Scientists Show Protein-Making Machinery Can Switch Gears with a Small Structural Change Process, which may have implications for immunity and cancer therapy, compared to the movie The Transformers
November 15, 2012
JUPITER, FL, November 15, 2012 For the past several years, Min Guo, an assistant professor at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI), has focused on the intricate actions of an ancient family of catalytic enzymes that play a key role in translation, the process of producing proteins.
These complex enzymes are a group of fundamental molecules that make building blocks for protein production. Present in every cell, these enzymes known as aminoacyl-transfer RNA synthetases (tRNA synthetases) select the proper amino acids and assign them to transfer RNAs to make a protein in the ribosome. As an essential step of determining the genetic code, tRNA synthetases have been around for billions of years.
However, this essential part of the protein-making machine did not stop evolving. Now, in a new study published online ahead of print on November 15, 2012, by the journal Molecular Cell, Guo, Ehud Razin of The Institute for Medical Research Israel-Canada, and a large team of international scientists have shown that this enzyme can actually also work in another fundamental process in humans. In this case, the enzyme activates a process that creates a copy of RNA from DNA transcription, which is the first step leading to gene expression. All this takes is a single chemical alteration (phosphorylation) at a specific site on the enzyme, which then triggers a cascade of structure changes, freeing the enzyme from translation to another role that is, regulating transcription.
If you think about the structural changes that occur in the synthetase we looked at in the study, it's very much like the movie Transformers, Guo said. It's a machine that changes structure and turns into another machine that can accomplish a completely different task like from a car to a giant robot. This is the first time anyone has been able to show how you can change the function of this enzyme from a mechanistic perspective, to know exactly how that works.
This newly discovered ability has large implications for our understanding of immune response, including allergies and cancer, Guo said.
He notes the unusual transformation of tRNA synthetases was initially discovered in mast cells, which are the body's first line of defense against pathogens such as bacteria and viruses. To recognize pathogens and other signs of infection, mast cells are dispersed throughout most tissues, but are crucially located at the body's interfaces with the environment, such as the skin and mucosae. Activation of mast cells is a key step in initiating allergies, in which activated mast cells secrete preformed mediators, such as histamine, and synthesize new mediators that augment the allergic response. It turns out that mast cells mobilize the tRNA synthetases to participate in transcriptional regulation and carry along this entire signal cascade within minutes.
This shows how a housekeeping machine can be reshaped for a regulatory response, Guo said, something that is only now starting to get noticed.
Recent research has also shown that the transformed synthetase in the new study also increases metastasis in breast cancer cells.
By designing a way to prevent this synthetase transformation, you could potentially limit metastasis, Guo said. But you have to know the mechanism before you can design something to alter it. This new study gives us a basic framework that shows how this transformation works.
The first authors of the study, Structural Switch of Lysyl-tRNA Synthetase between Translation and Transcription, are Yifat Ofir-Birin of The Institute for Medical Research Israel-Canada and Pengfei Fang of TSRI. In addition to Guo, Razin, Ofir-Birin and Fang, other authors include Steven P. Bennett, Jing Wang, Ryan Shapiro, Jorge Pozo, Paul Schimmel and Xiang-Lei Yang of TSRI (Sharpiro and Schimmel are also affilitated with the Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology at TSRI); Inbal Rachmin, Jing Song and Arie Dagan of The Institute for Medical Research Israel-Canada; Hui-Min Zhang and Alan G. Marshall of Florida State University; Sunghoon Kim of Seoul National University; and Hovav Nechushtan of the Hadassah Medical Center, Israel.
This study required teamwork, as it spanned the boundaries of different biological fields, including cell biology, structural biology, immunity and cancer, Guo said. This and future work is made possible by the close collaborations among scientists around the world.
The study was supported by the National Institutes of Health (grant numbers GM088278; GM23562; GM78359; and GM100136); National Science Foundation Division of Materials Research; the National Foundation for Cancer Research; the Global Frontier Project and the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, Korea; the Israel Science Foundation; the United States Binational Science Foundation; the National Research Foundation of Singapore; the German-Israel Foundation for Scientific Research and Development; the Cooperation Program in Cancer Research of the Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum; the Israel Ministry of Science and Technology; the State of Florida; and the U. S. Department of Energy.
Most recent headlines
04/08/2024
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, is excited to announce Santiago Solanas as its new Chief Executive Officer (CEO)....
03/06/2024
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, a...
28/04/2024
Mediahaus delivers the first SRT live-streaming sports production over 5G with U...
27/04/2024
On April 26, L3Harris Chair and CEO Christopher E. Kubasik joined CNBC's Mor...
27/04/2024
PORTLAND, Oregon Audinate Group Limited, the developer of the Dante AV-over-IP solution, announced significant new additions to Dante Connect, its cloud-based D...
27/04/2024
TORONTO Bell Media has launched 10 English and French-language FAST channels featuring entertainment, factual, news, and sports programming. The new free stream...
27/04/2024
An extensive new analysis of the news segments in the broadcast evening news programs of ABC, CBS, NBC and PBS has found that broadcasters devoted most of their...
27/04/2024
GERMANTOWN, Md. EchoStar's Hughes Network Systems has opened a new manufacturing facility and private 5G incubation center in Germantown, Maryland....
27/04/2024
Harry Pappas, one of three brothers who founded Pappas Telecasting Companies in 1971, died April 24. He was 78 years old....
27/04/2024
ATLANTA and LONDON Mexican telecommunications and broadcast company Televisa has selected Synamedia for an overhaul of its broadcast distribution....
27/04/2024
Participate in the Survey - The Impact of AI on Media and the Creative Industry
Pascal Wagner April 26, 2024
0 Comments
By participating in this surve...
