Analysis of sperm differentiation reveals new mode of proteasome regulation
The proteasome plays a key role in the differentiation of specialized cells and in maintaining them as they age. The ability to manipulate the proteasome has already been useful in the treatment of multiple myeloma; it could help treat other cancers and degenerative disorders including Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s as well. New research identifies a key protein, called DmPI31, that regulates of the proteasome, which could provide researchers a handle for using it to good medical effect. “Controlled proteolysis is essential for many cell biological functions,” says Hermann Steller, head of the Strang Laboratory of Apoptosis and Cancer Biology. “There had been the impression that the proteasome is just a brute ‘shredder,’ but it doesn’t run at full steam all the time. It’s modulated, and these findings give us new ideas for designing small molecules that regulate proteasome activity.”