We have described previously a novel Ca2+-induced Ca2+-release (CICR) mechanism in permeabilized A7r5 cells (embryonic rat aorta) and 16HBE14o-cells (human bronchial mucosa) cells (J Biol Chem 278:27548-27555, 2003). This CICR mechanism was activated upon the elevation of the free cytosolic calcium concentration [Ca2+]c and was not inhibited by pharmacological inhibitors of the inositol-1,4,5-t...

Calmodulin (CaM) is most recognized for its role in activating Ca(2+)-CaM-dependent enzymes following increased intracellular Ca(2+). However, CaM's high intracellular concentration indicates CaM has the potential to play a significant role as a Ca(2+) buffer. Neurogranin (Ng) is a small neuronal IQ-motif-containing protein that accelerates Ca(2+) dissociation from CaM. In cells that contain hi...

Internet Protocol (IP) characterization is the process of classifying IP packets into categories, mainly depending on information in the header. This report describes the implementation of an FPGA-based dynamically reconfigurable Content Addressable Memory (CAM) for IP version 6 (IPv6) characterization. This CAM is characterized by a large width of the search word, a relatively small number of ...

Ca(2+)-sensitive kinases are thought to play a role in long-term potentiation (LTP). To test the involvement of Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent kinase II (CaM-K II), truncated, constitutively active form of this kinase was directly injected into CA1 hippocampal pyramidal cells. Inclusion of CaM-K II in the recording pipette resulted in a gradual increase in the size of excitatory postsynaptic current...

At the optic chiasm, retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) project ipsi- or contralaterally to establish the circuitry for binocular vision. Ipsilateral guidance programs have been characterized, but contralateral guidance programs are not well understood. Here, we identify a tripartite molecular system for contralateral RGC projections: Semaphorin6D (Sema6D) and Nr-CAM are expressed on midline radial ...

Death-associated protein kinase is a calcium/calmodulin serine/threonine kinase, which positively mediates programmed cell death in a variety of systems. Here we addressed its mode of regulation and identified a mechanism that restrains its apoptotic function in growing cells and enables its activation during cell death. It involves autophosphorylation of Ser(308) within the calmodulin (CaM)-re...

Ca2+/CaM-dependent protein kinase II (CaM-KII) can phosphorylate and potentiate responses of alpha-amino3-hydroxyl-5-methyl-4-isoxazole-propionate-type glutamate receptors in a number of systems, and recent studies implicate this mechanism in long term potentiation, a cellular model of learning and memory. In this study we have identified this CaM-KII regulatory site using deletion and site-spe...

Calmodulin N-methyltransferase (CaM KMT) is an evolutionarily conserved enzyme in eukaryotes that transfers three methyl groups to a highly conserved lysyl residue at position 115 in calmodulin (CaM). We sought to elucidate whether the methylation status of CaM plays a role in CaM-mediated signaling pathways by gene expression analyses of CaM KMT and phenotypic characterization of Arabidopsis t...