Molecular Physiology of the Cell

Novel study on the structural dynamics of an arginine transporter published

A novel collaborative study by Eva-Maria Krammer, Kassem Ghaddar, Bruno André and Martine Prévost was just published in PLoS One. The article entitled “Unveiling the Mechanism of Arginine Transport through AdiC with Molecular Dynamics Simulations: The Guiding Role of Aromatic Residues” reports the data obtained by molecular dynamics simulation methods unraveling the molecular details of arginine transport through the bacterial AdiC transporter. Have a look to the movie illustrating the molecular dynamics of the AdiC transporter. The conformational changes adopted by a transporter during transport catalysis are of high interest also in the context of yeast and human cells as they are thought to promote interactions with cytosolic factors involved in ubiquitylation and signaling.

“Lysosomes and Endocytosis” Gordon conference in Boston

Thanks to the support of the FNRS and the Brachet Foundation, Céline Barthélemy and Christos Gournas attended the “Lysosomes and Endocytosis” Gordon conference (June 12-17) which was held in Andover, near Boston (USA). This meeting is one of the most renownded about the molecular mechanisms and functions of endocytosis and the endosomal and lysosomal pathways. Céline presented a poster about the endocytosis of the human LAT1 amino acid transporter in HeLa cells, and Christos presented one about the role of arrestins and structural changes in ubiquitylation and endocytosis of the yeast arginine permease, Can1.

Yeasterday meeting at Leuven

Elie Saliba and Bruno André attended the one-day Yeasterday meeting (May 13), which was organized in Leuven by our colleagues J. Winderickx, K. Verstrepen, and P. Van Dijck. The Yeasterday meeting gathers the research groups of the Benelux working on yeast as a model system.

LMO meeting (Brussels)

Almost all lab members attended the “12th Levures, modèles et outils (LMO)” meeting organized in Brussels. Sir Paul Nurse (Nobel prize 2001) was among the speakers. Melody Cools and Céline Barthelemy, among several other young researchers, were invited to give oral presentations.

Spring Biopark News

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“Cystinosis Research Foundation” symposium

Melody Cools and Bruno André attended to the last scientific symposium organized by the “Cystinosis Research Foundation” (Irvine, USA, March 3-4). The meeting gathered all the research groups supported by the CRF and conducting fundamental or clinical research studies on cystinosis, a rare genetic disease caused by mutations in the CTNS gene. This gene encodes a transporter present at the lysosomal membrane and catalyzing export to the cytosol of cystine, the compound made of two cysteines linked by a disulfide bridge. The keynote speaker at the symposium was Dr. Hal Hoffman, a world renowned expert in the field of inflammation.

“Yeast Membrane Transport” book published

A novel review entitled “Function and Regulation of Fungal Amino Acid Transporters: Insights from Predicted Structure” by Gournas C, Kramer M-E, Prévost M & B André has just been published in a Springer book “Yeast Membrane Transport” edited by Ramos, Sychrova and Kschischo, and also appears in “Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology”.

Winter Biopark News

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Florent Corillon obtained a FRIA fellowship

Florent Corillon was informed by the FNRS that he obtained a fellowship from the FRIA. This is an excellent news to close 2015 ! Last year, Florent was hired by the University to work as a research assistant. He could also develop a research project on the role of yeast Gap1 permease in signaling. He’s now going to work full time on his project. Congratulations to him.

New study on traffic of lysosomal transporters in yeast and human cells published in Scientific Reports

A novel paper entitled “The AP-3 adaptor complex mediates sorting of yeast and mammalian PQ-loop-family basic amino acid transporters to the vacuolar/lysosomal membrane” has just been published in the journal Scientific Reports of the Nature publishing group. This article reports converging data obtained in yeast and human cancer cells showing that a similar mechanism based on the AP-3 adaptor complex promotes sorting of basic amino acid transporters (the similar yeast Ypq and human PQLC2 proteins) from the Golgi to the lysosome/vacuole. This work has been carried out by E. Llinares (FRIA PhD student) and A. Barry (FNRS postdoc) in the general context of the study of cystinosis, a genetic disease caused by mutations in the gene encoding cystinosin, the lysosomal exporter of cystine. It was supported by the Cystinosis Research Foundation.