Continuing the discussion on intracellular self/not-self discrimination....
>> Forsdyke: You anticipate me! What determines a promoter, enhancer, mRNA
>> stability, and rate of translation?
Prasad:
>This tangent is going too far into the nucleus for my knowledge. I don't w
>follow
>how things such as zinc-fingers and CAAT boxes determine self from nonself in
>the intracellular compartment. Perhaps you could elaborate more on this.
>>> Forsdyke: What determines that protein A will live longer than protein B?
Prasad:
>I really don't know, does anyone?
>Conformation may have something to do with it, as some proteins may expose
>protease sites. But until the intracellular half-lives of proteins can be
>compared to their 3-D structures this may just be conjecture.
Forsdyke: Sorry, I wasn't looking for the details. I was just trying to
get you to make the general point that the final concentration
of self-protein A relative to self-protein B is determined by
the respective genes. The genes encode not only information on
function, but information determining the final concentration of
the gene product. For example, the sequence of the 3' non-coding
region of the mRNA determines, in part, the mRNA life span,
which, in turn, determines how long the mRNA is around to code
for the synthesis of the corresponding protein.
So, the next question I offer is: What evolutionary forces,
acting by modifying the gene sequence, mould the encoded life-
span of a particular gene product?
>>>>>>References: Forsdyke, D. (1992) Bionet.immunology 812 947edt
>>>>>> Prasad, S. (1992) Bionet.immunology 814 1516gmt
>>>>>> Forsdyke, D. (1992) Bionet.immunology 817 1757edt
>>>>>> Prasad, S. (1992) Bionet.immunology 818 133gmt
>>>>> Forsdyke, D. (1992) Bionet.immunology 818, 1616edt
>>>> Prasad, S. (1992) Bionet.immunology 819, 405gmt
>>> Forsdyke, D. (1992) Bionet.immunology 819 1019edt
>>> Prasad, S. (1992) Bionet.immunology 819, 2019gmt
> Forsdyke, D. (1992) Bionet.immunology 820, 858edt
>> Prasad, S. (1992) Bionet.immunology 821, 56gmt
[Footnote for sharp-eyed David K. whose note informs us of the previous
advise he gave regarding citations in BioNet. To this I replied that
eventually the paper and electronic media are going to merge and it is
likely that the existing format in the paper literature will be generally
adopted. In my opinion, the format David sets out is far too cumbersome.
But this is another area of discussion and should not really continue under
this heading.]
