Scapular winging is a rare debilitating condition that leads to limited functional activity of the upper extremity. It is the result of numerous causes, including traumatic, iatrogenic, and idiopathic processes that most often result in nerve injury and paralysis of either the serratus anterior, trapezius, or rhomboid muscles. Diagnosis is easily made upon visible inspection of the scapula, wit...

Rhomboid intramembrane proteases are the enzymes that release active epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) ligands in Drosophila and C. elegans, but little is known about their functions in mammals. Here we show that the mammalian rhomboid protease RHBDL4 (also known as Rhbdd1) promotes trafficking of several membrane proteins, including the EGFR ligand TGFα, from the endoplasmic reticulum (E...

In this issue of The EMBO Journal, mechanistic analyses of substrate cleavage by rhomboid intramembrane proteases suggest that catalytic efficiency towards natural, transmembrane substrates is allosterically stimulated by initial substrate interaction with an intramembrane exosite, whose formation depends on rhomboid dimerisation. In the realm of intramembrane proteolysis, dimerisation and allo...

Rhomboids were identified as the first intramembrane serine proteases about 10 years ago. Since then, the study of the rhomboid protease family has blossomed. Rhomboid domain containing 1 (RHBDD1), highly- expressed in human testis, contains a rhomboid domain with unknown function. In the present study, we tested the hypothesis that RHBDD1 was associated with proliferation and apoptosis in hepa...

Intramembrane proteolysis governs many cellular control processes, but little is known about how intramembrane proteases are regulated. iRhoms are a conserved subfamily of proteins related to rhomboid intramembrane serine proteases that lack key catalytic residues. We have used a combination of genetics and cell biology to determine that these "pseudoproteases" inhibit rhomboid-dependent signal...

In order to identify potential target genes of the rough homeodomain protein, which is known to specify some aspects of the R2/R5 photoreceptor subtype in the Drosophila eye, we have carried out a search for enhancer trap lines whose expression is rough-dependent. We crossed 101 enhancer traps that are expressed in the developing eye into a rough mutant background, and have identified seven lin...

In the last years, anthropology has been widely explored mainly when related to bones due to its morphologic characteristics, such as the rhomboid fossa of the clavicle. This study examined the incidence of the rhomboid fossa in paired clavicles of Brazilian subjects obtained from 209 adult bodies of known age and sex (107 males and 102 females) on which postmortem examinations had been perform...

Rhomboid proteases have many important biological functions. Unlike soluble serine proteases such as chymotrypsin, the active site of rhomboid protease, which contains a Ser-His catalytic dyad, is submerged in the membrane and surrounded by membrane-spanning helices. Previous crystallographic analyses of GlpG, a bacterial rhomboid protease, and its complex with isocoumarin have provided insight...

Invasion of host cells by the malaria parasite involves recognition and interaction with cell-surface receptors. A wide variety of parasite surface proteins participate in this process, most of which are specific to the parasite's particular invasive form. Upon entry, the parasite has to dissociate itself from the host-cell receptors. One mechanism by which it does so is by shedding its surface...

Rhomboids are intramembrane serine proteases that play diverse biological roles, including some that are of potential therapeutical relevance. Up to date, rhomboid inhibitor assays are based on protein substrate cleavage. Although rhomboids have an overlapping substrate specificity, substrates cannot be used universally. To overcome the need for substrates, we developed a screening assay using ...