• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
• /
• v.49 no.2
• /
• pp.103-108
• /
• 2011

Autophagy is a catabolic process involved in the degradation of a cell's own components for cell growth, development, homeostasis, and the recycling of cellular products. Autophagosome is an essential component in the protozoan parasite during differentiation and encystation. The present study identified and characterized autophagy-related protein (Atg) 3, a member of Atg8 conjugation system, in Acanthamoeba castellanii (AcAtg3). AcAtg3 encoding a 304 amino acid protein showed high similarity with the catalytic cysteine site of other E2 like enzymes of ubiquitin system. Predicted 3D structure of AcAtg3 revealed a hammer-like shape, which is the characteristic structure of E2-like enzymes. The expression level of AcAtg3 did not increase during encystation. However, the formation of mature cysts was significantly reduced in Atg3-siRNA transfected cells in which the production of Atg8-phosphatidylethanolamine conjugate was inhibited. Fluorescent microscopic analysis revealed that dispersed AcAtg3-EGFP fusion protein gathered around autophagosomal membranes during encystation. These results provide important information for understanding autophagic machinery through the lipidation reaction mediated by Atg3 in Acanthamoeba.

• Journal of the Korean Magnetic Resonance Society
• /
• v.23 no.3
• /
• pp.67-72
• /
• 2019

Caveolae are small plasma membrane invaginations that play many roles in signal transduction, endocytosis, mechanoprotection, lipid metabolism. The most important protein in caveolae is the integral membrane protein, caveolin, which is divided into three families such as caveolin 1, caveolin 2, and caveolin 3. Caveolin 1 and 3 are known to incorporate palmitate through linkage to three cysteine residues. Regulation of the protein palmitoylation cycle is important for the cellular processes such as intracellular localization of the target protein, membrane association, conformation, protein-protein interaction, and activity. However, the detailed aspect of individual palmitoylation has not been studied. In the present work, the role of each lipid modification at three cysteines was studied by NMR. Our results suggest that each lipid modification at the natively palmitoylation site has its own roles. For example, lipidations to C106 and C129 are play a role in structural stabilization, however, interestingly, lipid modification to C116 interrupts the structural stabilization.

• Journal of Life Science
• /
• v.21 no.3
• /
• pp.400-405
• /
• 2011

Autophagy, a highly conserved mechanism of internal quality control, is essential for the maintenance of cellular homeostasis and for the orchestration of an efficient cellular response to stress. During aging, the efficiency of autophagic degradation declines and intracellular waste products accumulate. Therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate the effects of exercise on autophagic response in skeletal muscle. Twenty-four Young (4 month) and Old (12 month) ICR-type white male mice were divided into a control group (CON: n=6) and exercise training group (Tr: n=6) after an adaptation period of 1 week. Exercise consisted of treadmill running at 16.4 m/min with a 4% incline, 40 min/day and 5 days/week for 8 weeks. Cervical dislocation was performed at 48 hours after the last round of exercise, after which the gastrocnemius skeletal muscle were immediately collected. The results of verifying autophagy formation showed that the Sarcopenia index was decreased in the Old mice compared to the Young. However, it increased with exercise training in the Old. Lipidation LC3-II, Becline-1, and Atg7 were decreased in the Old mice compared to the Young. However, Lipidation LC3-II was significantly increased in the trained Old mice (Young:1 Vs Old:$1.32{\pm}0.042$, p<0.05). Based on these data, we suggest that autophagy regulatory events are the attenuated in Old mice, but that they are enhanced with exercise training.

• Molecules and Cells
• /
• v.39 no.8
• /
• pp.581-586
• /
• 2016

Post-translational modifications (PTMs) of proteins are essential to increase the functional diversity of the proteome. By adding chemical groups to proteins, or degrading entire proteins by phosphorylation, glycosylation, ubiquitination, neddylation, acetylation, lipidation, and proteolysis, the complexity of the proteome increases, and this then influences most biological processes. Although small RNAs are crucial regulatory elements for gene expression in most eukaryotes, PTMs of small RNA microprocessor and RNA silencing components have not been extensively investigated in plants. To date, several studies have shown that the proteolytic regulation of AGOs is important for host-pathogen interactions. DRB4 is regulated by the ubiquitin-proteasome system, and the degradation of HYL1 is modulated by a de-etiolation repressor, COP1, and an unknown cytoplasmic protease. Here, we discuss current findings on the PTMs of microprocessor and RNA silencing components in plants.

• Proceedings of the Plant Resources Society of Korea Conference
• /
• 2019.04a
• /
• pp.33-33
• /
• 2019

The AKT signaling pathway is a highly regulated cell signaling system that forms a network with other cell signaling pathways. Hence, the AKT signaling pathway mediates several important cellular functions that include cell survival, proliferation, cell migration, and et cetera. Irregularities that led overactive AKT signaling have been linked to many diseases such as cancer and metabolic-associated diseases. Hence, modulating the overactive AKT signaling pathway via inhibitor is a tantalizing prospect for treatment of cancer and metabolic-associated diseases. Two inhibitors of the AKT signaling pathway will be presented in this symposium: 1) Bisleuconothine A (BisA), a bisindole alkaloid that inhibit autophagy and 2) Ceramicine B (CerB), a limonoid that inhibit adipogenesis. The first topic is on a bisindole alkaloid, BisA and its mechanism in inducing autophagosome formation in lung cancer cell line, A549.(1) Since most autophagy inducing agents generally induce apoptosis, we found that BisA does not induce apoptosis even in high dose. BisA up-regulation of LC3 lipidation is achieved through mTOR inactivation. The phosphorylation of PRAS40, a mTOR repressor was suppressed by BisA. This observation suggested that BisA inactivates mTOR via suppression of PRAS40 phosphorylation. Interestingly, the phosphorylation of AKT, an upstream regulator of PRAS40 phosphorylation was also down-regulated by BisA. These findings suggested that Bis-A induces autophagosomes formation by interfering with the AKT-mTOR signaling pathway. The second topic is on CerB and its mechanism in inhibiting adipogenesis in preadipocytes cell line, MC3T3-G2/PA6.(2,3) CerB inhibits the phosphorylation of protein kinase B (AKT) at the Thr308 position but not the Ser473. Consequently, the phosphorylation of FOXO3 which is located downstream of AKT is also inhibited. Considering that FOXO3 is an important regulator of PPARγ which is a key factor in adipogenesis, CerB may inhibit adipogenesis via the AKT-FOXO3 signaling pathway. Taken together, both BisA and CerB highlighted the potential of AKT signaling pathway modulation as an approach to induce autophagy and inhibit the formation of fat cells, respectively.