BACKGROUND CCCH-type zinc finger proteins comprise a large protein family. Increasing evidence suggests that members of this family are RNA-binding proteins with regulatory functions in mRNA processing. Compared with those in animals, functions of CCCH-type zinc finger proteins involved in plant growth and development are poorly understood. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS Here, we performed a ...

Chelatable, mobile forms of divalent zinc, Zn(II), play essential signaling roles in mammalian biology. A complex network of zinc import and transport proteins has evolved to control zinc concentration and distribution on a subcellular level. Understanding the action of mobile zinc requires tools that can detect changes in Zn(II) concentrations at discrete cellular locales. We present here a zi...

Background & aims The micronutrient zinc is essential for proper immune function. Consequently, deficiency leads to impaired function, as seen in decreased secretion of interleukin (IL)-2 by T cells. Although this association has been known since the late 1980s, underlying molecular mechanisms are still unknown. Zinc and reduced IL-2 levels especially found elderly, which turn prone chronic dis...

Zinc is essential for all bacteria, but excess amounts of the metal can have toxic effects. To address this, bacteria have developed tightly regulated zinc uptake systems, such as the ZnuABC zinc transporter which is regulated by the Fur-like zinc uptake regulator (Zur). In Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a Zur protein has yet to be identified experimentally, however, sequence alignment revealed that t...

Dnmt1 is frequently overexpressed in cancers, which contributes significantly to cancer-associated epigenetic silencing of tumor suppressor genes. However, the mechanism of Dnmt1 overexpression remains elusive. Herein, we elucidate a pathway through which nuclear receptor SHP inhibits zinc-dependent induction of Dnmt1 by antagonizing metal-responsive transcription factor-1 (MTF-1). Zinc treatme...

Fep1, the iron-responsive GATA factor from the methylotrophic yeast Pichia pastoris, has been characterised both in vivo and in vitro. This protein has two Cys2-Cys2 type zinc fingers and a set of four conserved cysteines arranged in a Cys-X5-Cys-X8-Cys-X2-Cys motif located between the two zinc fingers. Electronic absorption and resonance Raman spectroscopic analyses in anaerobic and aerobic co...

Diacylglycerol pyrophosphate (DGPP) phosphatase in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae is a Mg(2+)-independent and N-ethylmaleimide-insensitive 34-kDa vacuolar membrane-associated enzyme. It catalyzes the dephosphorylation of DGPP to form phosphatidate (PA) and then removes the phosphate from PA to form diacylglycerol (DAG). The enzyme is a member of the lipid phosphate phosphatase superfamily t...

SUMMARY The conserved bacterial protein RloC, a distant homologue of the tRNA(Lys) anticodon nuclease (ACNase) PrrC, is shown here to act as a wobble nucleotide-excising and Zn(++)-responsive tRNase. The more familiar PrrC is silenced by a genetically linked type I DNA restriction-modification (R-M) enzyme, activated by a phage anti-DNA restriction factor and counteracted by phage tRNA repair e...

In various bacteria, Zur, a zinc-specific regulator of the Fur family, regulates genes for zinc transport systems to maintain zinc homeostasis. It has also been suggested that Zur controls zinc mobilization by regulating some ribosomal proteins. The antibiotic-producing soil bacterium Streptomyces coelicolor contains four genes for Fur family regulators, and one (named zur) is located downstrea...

The Zap1 transcription factor of Saccharomyces cerevisiae plays a central role in zinc homeostasis by controlling the expression of genes involved in zinc metabolism. Zap1 is active in zinc-limited cells and repressed in replete cells. At the transcriptional level, Zap1 controls its own expression via positive autoregulation. In addition, Zap1's two activation domains are regulated independentl...