Articles

Histone demethylases UTX and JMJD3 are required for NKT cell development in mice

Natural killer (NK)T cells and conventional T cells share phenotypic characteristic however they differ in transcription factor requirements and functional properties. The role of histone modifying enzymes in ...

Authors: Daniel Northrup, Ryoji Yagi, Kairong Cui, William R. Proctor, Chaochen Wang, Katarzyna Placek, Lance R. Pohl, Rongfu Wang, Kai Ge, Jinfang Zhu and Keji Zhao

Brothers in arms: emerging roles of RNA epigenetics in DNA damage repair

N6-methyladenosine (m⁶A) is a widespread posttranscriptional RNA modification that occurs in tRNA, rRNA, snRNA, viral RNAs, and more recently is shown to occur in mRNA in a dynamic, reversible manner. At the epic...

Authors: Jinwei Zhang

Gene expression profiling discerns molecular pathways elicited by ligand signaling to enhance the specification of embryonic stem cells into skeletal muscle lineage

Regulation of lineage specification and differentiation in embryonic stem (ES) cells can be achieved through the activation of endogenous signaling, an avenue for potential application in regenerative medicine...

Authors: Katherine Dixon, Jihong Chen and Qiao Li

Retrospective analysis in oculocutaneous albinism patients for the 2.7 kb deletion in the OCA2 gene revealed a co-segregation of the controversial variant, p.R305W

Oculocutaneous albinism (OCA) is an autosomal recessive disorder. A significant portion of OCA patients has been found with a single pathogenic variant either in the TYR or the OCA2 gene. Diagnostic sequencing of...

Authors: Jackson Gao, Leera D’Souza, Keith Wetherby, Christian Antolik, Melissa Reeves, David R. Adams, Santa Tumminia and Xinjing Wang

Plant genome editing with TALEN and CRISPR

Genome editing promises giant leaps forward in advancing biotechnology, agriculture, and basic research. The process relies on the use of sequence specific nucleases (SSNs) to make DNA double stranded breaks a...

Authors: Aimee Malzahn, Levi Lowder and Yiping Qi

Upregulation of heme oxygenase-1 expression by curcumin conferring protection from hydrogen peroxide-induced apoptosis in H9c2 cardiomyoblasts

Curcumin is a major constituent of rhizomes of Curcuma longa that elicits beneficial effects for oxidative damage. The aim of this study was to investigate whether curcumin could attenuate hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂

Authors: Xiaobo Yang, Hong Jiang and Yao Shi

Long non-coding RNA MALAT1 contributes to cell apoptosis by sponging miR-124 in Parkinson disease

Parkinson disease (PD) is the most common movement disturbance characterized by the loss of dopaminergic (DA) neurons in midbrain. Metastasis-associated lung adenocarcinoma transcript 1 (MALAT1) is aberrantly ...

Authors: Wei Liu, Qishun Zhang, Jianlei Zhang, Wujun Pan, Jingya Zhao and Yuming Xu

Large is required for normal astrocyte migration and retinal vasculature development

Persistent fetal vasculature (PFV) is a congenital developmental anomaly of the eye that accounts for about 5% of childhood blindness. The molecular mechanism of PFV remains unclear. As a glycosyltransferase o...

Authors: Min Zhou, Herui Wang, Hui Ren, Rui Jiang, Chi Zhang, Xiaohui Wu and Gezhi Xu

The role of GLI1 for 5-Fu resistance in colorectal cancer

Colorectal cancer is a leading cause of cancer-related mortality worldwide, with Fluorouracil (5-FU)-based chemotherapy as the major treatment for advanced disease. Many patients with advanced colorectal cance...

Authors: Lining Zhang, Ruolan Song, Dongsheng Gu, Xiaoli Zhang, Beiqin Yu, Bingya Liu and Jingwu Xie

Hepatitis B virus promotes cancer cell migration by downregulating miR-340-5p expression to induce STAT3 overexpression

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the third leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide, and infection with hepatitis B virus (HBV) is a leading cause of HCC. Previous studies have demonstrated that expre...

