STANFORD, Calif. - Stanford University School of Medicine
researchers have uncovered what appears to be an extensive, but
until now barely noticed, network of regulatory interactions
that influence what proteins are made inside a cell, and when
and where. In a study to be published on Oct. 27 in the journal
Public Library of Science-Biology, investigators led by Pat
Brown, PhD, professor of biochemistry and a Howard Hughes
Medical Institute investigator, and Dan Hogan, a graduate
student in Brown's lab, have accumulated persuasive evidence
that certain proteins guide the fates of the molecules conveying
genetic instructions from cells' nuclei to the diverse
intracellular destinations where these instructions are to be
carried out. The research was done on yeast, a simple model
system for studying protein/genome interplay. Proteins - which
are the main structural components of living cells and do most
of the work - must be produced in an orderly way. Different
cells need different proteins, in different amount