Biology subjects

Anderson, E. O.

Publications and source records attributed to Anderson, E. O..

2 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

Facilitating NMR Resonance Assignment with Metabolic Tampering

The ability to assign amino acid resonances in multidimensional NMR spectra of biomolecules is necessary for detailed studies of protein structure and dynamics. Despite creative advances in isotopic labeling, unlabeling and multidimensional NMR experiments, resonance assignment remains a bottleneck in studies of large proteins. In this work, we show that the metabolic flux through biosynthetic pathways of amino acid production during protein expression can be modulated to aid in the identification of resonances in two-dimensional NMR spectra. This straightforward method involves doping 15N-enriched minimal media with small amounts of rich natural abundance media to generate unique peak intensity attenuation patterns, producing type-specific signatures of amino acids in two-dimensional 15N HSQC experiments. Using three model proteins, IGPS (51 kDa heterodimer), PTP1B (35 kDa), PHPT1 (14 kDa), we show that this method can disentangle several amino acid types, is robust to different expression conditions, and is a useful supplement for triple resonance experiments in protein backbone resonance assignments.

biochemistry↗

bioRxiv2020

Lamellar cells in Pacinian and Meissner corpuscles are touch sensors

The skin covering the human palm and other specialized tactile organs contains a high density of mechanosensory corpuscles tuned to detect transient pressure and vibration. These corpuscles comprise a sensory afferent neuron surrounded by lamellar cells1-3. The neuronal afferent is thought to be the mechanical sensor within the corpuscle, whereas the function of lamellar cells is unknown2,4,5. Here we show that lamellar cells within Meissner and Pacinian corpuscles detect tactile stimuli. We develop a preparation of bill skin from tactile-specialist ducks that permits electrophysiological recordings from lamellar cells and demonstrate that they contain mechanically-gated ion channels. We also show that lamellar cells from Meissner corpuscles generate mechanically-evoked action potentials using R-type voltage-gated calcium channels. These findings provide the first evidence for R-type channel-dependent action potentials in non-neuronal cells and demonstrate that lamellar cells are active detectors of touch. We propose that Meissner and Pacinian corpuscles use both neuronal and non-neuronal mechanoreception to detect mechanical signals.

physiology↗