(Press-News.org) In one of the largest and most detailed studies of animal molecular biology ever undertaken, researchers at The University of Texas at Austin and the University of Toronto discovered the assembly instructions for nearly 1,000 protein complexes shared by most kinds of animals, revealing their deep evolutionary relationships. Those instructions offer a powerful new tool for studying the causes of diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and cancer.
Proteins come together to form protein complexes, or molecular machines, to carry out many specific biological functions in cells. The authors of the study, published this week in the journal Nature, identified nearly 1,000 molecular machines critical for the development and survival of species as diverse as sea anemones, worms, mice and humans. For example, the researchers found identical protein complexes required by the cells that organize the proper formation of the head and eye across the different species.
They also mapped out which proteins stick together to form the complexes--called protein-protein interactions--revealing important processes for the proper functioning of cells.
"Essentially, we were able to construct a sort of assembly diagram of how thousands of different proteins come together to carry out their proper roles inside the cells of most kinds of animals," said lead UT Austin researcher Edward Marcotte, a professor of molecular biosciences. "Protein assemblies in humans were often identical to those in other species. This not only reinforces what we already know about our common evolutionary ancestry, it also has practical implications, providing the ability to study the genetic basis for a wide variety of diseases and how they present in different species."
Proving these commonalities will allow researchers more opportunity to study disease proteins and learn about how they are assembled in different species.
"By understanding how the protein complexes come together across very different organisms, we can find relevancies to humans and human health," Marcotte added.
The study employed high-throughput mass spectrometry, with researchers collecting data on the cellular proteins of nine species representing a broad cross-section of the animal kingdom. The species studied included worms, flies, mice, humans, sea urchins, sea anemones and frogs, and even slime mold and common baker's yeast. Mass spectrometry data was cross-referenced with known genomic information.
"For me the highlight of the study is its sheer scale," says Andrew Emili, a professor from the Donnelly Centre in Toronto, who jointly led the study. "We have tripled the number of known protein interactions for every species. So across all the animals, we can now predict, with high confidence, more than 1 million protein interactions - a fundamentally 'big step' moving the goal posts forward in terms of protein interaction networks."
This study builds on an earlier paper that looked only at human protein complexes. That study was published in the journal Cell in 2012. The current, broader study employed more than a year of mass spectrometer time split between the two institutions, making it one of the largest investigations of protein complexes ever undertaken.
INFORMATION:
Marcotte and the UT Austin team were joined on the project by Emili and four other teams working at the University of Toronto.
The project was supported by grants from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the U.S. National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the Welch Foundation and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, among others.
(BOSTON) -The CRISPR-Cas9 system has been in the limelight mainly as a revolutionary genome engineering tool used to modify specific gene sequences within the vast sea of an organism's DNA. Cas9, a naturally occurring protein in the immune system of certain bacteria, acts like a pair of molecular scissors to precisely cut or edit specific sections of DNA. More recently, however, scientists have also begun to use CRISPR-Cas9 variants as gene regulation tools to reversibly turn genes on or off at whim.
Both of these tasks, genome engineering and gene regulation, are initiated ...
Researchers have, for the first time, levitated individual nanodiamonds in vacuum. The research team is led by Nick Vamivakas at the University of Rochester who thinks their work will make extremely sensitive instruments for sensing tiny forces and torques possible, as well as a way to physically create larger-scale quantum systems known as macroscopic Schrödinger Cat states.
While other researchers have trapped other types of nanoparticles in vacuum, those were not optically active. The nanodiamonds, on the other hand, can contain nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers that ...
National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, Starr Cancer Consortium, Breast Cancer Research Foundation, Simons Foundation, Susan G. Komen Foundation, Prostate Cancer Foundation, CSHL Cancer Center, WSBS Cold Spring Harbor, NY - Seemingly similar cells often have significantly different genomes. This is often true of cancer cells, for example, which may differ one from another even within a small tumor sample, as genetic mutations within the cells spread in staccato-like bursts. Detailed knowledge of these mutations, called copy number variations, in individual ...
Scientists at the University of Cambridge University have published new results in the journal PLoS ONE from the largest ever study of people with autism taking the 'Reading the Mind in the Eyes' test. Whilst typical adults showed the predicted and now well-established sex difference on this test, with women on average scoring higher than men, in adults with autism this typical sex difference was conspicuously absent. Instead, both men and women with autism showed an extreme of the typical male pattern on the test, providing strong support for the 'extreme male brain' theory ...
A 'gene signature' that could be used to predict the onset of diseases, such as Alzheimer's, years in advance has been developed in research published in the open access journal Genome Biology.
The study aimed to define a set of genes associated with 'healthy ageing' in 65 year olds. Such a molecular profile could be useful for distinguishing people at earlier risk of age-related diseases. This could improve upon the use of chronological age and complement traditional indicators of disease, such as blood pressure.
Lead author James Timmons, from King's College London, ...
A study led by Dr. Bing Hu at Plymouth University Peninsula Schools of Medicine and Dentistry and involving other researchers from China and Switzerland, suggests for the first time that the use of local anaesthetic may affect tooth cell growth and the development of children's teeth.
The study is published today, Monday 7th September 2015, in Cell Death Discovery, a new leading translational medical research journal from Nature Publishing Group, and comes at a time when more children than ever before are subjected to dental surgery - and local anaesthetic - because of ...
A highly effective drug that helps smokers to quit does not increase their risk of heart attack and depression as was previously thought, research suggests.
Researchers who carried out the study say doctors can prescribe varenicline - also known as Champix™ or ChantixTM - more widely to help people stop smoking.
Varenicline is the most effective medication to help smokers quit but previous reports have suggested that users may be more likely to suffer a heart attack.
The drug has also been linked to depression, self-harm and suicide.
This latest research ...
Fewer patients are admitted at weekends, but are more likely to be sicker and have a higher risk of death from Friday through until Monday
Authors caution against using the data to estimate avoidable deaths, but call for more research into how services can be improved to reduce risk
Patients admitted to hospital at the weekend are more likely to be sicker and have a higher risk of death, compared with those admitted during the week, finds an analysis published in The BMJ this week.
The analysis was carried out as a collaboration between University Hospital Birmingham ...
Action to prevent tooth decay in children, such as supervised tooth brushing and fluoride varnish schemes, are not just beneficial to children's oral health but could also result in cost savings to the NHS of hundreds of pounds per child, so says a leading dental health researcher.
Professor Elizabeth Kay, Foundation Dean of the Peninsula Dental School from Plymouth University Peninsula Schools of Medicine and Dentistry, has carried out the first economic evaluation of public health measures to reduce tooth decay in children at high risk, in association with the National ...
An international team of scientists has developed what may be the first one-step process for making seamless carbon-based nanomaterials that possess superior thermal, electrical and mechanical properties in three dimensions.
The research holds potential for increased energy storage in high efficiency batteries and supercapacitors, increasing the efficiency of energy conversion in solar cells, for lightweight thermal coatings and more. The study is published today (Sept. 4) in the online journal Science Advances.
In early testing, a three-dimensional (3D) fiber-like ...
