Shrew-1, also called AJAP1, is a transmembrane protein associated with E-cadherin-mediated adherence junctions and a putative tumor suppressor. Apart from its interaction with β-catenin and involvement in E-cadherin internalization, little structure or function information exists. Here we explored shrew-1 expression during postnatal differentiation of mammary gland as a model system. Immunohist...

Krüppel-like factors (KLFs) are a family of zinc finger transcription factors regulating embryonic development and diseases. The phylogenetics of KLFs has not been studied in tree shrews, an animal lineage with a closer relationship to primates than rodents. Here, we identified 17 KLFs from Chinese tree shrew (Tupaia belangeri chinensis). KLF proteins are highly conserved among humans, monkeys,...

Endogenous neuropeptides, acting as neurotransmitters or hormones in the brain, carry out important functions including neural plasticity, metabolism and angiogenesis. Previous neuropeptide studies have focused on peptide-rich brain regions such as the striatum or hypothalamus. Here we present an investigation of peptides in the visual system, composed of brain regions that are generally less r...

Animal models are indispensible to investigate the pathogenesis and treatments of non-alcoholic fatty liver diseases (NAFLD). Altered cholesterol metabolism has been implicated into the pathogenesis of NAFLD. Here, using high fat, cholesterol and cholate diet (HFHC), we generated a novel tree shrew (Tupaia belangeri chinensis) model of NAFLD, which displayed dyslipidemia with increased levels o...

The local-global map hypothesis states that locally organized response properties--such as orientation preference--result from visuotopically organized local maps of non-retinotopic response properties. In the tree shrew, the lateral extent of horizontal patchy connections is as much as 80-100% of V1 and is consistent with the length summation property. We argue that neural signals can be trans...

We recently identified transmembrane protein shrew-1 and showed that it is able to target to adherens junctions in polarized epithelial cells. This suggested shrew-1 possesses specific basolateral sorting motifs, which we analyzed by mutational analysis. Systematic mutation of amino acids in putative sorting signals in the cytoplasmic domain of shrew-1 revealed three tyrosines and a dileucine m...

A limited search for hantaviruses in lung and liver tissues of Sorex shrews (family Soricidae, subfamily Soricinae) revealed phylogenetically distinct hantaviruses in the masked shrew (Sorex cinereus) from Minnesota and in the dusky shrew (Sorex monticolus) from New Mexico and Colorado. The discovery of these shrew-borne hantaviruses, named Ash River virus and Jemez Springs virus, respectively,...