1,720,989 research outputs found
Acyl chain-based molecular selectivity for HL60 cellular phosphatidylinositol and of phosphatidylcholine by phosphatidylinositol transfer protein ?
No full textMammalian phosphatidylinositol transfer protein ? (PITP) is an intracellular lipid transporter with a binding site that can accommodate a single molecule of phosphatidylinositol (PI) or phosphatidylcholine (PC). Phospholipids are a heterogeneous population of molecular species that can be distinguished by their characteristic headgroups as well as their acyl chains at the sn-1 and sn-2 position. In this study, we have defined the acyl chain preference for PITP? when presented with a total population of cellular lipids. Recombinant PITP? loaded with bacterial lipid, phosphatidylglycerol (PG), was incubated with permeabilised HL60 cells, followed by recovery of PITP? by affinity chromatography. Lipids extracted from the PITP? were analysed by tandem electrospray ionisation mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) and showed total exchange of acquired bacterial lipids for HL60 cellular PI and PC. Detailed comparison of the molecular species composition of bound phospholipids with those in whole cells permitted the assessment of selectivity of acyl chain binding. For both phospholipid classes, progressive fractional enrichments in bound species possessing shorter acyl chains were apparent with a preference order: 16:1>16:0>18:1>18:0>20:4. A recapitulation of this specificity order was also seen from a dramatically altered range of molecular species present in HL60 cells enriched with arachidonate over many weeks of culture. We speculate that short-chain, saturate-binding preferences under both conditions may reflect properties in vivo. This is consistent with target cell membranes actively remodelling newly delivered phospholipids after transport rather than relying on the transport of the specific molecular species conventionally found in mammalian membranes
Phosphatidylinositol transfer protein, cytoplasmic 1 (PITPNC1) binds and transfers Phosphatidic Acid
No full textPhosphatidylinositol transfer proteins (PITPs) are versatile proteins required for signal transduction and membrane traffic. The best characterised mammalian PITPs are the Class I PITPs, PITP? (PITPNA) and PITP? (PITPNB) which are single domain proteins with a hydrophobic cavity binding a phosphatidylinositol (PI) or phosphatidylcholine (PC) molecule. In this study we report the lipid binding properties of an uncharacterised soluble PITP, phosphatidylinositol transfer protein, cytoplasmic 1 (PITPNC1) (alternative name, RdgB?) of the Class II family. We show that the lipid binding properties of this protein are distinct to Class I PITPs since, beside PI, RdgB? binds and transfers phosphatidic acid (PA) but hardly PC. RdgB? when purified from E.coli is pre-loaded with PA and phosphatidylglycerol (PG) and when incubated with permeabilised HL60 cells, PG is released and PA and PI is now incorporated into RdgB?. Increasing PA levels following activation of endogenous phospholipase D or after addition of bacterial phospholipase D, binding of PA to RdgB? is increased at the expense of PI binding. We propose that RdgB?, when containing PA, regulates an effector protein or can facilitate lipid transfer between membrane compartments
The expanding roles of PI4P and PI(4,5)P2 at the plasma membrane: Role of phosphatidylinositol transfer proteins
Full text linkPhosphoinositides are phosphorylated derivatives of phosphatidylinositol, a phospholipid that is synthesised at the endoplasmic reticulum. The plasma membrane contains the enzymes to phosphorylate phosphatidylinositol and is therefore rich in the phosphorylated derivatives, PI4P and PI(4,5)P2. PI(4,5)P2 is a substrate for phospholipase C and during cell signaling, PI(4,5)P2 levels are reduced. Here I discuss a family of proteins, phosphatidylinositol transfer proteins (PITPs) that can restore PI(4,5)P2 levels
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Phosphatidylinositol transfer proteins: requirements in phospholipase C signaling and in regulated exocytosis
No full textAbstractPhosphatidylinositol transfer proteins (PITP) are abundant cytosolic proteins originally identified because of their ability to act in vitro as specific transporters of phosphatidylinositol or phosphatidylcholine between membranes. However, the cellular function of mammalian PITP has remained enigmatic till recently. Due to the development of reconstitution assays in cytosol-depleted cells, PITP was found to be an essential component for phospholipase C-mediated hydrolysis of PIP2 and for regulated exocytosis. The exact mechanism how PITP exerts its effects is not known but the PI binding/transfer activity of PITP can partly explain its cellular function. PITP would enable the local synthesis of PIP2 by delivering PI to specialized signaling sites
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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