Protein Trafficking in Health and Disease,may11,mdbfL055,13:40 P.M
Protein Trafficking in Health and Disease
TULIN YANIK, PH.D.
Section on Cellular Neurobiology
National Institute of Child Health
& Human Development (NICHD)
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
The cell is the basic building block of all living things.
Understanding how cells work will help determine the molecular basis of
various diseases. Cells produce proteins that must be delivered to
their proper location to perform their specific functions. Determining
how proteins are transported to their proper destination within cells
could lead to the understanding of disease states and development of
their treatments. The talk will discuss molecular events underlying
trafficking of proteins to their final destination in plant, mammalian,
and human cells.
First, protein trafficking in plant cells will be discussed focusing on
peroxisomal protein import, which could provide mechanistic insights
into the functioning of similar machinery in mammalian cells. Then,
this will be followed by a description of processing, intracellular
trafficking, and secretion of neuropeptides and peptide hormones in
mammalian endocrine cells. Examples of how missorting and poor
processing of peptide hormones lead to severe diseases in animals and
humans such as diabetes and obesity will be given. Finally, talk will
focus on the processing and trafficking of Cocaine and Amphetamine
Regulated Transcript (CART) peptide in obese humans. Experimental data
in cells demonstrate that a missense mutation in the CART gene, found
in an Italian family leads to missorting; hence, poor processing of
proCART to bioactive CART will be presented. This contributes with our
findings that humans bearing the mutation have diminished level of
circulating CART, linking for the first time the absence of CART as a
cause of obesity in humans.
may11.2005 ,wednesday, mdbf L055,13: 40 P.M