Authors: Qiushuang Xiong, Shaoshuai Wu, Jingwen Wang, Xianhuang Zeng, Jianwen Chen, Mingcong Wei, Haotong Guan, Chengpeng Fan, Lang Chen, Deyin Guo and Guihong Sun

Phosphorylation of LSD1 by PLK1 promotes its chromatin release during mitosis

Lysine-specific histone demethylase 1 (LSD1) modulates chromatin status through demethylation of H3K4 and H3K9. It has been demonstrated that LSD1 is hyperphosphorylated and dissociates from chromatin during m...

Authors: Bin Peng, Ruifeng Shi, Weiwei Jiang, Yue-He Ding, Meng-Qiu Dong, Wei-Guo Zhu and Xingzhi Xu

microRNA and thyroid hormone signaling in cardiac and skeletal muscle

Thyroid hormone (TH) signaling plays critical roles in the differentiation, growth, metabolism, and physiological function of all organs or tissues, including heart and skeletal muscle. Due to the significant ...

Authors: Duo Zhang, Yan Li, Shengnan Liu, Yu-cheng Wang, Feifan Guo, Qiwei Zhai, Jingjing Jiang and Hao Ying

New insights on thyroid hormone mediated regulation of herpesvirus infections

Thyroid hormone (T₃) has been suggested to participate in the regulation of herpesvirus replication during reactivation. Clinical observations and in vivo experiments suggest that T₃ are involved in the suppressi...

Authors: Robert W. Figliozzi, Feng Chen and S. Victor Hsia

Mechanism of transcription-coupled DNA modification recognition

As a key enzyme for gene expression, RNA polymerase II (pol II) reads along the DNA template and catalyzes accurate mRNA synthesis during transcription. On the other hand, genomic DNA is under constant attack ...

Authors: Ji Hyun Shin, Liang Xu and Dong Wang

Maintenance of genome stability by Fanconi anemia proteins

Persistent dysregulation of the DNA damage response and repair in cells causes genomic instability. The resulting genetic changes permit alterations in growth and proliferation observed in virtually all cancer...

Authors: Anna Palovcak, Wenjun Liu, Fenghua Yuan and Yanbin Zhang

Yeast help identify cytopathic factors of Zika virus

Accumulating evidence implicates Zika virus (ZIKV) in pathogenesis of microcephaly in newborns and Guillain-Barré syndrome in adults. However, it remains unclear which viral proteins are responsible for these ...

Authors: Michael Bukrinsky

Comparative analysis of pre- and post-parasitic transcriptomes and mining pioneer effectors of Heterodera avenae

The cereal cyst nematode (CCN, Heterodera avenae) is a devastating pathogen of wheat and barley crops in many countries. We aimed to prioritize genetic and molecular targets for H. avenae control via the powerful...

Authors: Dan Yang, Changlong Chen, Qian Liu and Heng Jian

New insights into genome maintenance

Authors: Guo-Min Li

Hsa-let-7c-5p augments enterovirus 71 replication through viral subversion of cell signaling in rhabdomyosarcoma cells

Human enterovirus 71 (EV71) causes severe hand, foot and mouse disease, accompanied by neurological complications. During the interaction between EV71 and the host, the virus subverts host cell machinery for i...

Authors: Bingfei Zhou, Min Chu, Shanshan Xu, Xiong Chen, Yongjuan Liu, Zhihao Wang, Fengfeng Zhang, Song Han, Jun Yin, Biwen Peng, Xiaohua He and Wanhong Liu

Microhomology-mediated end joining: new players join the team

DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) are the most deleterious type of DNA damage in cells arising from endogenous and exogenous attacks on the genomic DNA. Timely and properly repair of DSBs is important for genomi...

Authors: Hailong Wang and Xingzhi Xu

A fission yeast cell-based system for multidrug resistant HIV-1 proteases

HIV-1 protease (PR) is an essential enzyme for viral production. Thus, PR inhibitors (PIs) are the most effective class of anti-HIV drugs. However, the main challenge to the successful use of PI drugs in patie...

