Role of the adaptor protein CASP

细胞内蛋白质和细胞器的运动是一个涉及许多分子相互作用的调控良好的过程。我们发现了一些参与这个运动过程的蛋白质。我们最近在淋巴细胞中发现了两种蛋白质之间的一种新的相互作用。这些蛋白质参与将囊泡移动到与肿瘤细胞接触的淋巴细胞区域。我们将尝试分离与这些蛋白结合的其他蛋白，并确定它们如何参与淋巴细胞中囊泡的运动。当细胞可能自杀时，一种蛋白质也会被切割。我们想确定这种机制是否用于杀死和清除感染淋巴细胞。另一种与我们的蛋白质结构相关的蛋白质也在神经细胞中被发现。最近我们发现它也在淋巴细胞中表达。这种蛋白质可能有不同的长度。我们将确定这些相似的蛋白质是否可以相互替代。这些蛋白质在将囊泡移动到免疫突触中的作用以及它们在细胞运动中的作用将被探讨。我们的长期目标是根据我们的新模型确定这些蛋白质如何参与协调囊泡交通。

Movement of proteins and organelles within a cell is a well-regulated process involving many molecular interactions. We discovered several proteins that are involved in this movement process. We recently found a novel interaction between two proteins in lymphocytes. These proteins are involved in moving vesicles to the area of the lymphocyte that is in contact with tumour cells. We will attempt to isolate other proteins that bind these proteins and determine how they are involved in movement of vesicles in lymphocytes. One protein is also cleaved when the cells potentially commit suicide. We would like to determine if this mechanism is used to kill and remove infected lymphocytes. Another structurally related protein to our protein was also found in nerve cells. Recently we have found it to be also expressed in lymphocytes. This protein may have different lengths. We will determine if these similar proteins can substitute for each other. The roles of these proteins in moving vesicles to the immune synapse and also their role in cell motility will be explored. Our long term goals are to determine how these proteins participate in coordinating vesicular traffic based upon our novel model.