The floral transition of Cardamine flexuosa, a herbaceous biennial-to-perennial plant, requires exposure to cold temperature, a treatment known as vernalization. C. buy Batimastat flexuosa younger than 5 weeks old are not fully responsive to cold treatment.

We demonstrate that the levels of two age-regulated microRNAs, miR156 and miR172, regulate the timing of sensitivity in response to vernalization. Age and vernalization pathways coordinately regulate flowering through modulating the expression of CfSOC1, a flower-promoting MADS-box gene. The related annual Arabidopsis thaliana, which has both vernalization and age pathways, does not possess an age-dependent vernalization response. Thus, the recruitment of age cue in response to environmental signals contributes to the evolution of life cycle in plants.”
“The mTOR complex 1 (mTORC1) pathway promotes cell growth in response to many cues, including amino acids, which act through the Rag guanosine triphosphatases (GTPases) to promote mTORC1 translocation to the lysosomal surface, its site of activation. Although progress has been made in identifying positive regulators of the Rags, it is unknown if negative factors also exist. Here, we identify GATOR as a complex that interacts with

the Rags and is composed of two subcomplexes we call GATOR1 and -2. Inhibition of GATOR1 subunits beta-catenin inhibitor (DEPDC5, Nprl2, and Nprl3) makes mTORC1 signaling resistant to amino acid deprivation. In contrast, inhibition of GATOR2 subunits (Mios, WDR24,

WDR59, Seh1L, and Sec13) suppresses mTORC1 signaling, and epistasis analysis shows that GATOR2 negatively regulates DEPDC5. GATOR1 has GTPase-activating protein (GAP) activity for RagA and RagB, and its components are mutated in human cancer. In cancer cells with inactivating mutations in GATOR1, mTORC1 is hyperactive and insensitive to amino acid starvation, and such cells are hypersensitive LDC000067 concentration to rapamycin, an mTORC1 inhibitor. Thus, we identify a key negative regulator of the Rag GTPases and reveal that, like other mTORC1 regulators, Rag function can be deregulated in cancer.”
“alpha-Tocopherol (vitamin E) transfer protein (alpha-7P) regulates the secretion of a-tocopherol from liver cells. Missense mutations of some arginine residues at the surface of alpha-TIP cause severe vitamin E deficiency in humans, but the role of these residues is unclear. Here, we found that wild-type a-UP bound phosphatidylinositol phosphates (PIPs), whereas the arginine mutants did not. In addition, PIPs in the target membrane promoted the intermembrane transfer of alpha-tocopherot by alpha-UP. The crystal structure of the alpha-UP PIPs complex revealed that the disease-related arginine residues interacted with phosphate groups of the PIPs and that the PIPs binding caused the lid of the alpha-tocopherol binding pocket to open. Thus, PIPs have a rote in promoting the release of a ligand from a lipid-transfer protein.