Authors: Zsigmond Benko, Dong Liang, Ge Li, Robert T. Elder, Anindya Sarkar, Jun Takayama, Arun K. Ghosh and Richard Y. Zhao

Identification of target genes for spermatogenic cell-specific KRAB transcription factor ZFP819 in a male germ cell line

Zfp819, a member of the Krüppel-associated box (KRAB) family, encodes a spermatogenic cell-specific transcription factor. Zfp819-overexpression induces apoptosis and inhibits prolifera...

Authors: Sora Jin, Heejin Choi, Jun Tae Kwon, Jihye Kim, Juri Jeong, Jaehwan Kim, Seong Hyeon Hong and Chunghee Cho

Characterization of tubular liquid crystal structure in embryonic stem cell derived embryoid bodies

Massive liquid crystal droplets have been found during embryonic development in more than twenty different tissues and organs, including the liver, brain and kidney. Liquid crystal deposits have also been iden...

Authors: MengMeng Xu, Odell D. Jones, Liyang Wang, Xin Zhou, Harry G. Davis, Joseph L. Bryant, Jianjie Ma, Willian B. Isaacs and Xuehong Xu

Ultrastructural changes during osteogenic differentiation in mesenchymal stromal cells cultured in alginate hydrogel

Osteogenic differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells has been extensively investigated with regards to different aspects, including the analysis of cell intracellular and extracellular proteome, cell gene expr...

Authors: Jakub Grzesiak, Agnieszka Śmieszek and Krzysztof Marycz

Vincristine alleviates adriamycin-induced nephropathy through stabilizing actin cytoskeleton

Antimicrotubule agent vincristine (VCR) has long been known as an alternative treatment for frequent relapse nephrotic syndrome and steroid-dependent nephrotic syndrome (SDNS). However, the mechanism is unknow...

Authors: Lei Yin, Youying Mao, Hejie Song, Ye Wang, Wei Zhou and Zhen Zhang

The emerging role of deubiquitinating enzymes in genomic integrity, diseases, and therapeutics

The addition of mono-ubiquitin or poly-ubiquitin chain to signaling proteins in response to DNA damage signal is thought to be a critical event that facilitates the recognition of DNA damage lesion site, the a...

Authors: Mingjing He, Zhuan Zhou, Anil A. Shah, Haojing Zou, Jin Tao, Qianming Chen and Yong Wan

Small GTPase Arl6 controls RH30 rhabdomyosarcoma cell growth through ciliogenesis and Hedgehog signaling

Rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) originates from skeletal muscle precursors that fail to differentiate. Hedgehog (Hh) signaling and primary cilia contribute to the pathobiology of RMS.

Authors: Xiaotong Liu, Qiuhong Shen, Tingting Yu, Huijie Huang, Ziyu Zhang, Jie Ding, Ying Tang, Ning Xu and Shen Yue

Targeted genome engineering in Caenorhabditis elegans

The generation of mutants and transgenes are indispensible for biomedical research. In the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, a series of methods have been developed to introduce genome modifications, including ran...

Authors: Xiangyang Chen, Xuezhu Feng and Shouhong Guang

Function and regulation of tau conformations in the development and treatment of traumatic brain injury and neurodegeneration

One of the two common hallmark lesions of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) brains is neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs), which are composed of hyperphosphorylated tau protein (p-tau). NFTs are also a defining feature of o...

Authors: Onder Albayram, Megan K. Herbert, Asami Kondo, Cheng-Yu Tsai, Sean Baxley, Xiaolan Lian, Madison Hansen, Xiao Zhen Zhou and Kun Ping Lu

Downregulation of long non-coding RNA H19 promotes P19CL6 cells proliferation and inhibits apoptosis during late-stage cardiac differentiation via miR-19b-modulated Sox6

Regulating cardiac differentiation to maintain normal heart development and function is very important. At present, biological functions of H19 in cardiac differentiation is not completely clear.

