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Tonghai Dou

Publications and source records attributed to Tonghai Dou.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

Co-evolutionary analysis of insulin/insulin like growth factor 1 signal pathway in vertebrate species.

Insulin/insulin like growth factor 1 signaling pathway plays an essential role on the regulation of variant, interrelated and fundamental processes, such as metabolism, growth, reproduction and aging. This pathway is highly conserved during evolution. We analyzed eight vertebrate species' insulin/insulin like growth factor 1 pathway and examined the co-evolutionary relationship between different protein components by quantifying similarity of phylogenetic trees. The collected species include Takifugu rubripes, Danio rerio, Xenopus laevis, Gallus gallus, Mus musculus, Rattous norvegicus, Pan troglodytes and Homo sapiens. Results show that interacting proteins in this pathway share highly co-evolutionary relationship while contrarily the proteins without interaction have low co-evolutionary relationship. We also predict some receptor and ligand partners enjoy highly binding potential in corresponding species' pathway.

Animals↗

Isolation and characterization of ubiquitin-activating enzyme E1-domain containing 1, UBE1DC1.

Ubiquitin and other ubiquitin-like proteins play important roles in post-translational modification. They are phylogenetically well-conserved in eukaryotes. Activated by other proteins, ubiquitin and ubiquitin-like proteins can covalently modify target proteins. The enzymes responsible for the activation of this modification have been known to include UBA1, SAE2, UBA3, SAE1 and ULA1. Here we report a new ubiquitin activating enzyme like cDNA, named ubiquitin activating enzyme E1-domain containing 1 (UBE1DC1), whose cDNA is 2654 base pairs in length and contains an open reading frame encoding 404 amino acids. The UBE1DC1 gene consists of 12 exons and is located at human chromosome 3q22. The result of RT-PCR showed that UBE1DC1 is expressed in most of human tissues.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

Cloning and characterization of a novel splice variant of human Rab18 gene (RAB18).

Rab GTPase proteins are a kind of small GTP-binding proteins, which functions mainly focus on regulating interacellular trafficking pathways during vesicular transport. To date, 60 distinct human RAB proteins have been identified. RAB18 gene is discovered from endothelial cells. Its function is considered as endosomes and plasma membrane recycling. Research indicates RAB18 may relate to inflammation and some kinds of tumor. Here we report a splice variant of RAB18, which is 2571 bp in length and has an open reading frame coding a predicted 235 amino-acids protein. RT-PCR shows that the cDNA has different expression pattern with RAB18 and is highly expressed in testis.

Alternative Splicing↗

Co-evolution analysis on endocrine research: a methodological approach.

The rapid growth of different kinds of biological information allows a good opportunity to analyze the co-evolutionary characteristics in endocrine regulatory pathways. Data ranging from kinds of species' genome, gene sequence, protein structure, and expression profile of different organisms can reveal the inner co-evolutionary relationship of ligands, receptors, and other related molecules. In return, these co-evolutionary characteristics can help us determine uncharacterized ligands and receptors, annotate gene functions, highlight amino acid residues with biochemical significance, and identify regulated genes in the endocrine process. Encouraging examples in this field, although at their starting stage, have emerged. Here we focus on recent progress in endocrine-related co-evolution research from a methodological approach.

Endocrine System↗

Molecular cloning and characterization of a novel human BTBD8 gene containing double BTB/POZ domains.

BTB/POZ domain is an evolutionarily conserved protein-protein interaction domain often found in developmentally regulated transcription factors. Previous studies have shown that many additional conserved motifs have been found in association with BTB/POZ domain, including kelch repeats, zinc finger domains, FYVE fingers and ankyrin repeats. Here we report a novel human gene containing double BTB/POZ domains, named BTBD8 in agreement with the HUGO Nomenclature Committee. The cDNA sequence contains an open reading frame of 918 bp encoding a putative protein of 305 amino acid residues with a predicted molecular mass of 34.6 kDa. Protein pattern analysis shows that it contains double BTB/POZ domains. Weak expression was detected in adult brain and prostate of the 16 adult tissues examined, while it had a more abundant expression pattern in human fetal brain. The expression pattern of BTBD8 shows it may have a function related to brain development.

Amino Acid Sequence↗