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Since their discovery in the late 1980s, SNARE proteins have been recognized as key components of protein complexes that drive intracellular membrane fusion. Despite considerable sequence divergence, their mechanism seems to be conserved and is adaptable for diverse fusion reactions.
The anaphase promoting complex/cyclosome (APC/C) is the largest known complex that catalyses ubiquitylation reactions and has key functions in the eukaryotic cell cycle. Recent studies have shed light on how APC/C activity is controlled and how it recognizes a multitude of substrates.
The recent mapping of histone modifications across theSaccharomyces cerevisiaegenome has allowed the analysis of how combinations of modified and unmodified chromatin states relate to each other and particularly to chromosomal landmarks, such as heterochromatin, centromeres, promoters and coding regions.
TheINK4b–ARF–INK4a locus encodes three proteins that are implicated in senescence and tumour suppression. Individual genes are controlled by positive and negative regulators in different contexts, and the entire locus might be suppressed by a cis-acting regulatory domain or by Polycomb-group repressors.
The Notch pathway functions during diverse developmental and physiological processes. Our current understanding of the mechanisms that function on the core Notch pathway shows that we are still just beginning to understand the full complexities of Notch regulation.
Fluorescence microscopy is a powerful tool to assay biological processes in intact living cells. Now, fluorescence microscopy is becoming a quantitative and high-throughput technology that can be applied to functional genomics experiments and can provide data for systems-biology approaches.
What is the driving force behind periodic biological oscillations such as the circadian, hibernation and sleep–wake cycles? Temporal compartmentalization of metabolism has been shown in budding yeast, and might form the underlying basis for many of the rhythmic phenomena in biology.