Authors: Yu Han, Hongdang Xu, Jiangtao Cheng, Yanwei Zhang, Chuanyu Gao, Taibing Fan, Bangtian Peng, Bin Li, Lin Liu and Zhaoyun Cheng

One-step immortalization of primary human airway epithelial cells capable of oncogenic transformation

The ability to transform normal human cells into cancer cells with the introduction of defined genetic alterations is a valuable method for understanding the mechanisms of oncogenesis. Easy establishment of im...

Authors: Jordan L. Smith, Liam C. Lee, Abigail Read, Qiuning Li, Bing Yu, Chih-Shia Lee and Ji Luo

MAP4K4: an emerging therapeutic target in cancer

The serine/threonine kinase MAP4K4 is a member of the Ste20p (sterile 20 protein) family. MAP4K4 was initially discovered in 1995 as a key kinase in the mating pathway in Saccharomyces cerevisiae and was later fo...

Authors: Xuan Gao, Chenxi Gao, Guoxiang Liu and Jing Hu

Germline mutations of KIT in gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) and mastocytosis

Somatic mutations of KIT are frequently found in mastocytosis and gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST), while germline mutations of KIT are rare, and only found in few cases of familial GIST and mastocytosis....

Authors: Hengning Ke, Julhash U. Kazi, Hui Zhao and Jianmin Sun

Roxarsone induces angiogenesis via PI3K/Akt signaling

3-Nitro-4-hydroxy phenyl arsenic acid, roxarsone, is widely used as an organic arsenic feed additive for livestock and poultry, which may increase the level of arsenic in the environment and the risk of exposu...

Authors: Yujing Wang, Donglai Yin, Chao Xu, Kai Wang, Lingmin Zheng and Yumei Zhang

Anticancer bioactive peptide-3 inhibits human gastric cancer growth by targeting miR-338-5p

Cancer incidence and mortality have been increasing in China, making cancer the leading cause of death since 2010 and a major public health concern in the country. Cancer stem cells have been studied in relati...

Authors: Zhiwei Xing, Lan Yu, Xian Li and Xiulan Su

Thanking cell and bioscience reviewers

Authors: Yun-Bo Shi

A new paradigm of DNA synthesis: three-metal-ion catalysis

Enzyme catalysis has been studied for over a century. How it actually occurs has not been visualized until recently. By combining in crystallo reaction and X-ray diffraction analysis of reaction intermediates,...

Authors: Wei Yang, Peter J. Weng and Yang Gao

Improved hematopoietic differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells via estrogen receptor signaling pathway

Aside from its importance in reproduction, estrogen (E2) is known to regulate the proliferation and differentiation of hematopoietic stem cells in rodents. However, the regulatory role of E2 in human hematopoi...

Authors: Hye-Ryun Kim, Jong-Hee Lee, Hye-Ryeon Heo, Se-Ran Yang, Kwon-Soo Ha, Won Sun Park, Eun-Taek Han, Haengseok Song and Seok-Ho Hong

Analysis of Axin2 expression and function in murine models for pancreatic cancer

The involvement of Wnt in carcinogenesis and progression of pancreatic cancer is currently intensely discussed. We evaluated activation of the Wnt signaling pathway by using a Wnt reporter mouse strain express...

Authors: Dietmar Zechner, Tim Kroemer, Ann-Christin Albert, Maria Schönrogge, Tobias Radecke and Brigitte Vollmar

EphA5 and EphA6: regulation of neuronal and spine morphology

The Eph family of receptor tyrosine kinases plays important roles in neural development. Previous studies have implicated Eph receptors and their ligands, the ephrins, in neuronal migration, axon bundling and ...

Authors: Gitanjali Das, Qili Yu, Ryan Hui, Kenneth Reuhl, Nicholas W. Gale and Renping Zhou

Histone acetyl transferase GCN5 promotes human hepatocellular carcinoma progression by enhancing AIB1 expression

General control non-depressible 5 (GCN5) is a crucial catalytic component of a transcriptional regulatory complex that plays important roles in cellular functions from cell cycle regulation to DNA damage repai...

