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Phosphoinositides and their effectors in regulation of the Wnt signalling pathway
Knop, Filip ; Macůrková, Marie (advisor) ; Krausová, Michaela (referee)
Phosphoinositides (PIs) make up only a small proportion of overall amount of lipids in cell membranes. However, their function mediated through protein effectors is indispensable for cell signaling, vesicular trafficking, cell movement and other important aspects of cellular life. In this bachelor thesis function of PIs is described in relation to Wnt signaling pathway. Proper execution of several steps of the Wnt signaling pathway requires the presence of PIs. Retrograde transport of Wntless (Wls) from the plasma membrane (PM) back to the Golgi apparatus (GA) in Wnt producing cells or internalization of Wnt receptors in Wnt receiving cells are only two examples. All processes are tightly regulated and malfunction of enzymes processing PIs can cause their deregulation resulting in disruption of the Wnt signaling pathway. As deregulated Wnt signaling is a known cause of serious diseases including cancer, understanding the crosstalk between PIs and Wnt signaling could help in designing novel strategies for therapeutic intervention.
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The role of Ser/Thr phosphorylation of p130CAS in signaling
Dibus, Michal ; Rösel, Daniel (advisor) ; Macůrková, Marie (referee)
p130Cas is an important adaptor protein that plays an essential role in many intracellular signaling processes. Given the fact that p130Cas is a well-known substrate for wide spectrum of kinases, its function is regulated mostly by phosphorylation on tyrosine, threonine and serine residues. This work is focused on Serine/Threonine phosphorylation and its role in regulation of p130Cas signaling. Although it is known that Serine/Threonine phosphorylation of p130Cas is regulated by cell cycle, integrin-mediated cell adhesion and association with BCAR3, the mechanisms leading to the phosphorylation are still not well understood and the kinases involved in these processes are unknown. Being p130Cas an important regulator of cell migration and tumor invasiveness, understanding of these mechanisms should provide a useful tool in developing new strategies in aiming of anti-cancer drugs.
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Molecular mechanisms of Wnt signalling in mammalian cells
Lukáš, Jan ; Kořínek, Vladimír (advisor) ; Kohoutová, Milada (referee) ; Macůrková, Marie (referee)
Wnt signalling represents an important mechanism participating in control of cellular and developmental processes, including establishment of cell polarity, cell fate specification, stem cell self-renewal, tissue patterning and organogenesis, homeostasis maintenance and regeneration. Misregulation of the Wnt signalling during embryogenesis leads to developmental defects while aberrant activation later in development is associated with degenerative diseases and a number of cancers. The presented PhD thesis is based on four original publications that deal with the post-translational modifications of Wnt ligands and molecular mechanisms contributing to the regulation of a transcriptional profile of the so-called canonical Wnt pathway. Wnt signalling pathway is used repetitively both in time and different cellular contexts throughout development of multicellular organisms. Inevitably, in each single situation -catenin/TCF complexes, the downstream effectors, induce only subsets of all potential target genes. How this differential tissue- and stage-specific control over various subsets of target genes is achieved with such a limited number of nuclear effectors is not fully understood. Along with the expression of specific LEF/TCF family members or their variants containing different functional domains...
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The metabolism and signaling of hydrogen sulfide: the role of CBS-related proteins in Caenorhabditis elegans
Vozdek, Roman ; Kožich, Viktor (advisor) ; Macůrková, Marie (referee) ; Jiráček, Jiří (referee)
Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) is a toxic gas that causes respiratory failure and death at high concentrations, but at low concentrations, it functions as a signaling molecule in vasodilation and neuromodulation, and it protects cells and tissues from reperfusion injury, hypoxia, hyperglycemia and endothelial dysfunction. Several model organisms have been used to study the physiological roles and signaling pathways of H2S. The roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans is a remarkable model for studying the physiology, developmental biology and signaling of H2S; however, the metabolism of H2S in this animal is largely unknown. Cystathionine beta-synthase (CBS) is one of three H2S-producing enzymes in mammals. Notably, C. elegans possesses 6 genes that encode proteins homologous to CBS, namely cbs- 1, cbs-2, cysl-1, cysl-2, cysl-3 and cysl-4. In this thesis we studied the roles of these genes in H2S metabolism and signaling. First, we identified cbs-1 as the gene encoding CBS in C. elegans; the recombinant purified CBS-1 protein exhibited canonical CBS activity, and RNA interference-mediated silencing of cbs-1 resulted in decreased CBS activity and increased homocysteine levels in worm extracts, recapitulating the phenotypes of CBS deficiency in mammals. Notably, the nematode and human enzymes differ in their domain...
