Enzyme isoforms are found in many cellular reactions, and can differ in the kind of reaction they catalyze, in their substrate affinity, or in their reaction rates. The evolutionary significance of enzyme isoforms is only partially understood. We used mathematical modeling to investigate the hypothesis that isoforms may be favored by selection because they can increase the phenotypic robustness...

The conserved sequences of the mouse histamine H3 receptor at the potential alternative splice junctions suggest that the splice isoforms found in guinea pig, rat, human, and hamster may also be present in the mouse. However, the trace amount isoforms are hard to be detected by the regular PCR approach. In this paper, we report a method in which the unspliced long isoform is cut by restriction ...

The diversity of protein isoforms arising from alternative splicing is thought to modulate fine-tuning of synaptic plasticity. Fragile X mental retardation protein (FMRP), a neuronal RNA binding protein, exists in isoforms as a result of alternative splicing, but the contribution of these isoforms to neural plasticity are not well understood. We show that two isoforms of Drosophila melanogaster...

thioredoxins (trxs) are small ubiquitous oxidoreductase proteins with two redox-active cys residues in a conserved active site (wcg/ppc) that regulate numerous target proteins via thiol/disulfide exchanges in the cells of prokaryotes and eukaryotes. the isoforms ostrx23 with a typical active site (wcgpc) and ostrx20 with an atypical active site (wctpc) are two  trx h- type isoforms in rice that ...

abstract phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase, encoded by the pepck gene, plays an important role in gluconeogenesis. it also seems to be important in metabolism of nitrogenous compounds in developing seeds of legumes, including amides and ureides which are then transformed into amino acids, necessary for the synthesis of storage proteins. in this research, pepck gene expression in mrna level, in ...

Dscam1 potentially encodes 19,008 ectodomains of a cell recognition molecule of the immunoglobulin (Ig) superfamily through alternative splicing. Each ectodomain, comprising a unique combination of three variable (Ig) domains, exhibits isoform-specific homophilic binding in vitro. Although we have proposed that the ability of Dscam1 isoforms to distinguish between one another is crucial for neu...

Selenoprotein P is an abundant extracellular glycoprotein. Its mRNA contains 10 UGAs in an open reading frame terminated by a UAA. This predicts that fulllength selenoprotein P will contain 10 selenocysteine residues. Full-length selenoprotein P and three smaller isoforms that have identical N termini have been demonstrated. Selenoprotein P was purified from rat plasma, and the four isoforms we...

Currently at least 11 protein kinase C (PKC) isoforms have been identified and may play different roles in cell signaling pathways leading to changes in cardiac contractility, the hypertrophic response, and tolerance to myocardial ischemia. The purpose of the present study was to test the hypothesis that responses of individual PKC isoforms to distinct pathological stimuli were differentially r...

Tenascin-C (TN) is an extracellular matrix protein that is expressed at low levels in normal adult tissue but is highly expressed around many tumors including breast carcinoma. TN exists as multiple isoforms generated through alternative splicing, and these isoforms have different effects on cell growth and migration. This study has analyzed in detail the pattern of TN isoform expression in ben...