Authors: Sidra Majaz, Zhangwei Tong, Kesong Peng, Wei Wang, Wenjing Ren, Ming Li, Kun Liu, Pingli Mo, Wengang Li and Chundong Yu

Thyroid hormone-mediated autophagy and mitochondrial turnover in NAFLD

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a fast-growing silent epidemic that is present in both developed and developing countries. Initially thought as a benign deposition of lipids in the liver, it now h...

Authors: Rohit Anthony Sinha and Paul M. Yen

Long noncoding RNAs in DNA methylation: new players stepping into the old game

Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are being discovered as a novel family of regulators of gene expression at the epigenetic level. Emerging lines of evidence demonstrate that interplays between lncRNAs and DNA me...

Authors: Yu Zhao, Hao Sun and Huating Wang

Hedgehog pathway is involved in nitidine chloride induced inhibition of epithelial-mesenchymal transition and cancer stem cells-like properties in breast cancer cells

The complications of clinical metastatic disease are responsible for the majority of breast cancer related deaths, and fewer therapies substantially prolong survival. Nitidine chloride (NC), a natural polyphen...

Authors: Mingjuan Sun, Ning Zhang, Xiaolong Wang, Yaming Li, Wenwen Qi, Hanwen Zhang, Zengjun Li and Qifeng Yang

Epithelium-specific Ets transcription factor-1 acts as a negative regulator of cyclooxygenase-2 in human rheumatoid arthritis synovial fibroblasts

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is characterized by excessive synovial inflammation. Cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) is an enzyme that catalyzes the conversion of arachidonic acid (AA) into prostaglandins. Epithelium-speci...

Authors: Chan-Mi Lee, Sahil Gupta, Jiafeng Wang, Elizabeth M. Johnson, Leslie J. Crofford, John C. Marshall, Mohit Kapoor and Jim Hu

Bioinformatic analysis reveals the expression of unique transcriptomic signatures in Zika virus infected human neural stem cells

The single-stranded RNA Flavivirus, Zika virus (ZIKV), has recently re-emerged and spread rapidly across the western hemisphere’s equatorial countries, primarily through Aedes mosquito transmission. While symptom...

Authors: Alyssa J. Rolfe, Dale B. Bosco, Jingying Wang, Richard S. Nowakowski, Jianqing Fan and Yi Ren

Disruption of the Golgi protein Otg1 gene causes defective hormone secretion and aberrant glucose homeostasis in mice

Concerted hormone secretion is essential for glucose homeostasis and growth. The oocyte testis gene 1 (Otg1) has limited information in mammals before. Human OTG1 has been identified as an antigen associated with...

Authors: Guangxue Wang, Rongbo Li, Ying Yang, Liang Cai, Sheng Ding, Tian Xu, Min Han and Xiaohui Wu

Pituitary adenylate cyclase-activating polypeptide expression in peripheral blood mononuclear cells of migraineurs

Pituitary adenylate cyclase-activating polypeptide (PACAP) plays several important roles in vasodilation, neurotransmission, neuromodulation and neurotrophy, as well as activation of the trigeminovascular syst...

Authors: Lei Hou, Dongjun Wan, Zhao Dong, Wenjing Tang, Xun Han, Li Li, Fei Yang and Shengyuan Yu

The cathepsin S cysteine proteinase of the burrowing nematode Radopholus similis is essential for the reproduction and invasion

The nematode Radopholus similis is an important migratory endoparasite of plants. Cysteine proteinases such as cathepsin S (CPS) play key roles during embryonic development, invasion, and pathogenesis in nematode...

Authors: Ke Wang, Yu Li, Xin Huang, Dong-wei Wang, Chun-ling Xu and Hui Xie

Lmod2 piggyBac mutant mice exhibit dilated cardiomyopathy

Leiomodin proteins, Lmod1, Lmod2 and Lmod3, are key regulators of the thin filament length in muscles. While Lmod1 is specifically expressed in smooth muscles, both Lmod2 and Lmod3 are expressed in striated muscl...

Authors: Shuang Li, Kaiqi Mo, Hong Tian, Chen Chu, Shuna Sun, Lei Tian, Sheng Ding, Tong-ruei Li, Xiaohui Wu, Fang Liu, Zhen Zhang, Tian Xu and Ling V. Sun