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Biological mechanisms of function of the HIC1 tumor suppressor
Hlavatá, Adéla ; Kořínek, Vladimír (advisor) ; Macůrková, Marie (referee)
The tumor suppressor gene HIC1 encodes a BTB/POZ transcription repressor. Its promotor is frequently hypermetylated in large numbers of tumors. HIC1 also functions as a negative modulator of the Wnt signalling pathway, which fundamentally participates in regulation of stem cell renewal of the intestinal epithelium. Thanks to its structural features the intestinal epithelium represents a convenient model tissue to study stem cells and their pathology. To overcome the embryonic lethality of the complete Hic1 "knock-out" the conditional deletion of the gene in adult mouse tissue was chosen to evaluate the Hic1 biological aktivity. By the chip expression analysis of mouse embryonic fibroblasts we discovered a number of new target genes of Hic1, the most interesting of them - in respect to cancer - we considered the Toll-like receptor 2 gene. The expression of Hic1 target genes is likely to be co-regulated by p53 although the direct regulation wasn't proved. Hic1 affects the proportion of the differentiated intestinal epithelial cells types possibly via regulation of Atoh1. After conditional deletion of Hic1 in the intestinal epithelium we observed and quantitatively confirmed a significant increase of the amounts of goblet cells. We concluded that Hic1 affects differentiation pathways in intestinal...
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Mechanismy regulace aktivity proteinu MTM-6 na endosomech.
Horázná, Monika ; Macůrková, Marie (advisor) ; Fafílek, Bohumil (referee)
Wnt signalling belongs to conserved pathways and mediates cell fate decision, development, regeneration and adult tissue homeostasis. Disruption or misregulation of Wnt signalling pathway often leads to disease. Wnt proteins are hydrophobic glycoproteins which need a special receptor for transport from Golgi Apparatus to cell surface, which is called MIG-14 in Caenorhabditis elegans and Wntless (Wls) in mammals. In this study, I focus on understanding mechanisms that regulate MTM-6 protein activity. MTM-6, a lipid phosphatase associated with endosomal membrane, has been recently identified as a regulator of MIG-14/Wls trafficking in Caenorhabditis elegans. Silencing of mtm-6 leads to misregulation of some Wnt-directed processes, such as migration of Q neuroblasts progeny. This study reports identification of novel mtm-6 genetic interactors that have been found to influence migration of Q neuroblasts progeny through Wnt signalling. New knowledge about mtm-6 genetic interactions bring us near to understanding of Wnt signalling regulation. Keywords: Caenorhabditis elegans, MTM-6, SEL-5, Wntless, Wnt, endosomes, phosphoinositides, retromer
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The role of CUP-4 protein in Wnt signalling
Žídek, Radim ; Macůrková, Marie (advisor) ; Pospíchalová, Vendula (referee)
Wnt signalling is indispensible for proper development of organisms and maintaining of adult tissue homeostasis. Its disruption often leads to disease. In nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, Wnt signalling governs vast array of developmental processes, among others also migration of the Q neuroblasts and their descendants. The sole Wnt acting in this process, EGL-20, triggers the canonical β-catenin Wnt signal transduction pathway in QL but not in QR which leads to QL remaining in the posterior while the QR migrates anteriorly. This represents a useful tool for studying Wnt signalling. Recently, mutation of gene cup-4 was found to disrupt migration of the QL neuroblast in a small proportion of the mutant population. cup-4 encodes a ligand-gated ion channel family homologue and it was shown to participate in endocytosis by coelomocytes, specialized phagocytic cells in the C. elegans body cavity. Here, I present the results of my effort to determine the place of CUP-4 action in Wnt signalling and to elucidate the mechanism of its function. I found that CUP-4 acts upstream of PRY- 1/Axin, which is involved in signal transduction in signal receiving cells, and most probably downstream of adaptin AP2, which is important for recycling of Wnt cargo receptor Wntless (Wls) in Wnt producing cell. cup-4 also...
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Mechanisms of retromer - dependent protein recycling from endosomes
Horázná, Monika ; Macůrková, Marie (advisor) ; Černý, Jan (referee)
Most processes in nature are very effective concerning saving energy and minimizing waste. A good example of saving on cellular level is receptor recycling. Whether it concerns receptors for lysosomal enzymes or for proteins destined for secretion, after releasing their cargo protein the fate of the receptor would be sealed in lysosomes. Nevertheless, some transmembrane receptors contain a signal motif through which they are recognized by specific proteins or protein complexes and they escape the degradation in lysosomes. One such complex is the retromer. Its first discovered function was the recycling of receptors for lysosomal hydrolases in yeast. Later it was proved that it has a similar role in transport of many other proteins in other eukaryotes. The task for retromer is to sort the cargo proteins on the endosomal membrane and together with others auxiliary proteins create a transport vesicle which is then transported to the Golgi. This makes the cell able to recycle proteins that would otherwise be transported from endosomes to lysosomes for degradation.
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The role of microRNAs in chronic lymphocytic leukemia
Moravec, Martin ; Macůrková, Marie (referee) ; Hájek, Miroslav (advisor)
2 Abstract MicroRNAs (miRs, miRNAs) are recently discovered molecules (19-25 nucleotides long) that regulate gene expression at post-transcriptional level by either blocking protein synthesis or mRNA degradation. As a part of gene silencing mechanism, miRNAs are involved in cellular processes, such as apoptosis, cell proliferation, development and viral defence. miRNAs have been intensely studied in connection to disease pathogenesis. Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is the most common leukemia in Western countries affecting mostly elderly people. In my work I focus on explanation of miRNA functions and their contributions to chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). I describe previously published data about miRNA-15, miRNA-16, miRNA-143, miRNA-145 and miRNA-155 in connection to this disease. Based on recent reports, I also discuss the potential role of miRNA-326 in CLL pathogenesis.
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