Trypanosoma brucei possesses five metacaspase genes. Of these, MCA2 and MCA3 are expressed only in the mammalian bloodstream form of the parasite, whereas MCA5 is expressed also in the insect procyclic form. Triple RNAi analysis showed MCA2, MCA3 and MCA5 to be essential in the bloodstream form, with parasites accumulating pre-cytokinesis. Nevertheless, triple null mutants (deltamca2/3deltamca5...

Immune evasion in African trypanosomes is principally mediated by antigenic variation, but rapid internalization of surface-bound immune factors may contribute to survival. Endocytosis is upregulated approximately 10-fold in bloodstream compared to procyclic forms, and surface coat remodeling accompanies transition between these life stages. Here we examined expression of endocytosis markers in...

The decoy receptor D6 plays a nonredundant role in the control of inflammatory processes through scavenging of inflammatory chemokines. However it remains unclear how it is regulated. Here we show that D6 scavenging activity relies on unique trafficking properties. Under resting conditions, D6 constitutively recycled through both a rapid wortmannin (WM)–sensitive and a slower brefeldin A (BFA)–...

Duman, Joseph G., Kamala Tyagarajan, Michelle S. Kolsi, Hsiao-Ping H. Moore, and John G. Forte. Expression of rab11a N124I in gastric parietal cells inhibits stimulatory recruitment of the H1-K1-ATPase. Am. J. Physiol. 277 (Cell Physiol. 46): C361–C372, 1999.—Stimulation of the gastric parietal cell results in a massive redistribution of H1-K1-ATPase from cytoplasmic tubulovesicles to the apica...

OBJECTIVE Vascular endothelial (VE)-cadherin is the predominant component of endothelial adherens junctions essential for cell-cell adhesion and formation of the vascular barrier. Endocytic recycling is an important mechanism for maintaining the expression of cell surface membrane proteins. However, little is known about the molecular mechanism of VE-cadherin recycling and its role in maintenan...

The ability of proteins to bind and interact with protein partners plays fundamental roles in many cellular contexts. X-ray crystallography has been a powerful approach to understand protein-protein interactions; however, a challenge in the crystallization of proteins and their complexes is the presence of intrinsically disordered regions. In this article, we describe an application of hydrogen...

During collective migration, guidance receptors signal downstream to result in a polarized distribution of molecules, including cytoskeletal regulators and guidance receptors themselves, in response to an extracellular gradient of chemotactic factors. However, the underlying mechanism of asymmetry generation in the context of the migration of a group of cells is not well understood. Using borde...

Abdomen and germ cell development of Drosophila melanogaster embryo requires proper localization of oskar mRNA to the posterior pole of the developing oocyte. oskar mRNA localization depends on complex cell biological events like cell-cell communication, dynamic rearrangement of the microtubule network, and function of the actin cytoskeleton of the oocyte. To investigate the cellular mechanisms...

Duman, Joseph G., Kamala Tyagarajan, Michelle S. Kolsi, Hsiao-Ping H. Moore, and John G. Forte. Expression of rab11a N124I in gastric parietal cells inhibits stimulatory recruitment of the H1-K1-ATPase. Am. J. Physiol. 277 (Cell Physiol. 46): C361–C372, 1999.—Stimulation of the gastric parietal cell results in a massive redistribution of H1-K1-ATPase from cytoplasmic tubulovesicles to the apica...