Low oxygen signalling in plants is important in development and stress responses. Measurement of oxygen levels in plant cells and tissues is hampered by a lack of chemical tools with which to reliab...

Thousands of short open reading frames (sORFs) are translated outside of annotated coding sequences. Recent studies have pioneered searching for sORF-encoded microproteins in mass spectrometry (MS)-ba...

Sun 30 Mar, 5:00 PM - Fri 4 Apr, 9:00 AM [EDT]: The Chloroplast Biotechnology GRC is a premier, international scientific conference focused on advancing the frontiers of science through the…

Target protein degradation (TPD) is a promising strategy for catalytic downregulation of target proteins through various cellular proteolytic pathways. Despite numerous reports on novel TPD mechanisms, the discovery of target-specific ligands remains a major challenge. Unlike small-molecule ligands, aptamers offer significant advantages, owing to their SELEX-based systematic screening method. To fully utilize aptamers for TPD, we designed an aptamer and N-degron ensemble system (AptaGron) that circumvents the need for synthetic conjugations between aptamers and proteolysis-recruiting units. In our AptaGron system, a peptide nucleic acid containing an N-degron peptide and a sequence complementary to the aptamer was designed. Using this system, we successfully degraded three target proteins, tau, nucleolin, and eukaryotic initiation factor 4E (eIF4E), which lack specific small-molecule ligands. Our results highlight the potential of the AptaGron approach as a robust platform for targeted protein degradation.

PPIs: The messengers between organelles in plant cells.

One of the most momentous events in the history of life involved endosymbiosis

Efforts to improve photosynthetic performance are increasingly employing natural genetic variation. However, genetic variation in the organellar ge...