Project description:It has been recently shown that N-ras plays a preferential role in immune cell development and function; specifically: N-ras, but not H-ras or K-ras, could be activated at and signal from the Golgi membrane of immune cells following a low level TCR stimulus. The goal of our studies was to test the hypothesis that N-ras and H-ras played distinct roles in immune cells at the level of the transcriptome. First, we showed via mRNA expression profiling that there were over four hundred genes that were uniquely differentially regulated either by N-ras or H-ras, which provided strong evidence in favor of the hypothesis that N-ras and H-ras have distinct functions in immune cells. We next characterized the genes that were differentially regulated by N-ras in T cells following a low-level TCR stimulus. Of the large pool of candidate genes that were differentially regulated by N-ras downstream of TCR ligation, four genes were verified in qRT-PCR-based validation experiments as being differentially regulated by N-ras (Dntt, Slc9a6, Chst1, and Lars2). Finally, although there was little overlap between individual genes that were regulated by N-ras in unstimulated thymocytes and stimulated CD4+ T-cells, there was a nearly complete correspondence between the signaling pathways that were regulated by N-ras in these two immune cell types. Since we were interested primarily in genes that were differentially regulated by N-ras following a low-level TCR stimulus, our microarray data comparison was between data from TCR-stimulated, WT CD4+ T-cells and from TCR-stimulated, N-ras KO CD4+ T-cells. Genes that were differentially regulated in the comparison between stimulated N-ras KO CD4+ T-cells and unstimulated N-ras KO CD4+ T-cells, as well as those genes that were differentially regulated in the comparison between stimulated WT CD4+ T-cells and unstimulated WT CD4+ T-cells were excluded from this analysis. To determine if N-ras and H-ras regulate different sets of genes in thymocytes, a comparison was made between the set of genes that were differentially regulated by N-ras in the [WT] vs. [N-ras KO] comparison and the set of genes that were differentially regulated by H-ras in the [WT] vs. [H-ras KO] comparison.

Project description:It has been recently shown that N-ras plays a preferential role in immune cell development and function; specifically: N-ras, but not H-ras or K-ras, could be activated at and signal from the Golgi membrane of immune cells following a low level TCR stimulus. The goal of our studies was to test the hypothesis that N-ras and H-ras played distinct roles in immune cells at the level of the transcriptome. First, we showed via mRNA expression profiling that there were over four hundred genes that were uniquely differentially regulated either by N-ras or H-ras, which provided strong evidence in favor of the hypothesis that N-ras and H-ras have distinct functions in immune cells. We next characterized the genes that were differentially regulated by N-ras in T cells following a low-level TCR stimulus. Of the large pool of candidate genes that were differentially regulated by N-ras downstream of TCR ligation, four genes were verified in qRT-PCR-based validation experiments as being differentially regulated by N-ras (Dntt, Slc9a6, Chst1, and Lars2). Finally, although there was little overlap between individual genes that were regulated by N-ras in unstimulated thymocytes and stimulated CD4+ T-cells, there was a nearly complete correspondence between the signaling pathways that were regulated by N-ras in these two immune cell types. Since we were interested primarily in genes that were differentially regulated by N-ras following a low-level TCR stimulus, our microarray data comparison was between data from TCR-stimulated, WT CD4+ T-cells and from TCR-stimulated, N-ras KO CD4+ T-cells. Genes that were differentially regulated in the comparison between stimulated N-ras KO CD4+ T-cells and unstimulated N-ras KO CD4+ T-cells, as well as those genes that were differentially regulated in the comparison between stimulated WT CD4+ T-cells and unstimulated WT CD4+ T-cells were excluded from this analysis. To determine if N-ras and H-ras regulate different sets of genes in thymocytes, a comparison was made between the set of genes that were differentially regulated by N-ras in the [WT] vs. [N-ras KO] comparison and the set of genes that were differentially regulated by H-ras in the [WT] vs. [H-ras KO] comparison. RNA was extracted from CD4+ T cell splenocytes isolated from 6-20 week old N-Ras KO and WT mice following growth in T cell growth media either with or without 1 microgram/milliliter ant-CD3 and anti-CD28 antibodies. RNA was extracted from thymocytes isolated directly from 6-20 week old N-Ras KO, H-Ras KO and WT mice.

