The High EffiCiency TOtal absorption spectrometeR (HECTOR) is a
4
π
γ
-summing detector designed to measure capture cross sections. Here, we present the commissioning of HECTOR at the Compact ...Accelerator System for Performing Astrophysical Research (CASPAR) laboratory, which is located at the Sandford Underground Research Facility 4850 feet underground. With the underground environment drastically improving the signal-to-noise ratio of the detector, it is estimated HECTOR will be able to push cross-section measurements below a nanobarn. Details of the experimental setup are discussed along with the analysis of several resonance strengths measured for the
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Al
(
p
,
γ
)
28
Si
reaction between the lab energies 0.2–1.0 MeV. The measurements are in excellent agreement with those found in the literature.
Protein tyrosine kinases (PTKs) play an integral role in T cell activation and differentiation. Defects in the Src-family PTKs in mice and in T cell lines have resulted in variable defects in thymic ...development and in T cell antigen receptor (TCR) signal transduction. Here, three siblings are described with an autosomal recessive form of severe combined immunodeficiency disease (SCID) in which ZAP-70, a non-Src PTK, is absent as a result of mutations in the ZAP-70 gene. This absence is associated with defects in TCR signal transduction, suggesting an important functional role for ZAP-70.
The protein tyrosine kinase, ZAP-70, is pivotally involved in transduction of Ag-binding signals from the TCR required for T cell activation and development. Defects in ZAP-70 result in SCID in ...humans and mice. We describe an infant with SCID due to a novel ZAP-70 mutation, comparable with that which arose spontaneously in an inbred mouse colony. The patient inherited a homozygous missense mutation within the highly conserved DLAARN motif in the ZAP-70 kinase domain. Although the mutation only modestly affected protein stability, catalytic function was absent. Despite identical changes in the amino acid sequence of ZAP-70, the peripheral T cell phenotypes of our patient and affected mice are distinct. ZAP-70 deficiency in this patient, as in other humans, is characterized by abundant nonfunctional CD4(+) T cells and absent CD8(+) T cells. In contrast, ZAP-70-deficient mice lack both major T cell subsets. Although levels of the ZAP-70-related protein tyrosine kinase, Syk, may be sufficiently increased in human thymocytes to rescue CD4 development, survival of ZAP-70-deficient T cells in the periphery does not appear to be dependent on persistent up-regulation of Syk expression.
ZAP-70: an essential kinase in T-cell signaling Wang, Haopeng; Kadlecek, Theresa A; Au-Yeung, Byron B ...
Cold Spring Harbor perspectives in biology,
05/2010, Letnik:
2, Številka:
5
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
ZAP-70 is a cytoplasmic protein tyrosine kinase that plays a critical role in the events involved in initiating T-cell responses by the antigen receptor. Here we review the structure of ZAP-70, its ...regulation, its role in development and in disease. We also describe a model experimental system in which ZAP-70 function can be interrupted by a small chemical inhibitor.
Stimulation of the T-cell antigen receptor (TCR), which itself is not a protein-tyrosine kinase (PTK), activates a PTK and phospholipase C (PLC). Using the human T-cell leukemic line Jurkat and ...normal peripheral blood lymphocytes, we demonstrate that stimulation of the TCR specifically induces the recovery of PLC activity in eluates from anti-phosphotyrosine immunoprecipitates. Stimulation of the human muscarinic receptor, subtype 1, when expressed in Jurkat activates PLC through a guanine nucleotide binding protein but does not induce the recovery of PLC activity in eluates from anti-phosphotyrosine immunoprecipitates. Western blot analysis reveals that PLC-gamma 1 is tyrosine-phosphorylated in response to TCR stimulation. Nearly all of the PLC activity recovered in eluates from anti-phosphotyrosine immunoprecipitates was depleted by anti-PLC-gamma 1 antibodies. Stimulation of the TCR on mutants derived from Jurkat that are defective in TCR-induced PLC activation results in markedly reduced, if any, PLC activity recovered in phosphotyrosine immunoprecipitates and in no detectable PLC-gamma 1 tyrosine phosphorylation. Thus, the TCR functions like PTK growth factor receptors, but through an indirect interaction, to induce tyrosine phosphorylation of PLC-gamma 1. Since other studies have implicated two members of the src family of PTKs in TCR-mediated signal transduction, our findings suggest that the induction of tyrosine phosphorylation of PLC-gamma 1 by a mechanism involving a src-like kinase may be the means by which the TCR regulates PLC activity in T cells.
ZAP-70, a cytoplasmic tyrosine kinase required for T cell antigen receptor signaling, is controlled by a regulatory segment that includes a tandem SH2 unit responsible for binding to immunoreceptor ...tyrosine-based activation motifs (ITAMs). The crystal structure of autoinhibited ZAP-70 reveals that the inactive kinase domain adopts a conformation similar to that of cyclin-dependent kinases and Src kinases. The autoinhibitory mechanism of ZAP-70 is, however, distinct and involves interactions between the regulatory segment and the hinge region of the kinase domain that reduce its flexibility. Two tyrosine residues in the SH2-kinase linker that activate ZAP-70 when phosphorylated are involved in aromatic-aromatic interactions that connect the linker to the kinase domain. These interactions are inconsistent with ITAM binding, suggesting that destabilization of this autoinhibited ZAP-70 conformation is the first step in kinase activation.
The Src and Syk families of kinases are two distinct sets of kinases that play critical roles in initiating membrane-proximal B cell receptor (BCR) signaling. However, unlike in other lymphocytes, ...such as T cells, the "division of labor" between Src family kinases (SFKs) and Syk in B cells is not well separated because both Syk and SFKs can phosphorylate immunoreceptor tyrosine-based activation motifs (ITAMs) present in proteins comprising the BCR. To understand why B cells require both SFKs and Syk for activation, we investigated the roles of both families of kinases in BCR signaling with computational modeling and in vitro experiments. Our computational model suggested that positive feedback enabled Syk to substantially compensate for the absence of SFKs when spatial clustering of BCRs was induced by multimeric ligands. We confirmed this prediction experimentally. In contrast, when B cells were stimulated by monomeric ligands that failed to produce BCR clustering, both Syk and SFKs were required for complete and rapid BCR activation. Our data suggest that SFKs could play a pivotal role in increasing BCR sensitivity to monomeric antigens of pathogens and in mediating a rapid response to soluble multimeric antigens of pathogens that can induce spatial BCR clustering.
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