The Golgi apparatus plays a pivotal role in membrane traffic of eukaryotic cells. Cargo proteins synthesized in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) are transported to the cis-face of the Golgi, processed and glycosylated, and then delivered from the trans-face of the Golgi for their final destinations. Debates exist, though, on the mechanism how proteins are transported through the Golgi apparatus. Here, we review current understanding of protein transport through the Golgi apparatus, and describe our models based on the observation of their dynamics by the 3D live imaging microscopy we developed.
Protein phosphorylation plays a key role in numerous biological processes. Although several well-known phosphoproteins give us deep insights into the detailed properties of protein phosphorylation, comprehensive analyses are still required to understand general features of phosphorylation. Here we describe the structural and functional characteristics of phosphorylation events identified by our database analyses, specifically phosphorylation sites on protein complexes and disorder regions, and activation and inhibition of proteins by multisite phosphorylation.
Most proteins denature as pressure increases. However, some peptides such as AK16 peptide and C peptide have more α-helix structures at high pressure than at atmospheric pressure. We recently reproduced this pressure dependence by molecular dynamics simulations for the first time and revealed the reason why these peptides form more α-helix structures at high pressure. We explain the pressure denaturation of a usual protein and this abnormal pressure behavior of these peptides.
Recent advances in high throughput sequencing technologies unveiled that large number of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are transcribed from human genome. Currently, these emerging transcripts are needed to be functionally classified and annotated. Here we review several bioinformatic approaches for analyzing the important characteristics of the lncRNAs toward discovering their functions: 1) tissue specificities of lncRNA expressions, 2) two types of macromolecular interactions (RNA-RNA and RNA-protein interactions), 3) secondary structures of lncRNAs.