RhoB mRNA expression was examined in the developing mouse embryo between E8.5 and E11.5. Specific expression was found in migrating neural crest (NC) cells, from the first stages of their migration at E9.5, throughout the migration period. Expression is maintained in NC derivatives for at least one embryonic day after they reach their final destinations, but is then down-regulated. RhoB is also...

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are 21-22 nucleotide regulatory small RNAs that repress message translation via base-pairing with complementary sequences in the 3' untranslated region (3'UTR) of targeted transcripts. To date, it is still difficult to find a true miRNA target due to lack of a clear understanding of how miRNAs functionally interact with their targeted transcripts for efficient repression. Pre...

Src activation is a tightly regulated process which requires RhoB endosome-associated actin assembly and transit to the cell periphery. We show here that although two other ubiquitous Src family kinases (SFKs) Yes and Fyn also require intact actin filaments for peripheral membrane targeting, they display distinct spatial activation and endosomal requirements. Unlike Src, both Yes and Fyn are co...

Thyroid hormone receptor (TR) mediates the crucial effects of the thyroid hormone (T3) on cellular growth, development, and differentiation. Decreased expression or inactivating somatic mutations of TRs have been found in human cancers of the liver, breast, lung, and thyroid. The mechanisms of TR-associated carcinogenesis are still not clear. To establish the function of TRβ in thyroid cancer c...

Despite their importance in activated processes, transition-event durations--which are much shorter than first passage times--have not received a complete theoretical treatment. The authors therefore study the distribution rhob(t) of durations of transition events over a barrier in a one-dimensional system undergoing overdamped Langevin dynamics. The authors show that rhob(t) is determined by a...

Adenovirus type 5 (Ad5) is a non-enveloped DNA virus frequently used as a gene transfer vector. Efficient Ad5 cell entry depends on the availability of its primary receptor, coxsackie and adenovirus receptor, which is responsible for attachment, and integrins, secondary receptors responsible for adenovirus internalization via clathrin-mediated endocytosis. However, efficacious adenovirus-mediat...

INTRODUCTION Conflicting findings on the association of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in RHOB and TXNDC3 with susceptibility to knee osteoarthritis (OA) have been reported in European Caucasians. To examine the associations of these SNPs with OA in East Asian populations and to evaluate their global significance, we conducted two case-control studies in 955 Chinese and 750 Japanese pat...

Inflammatory breast carcinoma (IBC) is a highly aggressive form of locally advanced breast cancer that has the ability to invade and block the dermal lymphatics of the skin overlying the breast. In a previous series of studies, our laboratory identified overexpression of RhoC GTPase in >90% of IBCs (K. L. van Golen et al., Clin. Cancer Res., 5: 2511-2519, 1999) and defined RhoC as a mammary onc...

A novel regulatory protein for the rho proteins (rhoA p2 1 and rhoB p20), belonging to a ras p2 llras p21like small molecular weight (M,) GTP-binding protein (G protein) superfamily, was purified to near homogeneity from bovine brain cytosol and characterized. This regulatory protein, designated here as GDP dissociation inhibitor (GDI) for the rho proteins (rho GDI), inhibited the dissociation ...

Farnesyl transferase inhibitors (FTIs) have displayed limited efficacy in clinical trials, possibly because of their relatively limited cytotoxic effects against most human cancer cells. Therefore, efforts to leverage the clinical utility of FTIs may benefit from learning how these agents elicit p53-independent apoptosis in mouse models of cancer. Knockout mouse studies have established that ga...