterns of Wnt gene expression that delineate important subdivisions within the early forebrain and spinal cord, demonstrated that Wnt genes can regulate mesoderm formation and gastrulation, and investigated how Wnt protein signaling may affect cell adhesion.

TL;DR: A detailed molecular understanding of the role of p53 and pRb in transcription and phosphorylation events required for passage of a cell from G1 to S phase is emerging.

TL;DR: The mechanism by which receptor tyrosine kinases direct intracellular signal relay appears to involve receptor autophosphorylation that permits the stable binding of SH2 domain containing signal transduction enzymes.

TL;DR: Recent data show that both the 5' and 3' untranslated regions of eukaryotic mRNAs play critical roles in mRNA recruitment for translation, and several cis-acting elements have been characterized in detail.

TL;DR: Current experiments are aimed at understanding the role of telomerase and telomere-binding proteins in cellular senescence and immortalization.

TL;DR: Transposable elements are ubiquitous in the plant kingdom and share many common features, both structural and mechanistic, with mobile elements from other eukaryotes.

TL;DR: Structural/function studies have shown that the lin-12/Notch intracellular domain alone has the intrinsic signal-transducing activity of the intact protein, and that the role of the extracellular domain is to regulate this intrinsic activity.

TL;DR: Studies of tyrosine kinase oncoproteins, and a comparison with their corresponding proto-oncogene products, have identified important functional and regulatory domains within these proteins, positive and negative regulators of their enzyme activities and signalling cascades that control cell growth and differentiation.

TL;DR: The study of epidermal patterning in Drosophila is contributing novel insights concerning the establishment and action of organizers, including wingless and hedgehog signaling molecules, which act as organizers of segment pattern.

TL;DR: Several lines of evidence point to the existence of totipotent stem cells in the neural crest, the progeny of which become progressively diversified through a combination of intrinsic and extrinsic influences.

TL;DR: Con elucidation of the molecular basis of heritable dwarf phenotypes lacking particular pituitary cell lineages, such as the Snell, Jackson, and little dwarf mice, and studies of the regulation of trans-acting factors involved in pituitsary cell restricted gene activation have begun to delineate the pathways responsible for development of this organ.

TL;DR: This review critically evaluates the most recent advances in research on the evolution of the mitochondrial DNA from a qualitative and quantitative point of view, underlining the multiplicity of structures and genetic organization of this genome, which contrasts with its reduced, but rather constant, information content in various organisms.

TL;DR: The realization that the cellular transcription factor E2F is a target for the action of the retinoblastoma tumor suppressor protein, as well as related regulatory proteins, and that this regulation is disrupted by oncogenic products of the DNA tumor viruses has led to studies that provided important insights into molecular mechanisms of cellular growth control.

TL;DR: Three molecules, noggin, follistatin and fibroblast growth factor, have been shown to have neuralizing activity in various assays and the molecular mechanisms for the action of neural inducers are reviewed.

TL;DR: Genetic and molecular studies are beginning to unravel the complexities of the signaling circuitry that plants use to sense and transduce information concerning the prevailing light environment.