27/04/2024
SDVI Rally Access Workstation Earns Two Top Awards at 2024 NAB Show
Brie Clayton April 26, 2024
0 Comments
SDVI, the leading platform provider for clo...
27/04/2024
Berklee's Music and Health Institute Launches Community Health Musician Cert...
27/04/2024
Charter Communications reported higher first-quarter profits despite continued cord-cutting and competition for broadband customers....
27/04/2024
Two environmentally-focused groups are partnering to engage the unscripted TV world in finding better ways to address climate change. Reality of Change is an ec...
27/04/2024
Sarah Garcia has been promoted to weekend anchor at KTLM McAllen, Texas, known as Telemundo 40. Starting April 27, she will anchor Noticias Telemundo 40 weekend...
27/04/2024
CBS Sports said it launched a new 24-hour free, ad supported streaming television (FAST) channel devoted to the UEFA Champions League....
27/04/2024
Comcast chairman and CEO Brian Roberts received $35.4 million in compensation in 2023, up 11% from the previous year, according to a proxy statement filed by th...
27/04/2024
Art Happens Here With John Lithgow, which sees the actor study dance, ceramics, silk-screen printing and vocal jazz with students in Los Angeles, debuts on PBS ...
27/04/2024
Remember Leave It to Beaver? Bewitched? Dragnet? When cable ratings were rising?...
27/04/2024
Next up for the weekend binge at Catchy Comedy is Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. Every weekend, Catchy Comedy features The Catchy Binge, a marathon of a classic sitcom....
26/04/2024
Sundance Film Festival CDMX 2024 kicks-off today with screenings in 5 theaters in Mexico City and the opening-night film, FRIDA, directed by Carla Guti rrez...
26/04/2024
[Editor's Note: This interview is part of a larger feature about the women d...
26/04/2024
Once again this year, SGL Carbon opened its doors to interested children and young people. On the occasion of the German Girls and Boys Day, which took place on...
26/04/2024
Orders1 of $5.5 billion; book-to-bill of 1.06x
Revenue of $5.2 billion, up 17%,...
26/04/2024
Five Considerations For Communications Modernization In The 21st Century
In the digital-enabled battlespace, the Joint Force needs to shoot, move and communica...
26/04/2024
CBS Sports has launched Champions League as a new, 24-hour streaming channel that will serve as the year-round destination for nonstop highlights of the UEFA ...
26/04/2024
Despite tough competition in the streaming space, Roku reported solid results in Q1 2024, beating revenue expectations, with total net revenue up 19% YoY to $88...
26/04/2024
LONDON AND TORONTO Pinewood Toronto Studios has appointed Sarah Farrell as general manager of the Studios in downtown Toronto....
26/04/2024
Quantum to Offer Advanced Filesharing Technology and Performance in StorNext and...
26/04/2024
FilmLight Colour Awards welcomes 2024 entries and introduces new Emerging Talen...
26/04/2024
Picture Shop Announces Chris Evans as Head of Unscripted
Brie Clayton April 26, 2024
0 Comments
Picture Shop announced Chris Evans will lead Unscripte...
26/04/2024
Participate in a Survey - The Impact of AI on Media and the Creative Industry
Pascal Wagner April 26, 2024
0 Comments
By participating in this survey,...
26/04/2024
Toy maker Mattel said it is working with Samsung to launch its first free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) channels later this year....
26/04/2024
Trusted Media Brands (TMB) said it named Marty Moe as president....
26/04/2024
Ron Howard is the director on Jim Henson Idea Man, a documentary that premieres on Disney Plus May 31. Henson of course created Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Big...
26/04/2024
The ice continues to melt under the regional sports network business as the Seattle Kraken of the National Hockey League have made a long-term deal to broadcast...
26/04/2024
Heading into the upfronts, Warner Bros. Discovery said it launched Olli, a first-party data platform advertiser can use for converged, targeted advertising camp...
26/04/2024
CBS has renewed the drama The Equalizer, which will see season five on in 2024-2025. Queen Latifah stars....
26/04/2024
The CW has entered into an exclusive multiyear broadcast partnership for the Miss USA Pageant and the Miss Teen USA Pageant. The 73rd Miss USA Pageant will air ...
26/04/2024
Fuse Media isn't mincing words in a campaign urging its young viewers to register and participate in the 2024 elections....
26/04/2024
Dead Boy Detectives, a series from Neil Gaiman about a detective agency staffed by ghosts, debuts on Netflix April 25. George Rexstrew and Jayden Revri are in t...
26/04/2024
The Story Collective has gradually repurposed the former Mortlake Brewery to include production offices, workshops and sound stages
By Matthew Corrigan
Publi...
26/04/2024
Perkett joins the company following a 25 year career in product management, product marketing, engineering and user experience (UX) across multiple industries
...
26/04/2024
Teradek, the industry leader in wireless video transmitters and receivers, announced today the launch of new Bolt 6 LT 750 and Bolt 6 Monitor Module 750 RX with...
26/04/2024
NEW YORK Amagi has appointed Richard Perkett chief product officer (CPO)....
26/04/2024
WASHINGTON, D.C. The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) has announced the results of the 2024 NAB Radio and Television Board of Directors elections. The...
26/04/2024
EL SEGUNDO, Calif. & NEW YORK Mattel has announced a deal to launch its first three 24/7 free ad supported streaming (FAST) channels on Samsung TV Plus, Samsung...
26/04/2024
PORTLAND, Maine Viewers here can now receive the NextGen TV signals of five local stations with the launch of ATSC 3.0 service from host station WPFO, which is ...
Scientists Show Protein-Making Machinery Can Switch Gears with a Small Structural Change Process, which may have implications for immunity and cancer therapy, compared to the movie The Transformers
