A plethora of post-transcriptional mechanisms are involved in essential steps in the pathway of genetic information expression in eukaryotes. These processes are specified by cis-acting signals on RNAs and are mediated by specific trans-acting factors, including RNA-binding proteins and small complementary RNAs. Recent information has begun to define the molecular mechanisms by which RNA-bindin...

By discovering how chemical compounds/xenobiotics cytotoxicity is affected when their metabolic pathways are inhibited or activated, the metabolic pathways that activate versus detoxify chemical compound can be identified. Reactive metabolites contributing to cytotoxicity can also be identified. In this lecture, the pretreatment of inhibitors and activators of xenobiotic metabolizing enzymes as...

The rate-limiting enzyme of anaerobic benzoate degradation by Rhodopseudomonas palustris, benzoyl coenzyme A (CoA) reductase, is highly sensitive to oxygen, and its synthesis is tightly regulated. We determined that a previously unknown gene in the benzoate gene cluster, badM, encodes a transcriptional repressor of benzoyl-CoA reductase gene expression. BadM controls gene expression from the be...

The ZRS enhancer, a regulatory sequence found in numerous organisms, plays an important role early embryonic limb development. controls the expression of Sonic Hedgehog gene (Shh), and therefore development organism as Shh has been shown to control width bud by stimulating mesenchyme cell proliferation due its ability regulate anterior-posterior length apical ectodermal ridge. Several transcrip...

Ubiquitin, the peptide 'tag' that targets eukaryotic proteins for degradation by the proteasome, has also been implicated in transcriptional activation. The mechanism of gene activation might include recruitment of a transcriptional elongation factor by ubiquitinated activators.

Recent studies on gene regulation in Saccharomyces cerevisiae support the view that eukaryotic activators stimulate transcription by recruiting an RNA polymerase II holoenzyme to the promoter in a single step.

Wnt signaling maintains the undifferentiated state of intestinal crypt progenitor cells by inducing the formation of nuclear TCF4/β-catenin complexes. In colorectal cancer, activating mutations in Wnt pathway components cause inappropriate activation of TCF4/β-catenin-driven transcription. Despite the passage of a decade after the discovery of TCF4 and β-catenin as the molecular effectors of th...

Gene expression is controlled by interactions between activators and coactivators. These interactions in turn are regulated by signaling pathways and by chromatin remodeling events. Recent studies indicate that the final arbiter of gene regulation is a coactivator scaffold at the promoter.

Interferons play key roles in mediating antiviral and antigrowth responses and in modulating immune response. The main signaling pathways are rapid and direct. They involve tyrosine phosphorylation and activation of signal transducers and activators of transcription factors by Janus tyrosine kinases at the cell membrane, followed by release of signal transducers and activators of transcription ...