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Showing papers in "Trends in Biochemical Sciences in 2012"


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This review explores the possible involvement of different thermosensors in the plant response to warming and heat stress and the relationship between the different pathways and their hierarchical order is unclear.

779 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It is shown that the evidence for the generality and importance of this phenomenon is now so insurmountable that it demands the inclusion of 'unstructural' biology into mainstream biology and biochemistry textbooks.

578 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Recent data are discussed that provide insight into the variety of structures of these proteins, their dynamic behavior, how they recognize substrates, and their many possible cellular roles.

461 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The current theories regarding extracellular miRNA origin and function are summarized, and it is suggested that these miRNAs are mostly byproducts of cellular activity, Nevertheless, some extrace cellular miRNA species might also carry cell-cell signaling function.

444 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The significance of the HIF switch and the relation between Hif-1 and HIF-2 under both physiological and pathophysiological conditions are reviewed.

421 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This review focuses on the newly identified players in cardiolipin metabolism and then shifts its attention to how changes in cardiolysis and remodeling contribute to human disease.

303 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Evidence supporting the conclusion that ATM can be directly activated by oxidation is reviewed, as well as various observations from ATM-deficient patients and mouse models that point to the importance of ATM in oxidative stress responses.

296 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The molecular factors and cellular conditions that promote miRNA turnover are reviewed and what is known about the physiological relevance of miRNA decay is discussed.

268 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: How recent findings shed light on NATs as major protein regulators and key cellular players are discussed are discussed.

261 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The results indicate that inflamed microglia eat viable brain neurons in models of neurodegeneration, and cancer cells can evade phagocytosis by expressing a 'don't-eat-me' signal, suggesting that too much or too little phagoptosis can contribute to pathology.

257 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This work focuses on how BAR proteins interact with the membrane, and how the resulting scaffold structures might aid the recruitment of other proteins to the sites where membranes are bent.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The current understanding of the mechanisms by which PKM2 coordinates high energy requirements with high anabolic activities to support cancer cell proliferation are summarized and the potential therapeutic implications and strategies are critically discussed.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The role of protein kinase C (PKC)-interacting protein p62 has emerged as a crucial molecule in a myriad of cellular functions, such as nutrient sensing, regulator and substrate of autophagy, inducer of oxidative detoxifying proteins, and modulator of mitotic transit and genomic stability as discussed by the authors.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: These experiments are rewriting the textbooks, with a new picture emerging of a dynamic, malleable machine heavily influenced by the identity of its pre-mRNA substrate.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The elucidation of this network holds the key to the understanding of complex biological processes such as aging and the development of age-related diseases.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It is shown that the spatial arrangement of the reacting oxygen that is in direct contact with the flavin group is emerging as a crucial factor that differentiates between oxidase and monooxygenase enzymes.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: MultiBac as discussed by the authors is a baculovirus expression vector system that is tailored for the production of eukaryotic multiprotein complexes and has been used to produce many important proteins and their complexes for their structural characterization.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: From an evolutionary standpoint, harnessing this immense, yet highly specific, PTM code is an extremely efficient vehicle that can save a cell several-fold in gene number and speed up its response to environmental change.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The recently determined crystal structures of the small (40S) and large (60S) ribosomal subunits and the 80S ribosome now provide an atomic description of this essential molecular machine and reveal its eukaryote-specific features.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This review focuses on the cellular activities of ribosome-associated chaperones and highlights new findings indicating additional functions beyond de novo folding, including the assembly of oligomeric complexes, such as ribosomes, modulation of translation and targeting of proteins.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This review highlights recent studies that have suggested that the RING domain modulates the stability of the E2-ubiquitin conjugate so that catalysis is promoted and reviews the role of RING dimerisation.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This review focuses on two biochemical properties of TDP-43: its ability to bind RNA and its protein-protein interactions, and overview how these two properties may affect potentially very important processes for the pathology.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This review focuses primarily on the Sry-like H MG box family, HMGB1, and mitochondrial transcription factor A, and shows that HMG box protein modularity, interactions with other DNA binding proteins and cellular receptors, and post-translational modifications are key regulators of their diverse functions.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Recent findings regarding intersections between SUMO and ubiquitin that influence genome stability and cell growth and which are relevant in pathogen resistance and cancer treatment are summarized.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It is proposed that mitochondrial protein import should not be seen as an independent task of the organelle and that a network of cooperating machineries is responsible for major mitochondrial functions.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Two popular methods for quantification of absolute protein numbers in cellular structures using fluorescence microscopy are reviewed: stepwise photobleaching to count discrete changes in intensity from a small number of fluorescent fusion proteins, and comparing the fluorescence intensity of a protein to a known in vivo or in vitro standard.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This review will focus predominantly on the thermostabilisation of GPCRs using systematic mutagenesis coupled with thermostability assays, which has led to an understanding of ligand specificity; why some ligands act as agonists as opposed to partial or inverse agonists; and the structural basis for receptor activation.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Having the signaling protein disordered before binding to the target provides a way out of the quandary of association between signaling proteins and cellular targets, and would allow k(d) to be increased to a range appropriate for signaling.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Several molecular chaperones have now been identified as conditionally disordered proteins; fully folded and chaperone-inactive under non-stress conditions, they adopt a partially disordered conformation upon exposure to distinct stress conditions.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This review discusses the mechanisms through which NF-κB regulates tumour cell metabolism and the important role of p53 in determining the consequences of NF-σB activity and proposes a model in which NF -κB contributes to the shift to glycolytic ATP production through regulation of both nuclear and mitochondrial gene expression.