Go to JCI Insight
  • About
  • Editors
  • Consulting Editors
  • For authors
  • Alerts
  • Advertising/recruitment
  • Subscribe
  • Contact
  • Current Issue
  • Past Issues
  • By specialty
    • COVID-19
    • Cardiology
    • Gastroenterology
    • Immunology
    • Metabolism
    • Nephrology
    • Neuroscience
    • Oncology
    • Pulmonology
    • Vascular biology
    • All ...
  • Videos
    • Conversations with Giants in Medicine
    • Author's Takes
  • Reviews
    • View all reviews ...
    • 100th Anniversary of Insulin's Discovery (Jan 2021)
    • Hypoxia-inducible factors in disease pathophysiology and therapeutics (Oct 2020)
    • Latency in Infectious Disease (Jul 2020)
    • Immunotherapy in Hematological Cancers (Apr 2020)
    • Big Data's Future in Medicine (Feb 2020)
    • Mechanisms Underlying the Metabolic Syndrome (Oct 2019)
    • Reparative Immunology (Jul 2019)
    • View all review series ...
  • Viewpoint
  • Collections
    • Recently published
    • In-Press Preview
    • Commentaries
    • Concise Communication
    • Editorials
    • Viewpoint
    • Top read articles
  • Clinical Medicine
  • JCI This Month
    • Current issue
    • Past issues

  • Current issue
  • Past issues
  • Specialties
  • Reviews
  • Review series
  • Conversations with Giants in Medicine
  • Author's Takes
  • Recently published
  • In-Press Preview
  • Commentaries
  • Concise Communication
  • Editorials
  • Viewpoint
  • Top read articles
  • About
  • Editors
  • Consulting Editors
  • For authors
  • Alerts
  • Advertising/recruitment
  • Subscribe
  • Contact
Unlocking the DEAD-box: a key to cryptococcal virulence?
Lena J. Heung, Maurizio Del Poeta
Lena J. Heung, Maurizio Del Poeta
Published March 1, 2005
Citation Information: J Clin Invest. 2005;115(3):593-595. https://doi.org/10.1172/JCI24508.
View: Text | PDF
Commentary

Unlocking the DEAD-box: a key to cryptococcal virulence?

  • Text
  • PDF
Abstract

The DEAD-box RNA helicases are enzymes involved in many critical aspects of RNA metabolism within both eukaryotic and prokaryotic organisms. Several studies have shown that these proteins may have important functions in mediating microbial pathogenesis. A new study in this issue of the JCI identifies the first DEAD-box RNA helicase in the pathogenic fungus Cryptococcus neoformans and proposes novel roles for this family of proteins in the development and progression of cryptococcosis.

Authors

Lena J. Heung, Maurizio Del Poeta

×

Figure 1

Options: View larger image (or click on image) Download as PowerPoint
The 9 conserved motifs of the DEAD-box RNA helicase family and their put...
The 9 conserved motifs of the DEAD-box RNA helicase family and their putative functions (6). Motifs I and II, also known as the Walker A and B motifs, bind nucleotide triphosphates; the DEAD-box helicases are named after the amino acid sequence of motif II. Motifs Q and VI are also involved in binding ATP for hydrolysis. Motifs Ia, Ib, IV, and V are proposed to bind RNA. Motif III may induce conformational changes required for helicase activity upon ATP binding.
Follow JCI:
Copyright © 2021 American Society for Clinical Investigation
ISSN: 0021-9738 (print), 1558-8238 (online)

Sign up for email alerts