Plant viruses are excellent tools for studying microbial-plant interactions as well as the complexities of host activities. Our study focuses on the role of C2 encoded by Beet severe curly top virus (BSCTV) in the virus-plant interaction. Using BSCTV C2 as bait in a yeast two-hybrid screen, a C2-interacting protein, S-adenosyl-methionine decarboxylase 1 (SAMDC1), was identified from an Arabidop...

PURPOSE Several single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the C2 and BF genes have been associated with age-related macular degeneration (AMD) in Caucasian populations from the United States. The study was conducted to evaluate whether these SNPs are also associated with AMD in persons of Anglo-Celtic ethnicity in an Australian population. METHODS Included in the study were 565 persons with A...

Unlike their mitochondrial counterparts, the c-type cytochromes typically isolated from photosynthetic nonsulfur purple bacteria display a wide range of oxidation-reduction potentials. Here we describe the X-ray crystallographic analysis of the cytochrome c2 isolated from Rhodopila globiformis. This particular c-type cytochrome was selected for study because of its anomalously high redox potent...

The authors performed a systematic review of the association of complement component 2(C2)/complement factor B (CFB) gene polymorphisms with age-related macular degeneration (AMD). In total, data from 19 studies published between 2006 and 2011 were pooled for 4 polymorphisms: rs9332739 and rs547154 in the C2 gene and rs4151667 and rs641153 in the CFB gene. Data extraction and assessments for ri...

The authors performed a systematic review of the association of complement component 2(C2)/complement factor B (CFB) gene polymorphisms with age-related macular degeneration (AMD). In total, data from 19 studies published between 2006 and 2011 were pooled for 4 polymorphisms: rs9332739 and rs547154 in the C2 gene and rs4151667 and rs641153 in the CFB gene. Data extraction and assessments for ri...

gamma-Glutamyl transpeptidase (GGT) is an enzyme encoded by multiple mRNAs (mRNAI to mRNAIV) that, in the rat, are transcribed from a single copy gene in a tissue-specific manner. In the liver, GGT expression is up-regulated in transformed cells, and this induction is the most widely used marker of liver cell transformation. We characterized the GGT mRNA species expressed in the liver (mRNAIII)...

Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) are a family of zinc-dependent endopeptidases, which play a pivotal role in invasion, migration, and angiogenesis of glioma. Therefore, controlling MMPs is potentially an important therapeutic strategy for glioma. In the present study, we found that exogenous cell-permeable short-chain C2 ceramide inhibits phorbol myristate acetate (PMA)-induced MMP-1, -3, and -...

BACKGROUND CYP2E1, the coding gene for the ethanol inducible cytochrome P4502E1, is polymorphic at the RsaI restriction site in the 5' flanking region. The mutant allele c2 has a higher transcriptional activity than the wild-type gene c1. P4502E1 catalyses the activation of several environmental carcinogens at a rate that is increased, if only moderately, by longterm ethanol intake. AIMS To e...

We have investigated the relationship between viral DNA replication and virion sense gene expression in wheat dwarf virus (WDV), a member of the geminivirus group, by testing a series of deletion mutants in transfected Triticum monococcum (einkorn) protoplasts. Mutants contained a transcription fusion of the chloramphenicol acetyltransferase coding sequence to the virion sense promoter that rep...

The range of electrical properties that a neuron or muscle cell can manifest is determined by which ion channel genes it expresses and in what amounts. The Drosophila slowpoke Ca(2+)-activated K+ channel gene has four distinct promoters. Here we assess the role that a downstream intronic region, called the C2/C3 region, plays in modulating Promoter C1 and Promoter C2 activity. Promoter C1 and P...