2021-04-23

Persistent directional growth capability in Arabidopsis thaliana pollen tubes after nuclear elimination from the apex

Here, we report the generation of pollen tubes in Arabidopsis thaliana whose vegetative nucleus and sperm cells are isolated and sealed by callose plugs in the basal region due to apical transport defects induced by mutations in the WPP domain-interacting tail-anchored proteins (WITs) and sperm cell-specific expression of a dominant mutant of the CALLOSE SYNTHASE 3 protein.
2021-04-19

Moving toward generalizable NZ-1 labeling for 3D structure determination with optimized epitope-tag insertion

Antibody labeling has been conducted extensively for structure determination using both X-ray crystallography and electron microscopy (EM). However, establishing target-specific antibodies is a prerequisite for applying antibody-assisted structural analysis. To expand the applicability of this strategy, an alternative method has been developed to prepare an antibody complex by inserting an exogenous epitope into the target.
2021-04-16

Medical Education Amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic (International Online Exchange with NUS)

On January 29th 2021, the School of Medicine successfully conducted the International Online Exchange event “Medical Education Amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic” with the National University of Singapore (NUS). This is the second trial of this activity at the School of Medicine being solely online since the onset of the COVID-19 Pandemic.
2021-04-09

ATP6V0A1 encoding the a1-subunit of the V0 domain of vacuolar H+-ATPases is essential for brain development in humans and mice

Vacuolar H+-ATPases (V-ATPases) transport protons across cellular membranes to acidify various organelles. ATP6V0A1 encodes the a1-subunit of the V0 domain of V-ATPases, which is strongly expressed in neurons. However, its role in brain development is unknown. Here we report four individuals with developmental and epileptic encephalopathy with ATP6V0A1 variants: two individuals with a de novo missense variant (R741Q) and the other two individuals with biallelic variants comprising one almost complete loss-of-function variant and one missense variant (A512P and N534D). Lysosomal acidification is significantly impaired in cell lines expressing three missense ATP6V0A1 mutants.