International review of cell and molecular biology. V.277 /

Contributors p. ix
1 Focal Adhesions: New Angles on an Old Structure Adi D. Dubash and Marisa M. Menold and Thomas Samson and Etienne Boulter and Rafael Garria-Mata and Renee Doughman and Keith Burridge p. 1
1 Introduction p. 3
2 Formation of ECM Adhesions p. 5
3 Role of Syndecan-4 in Focal Adhesion Formation p. 23
4 Focal Adhesions on Biomaterial Surfaces p. 30
5 Mechanotransduction p. 35
6 Disassembly of Focal Adhesions p. 44
7 Concluding Remarks p. 47
Acknowledgments p. 48
References p. 48
2 Calcineurin Signaling and the Slow Oxidative Skeletal Muscle Fiber Type Joanne Mallinson and Joachim Meissner and Kin-Chow Chang p. 67
1 Introduction p. 68
2 Importance of Oxidative Skeletal Muscle Fiber Phenotype p. 71
3 Calcium-Dependent Mediators of Oxidative Muscle Fiber Type Programing p. 74
4 Biological Functions of the Calcineurin Signaling Pathway p. 78
5 Downstream Effector Targets of Calcineurin in Skeletal Muscle p. 81
6 Exploiting the Beneficial Effects of Calcineurin Signaling in Skeletal Muscle p. 89
7 Concluding Remarks p. 90
Acknowledgment p. 91
References p. 91
3 New Insights into Plant Vacuolar Structure and Dynamics Yoshihisa Oda and Takumi Higaki and Seiichiro Hasezawa and Natsumaro Kutsuna p. 103
1 Introduction p. 104
2 Methods to Reveal Vacuolar Structure and Dynamics p. 105
3 Vacuolar Structure and Functions p. 115
4 Regulation of Vacuolar Structure and Dynamics p. 120
5 Concluding Remarks p. 125
References p. 126
4 Cytomechanics of Hair: Basics of the Mechanical Stability Crisan Popescu and Hartwig H枚cker p. 137
1 Introduction p. 138
2 Morphology of the Hair Fiber p. 138
3 Chemical Composition of Human Hair p. 143
4 Interactions of Keratin Proteins p. 145
5 Mechanical Models p. 148
6 Concluding Remarks p. 153
References p. 153
5 Nuclear Actin-Related Proteins in Epigenetic Control Richard B. Meagher and Muthugapatti K. Kandasamy and Elizabeth C. McKinney and Eileen Roy p. 157
1 Introduction p. 158
2 Nuclear ARPs as Epigenetic Factors p. 159
3 Evolutionary Origin and Phylogeny of Nuclear ARPs p. 162
4 Function of the Nuclear ARPs in Chromatin Remodeling and Modifying Complexes p. 173
5 Isoforms of ARP Complexes p. 182
6 Role of Nuclear ARPs in the Epigenetic Control of Morphological Development p. 186
7 Nuclear ARPs and Epigenetics in Human Disease p. 197
8 Conclusions p. 201
Acknowledgments p. 202
References p. 202
6 Application of New Methods for Detection of DNA Damage and Repair Maria P. Svetlova and Liudmila V. Solovjeva and Nikolai V. Tomilim p. 217
1 Introduction p. 218
2 Indirect Detection of Double-Strand DNA Breaks and Homology-Dependent Repair p. 221
3 Methods Based on Changes of Physical Properties of Proteins Involved in Nucleotide Excision and Postreplication Repair p. 227
4 New Methods for Analyzing UV-lnduced DNA Repair Synthesis and Chromatin Modifications p. 233
5 Direct Detection of Damaged Nucleotides Using Specific Antibodies and Other Methods p. 239
6 Conclusions and Perspectives p. 241
Acknowledgments p. 241
References p. 242
Index p. 253