Project description:Besozzi2012 - Oscillatory regimes in the Ras/cAMP/PKA pathway in S.cerevisiae Mechanistic model of the Ras/cAMP/PKA in yeast S.cerevisiae. The Ras/cAMP/PKA pathway plays a major role in the regulation of metabolism, stress resistance and cell cycle progress and is tightly regulated by multiple feedback loops, exerted by the protein kinase A (PKA). This model investigates the dynamics of the second messenger cAMP on Ras/cAMP/PKA pathway, to determine the effects of the feedback mechanisms on establising stable oscillatory regimes. The model has been defined according to the stochastic formulation of chemical kinetics [Gillespie DT, 1977] , which requires to specify the set of molecular species occurring in the pathway and their respective interactions, formally described as a set of biochemical reactions. The volume considered for this system is 30fL; this value can be used to convert the model into the deterministic formulation. This model is described in the article: The role of feedback control mechanisms on the establishment of oscillatory regimes in the Ras/cAMP/PKA pathway in S. cerevisiae. Besozzi D, Cazzaniga P, Pescini D, Mauri G, Colombo S, Martegani E. EURASIP J Bioinform Syst Biol. 2012 Jul 20;2012(1):10. Abstract: In the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the Ras/cAMP/PKA pathway is involved in the regulation of cell growth and proliferation in response to nutritional sensing and stress conditions. The pathway is tightly regulated by multiple feedback loops, exerted by the protein kinase A (PKA) on a few pivotal components of the pathway. In this article, we investigate the dynamics of the second messenger cAMP by performing stochastic simulations and parameter sweep analysis of a mechanistic model of the Ras/cAMP/PKA pathway, to determine the effects that the modulation of these feedback mechanisms has on the establishment of stable oscillatory regimes. In particular, we start by studying the role of phosphodiesterases, the enzymes that catalyze the degradation of cAMP, which represent the major negative feedback in this pathway. Then, we show the results on cAMP oscillations when perturbing the amount of protein Cdc25 coupled with the alteration of the intracellular ratio of the guanine nucleotides (GTP/GDP), which are known to regulate the switch of the GTPase Ras protein. This multi-level regulation of the amplitude and frequency of oscillations in the Ras/cAMP/PKA pathway might act as a fine tuning mechanism for the downstream targets of PKA, as also recently evidenced by some experimental investigations on the nucleocytoplasmic shuttling of the transcription factor Msn2 in yeast cells. This model is hosted on BioModels Database and identified by: BIOMD0000000478 . To cite BioModels Database, please use: BioModels Database: An enhanced, curated and annotated resource for published quantitative kinetic models . To the extent possible under law, all copyright and related or neighbouring rights to this encoded model have been dedicated to the public domain worldwide. Please refer to CC0 Public Domain Dedication for more information.

Project description:The cAMP-pathway plays a central role in regulation of growth, differentiation, and virulence of human pathogenic fungi, including Cryptococcus neoformans. Three major upstream signaling regulators of the adenylyl cyclase (Cac1), Ras, Aca1 (Adenylyl cyclase-associated protein 1) and G-alpha subunit protein (Gpa1), have been identified to control the cAMP-pathway in C. neoformans, but their functional relationship remains elusive. Here we performed genome-wide transcriptome analysis with C. neoformans ras1, gpa1, cac1, aca1, and pka1 pka2 mutants by DNA microarray. The aca1, gpa1, cac1, and pka1 pka2 mutants displayed similar transcriptome patterns to each other whereas the ras1 mutant exhibited distinctive transcriptome patterns compared to WT and the cAMP mutants. Interestingly, a number of environmental stress response genes are differentially modulated in the ras1 and cAMP mutants. In fact, the Ras1-signaling pathway was found to be involved in osmotic and genotoxic stress response, and maintenance of cell wall integrity via the Cdc24-dependent signaling pathway. Through this microarray analysis, we have identified a number of cAMP-dependent genes, including GRE2, HSP12, ENA1, TCO2, PKP2, CAT1, in C. neoformans. Notably, a majority of ergosterol biosynthesis genes were found to be upregulated in the cAMP mutants. Interestingly, the gpa1, cac1, and pka1 mutants, but not the aca1 and pka2 mutants were hypersensitive to amphotericin B, but resistant to fluconazole. In conclusion, we demonstrated in this study that the Ras1- and cAMP-signaling pathways are involved in stress response and sterol biosynthesis of C. neoformans. There are more than 95% of genome homology between JEC21 and H99. Therefore 100 slides of JEC21 (cryptococcus neoformans var. neoformans serotype D) 70-mer oligo are used in this analysis, 3 biological replicate experiments are performed, total RNAs are extracted with 6 strains from H99 (H99 Wild type strain (Cryptococcus neoformans var. grubii serotype A), ras1Î, aca1Î, gpa1Î, cac1Î, pka1Îpka2Î), We use the mixed all of total RNAs from this experiment as a control RNA. We use Cy5 as Sample dye and Cy3 as a control dye. several sample are dye swaped.

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Ras/cAMP signal transduction, perturbations

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