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The current coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV)-2, has spurred a wave of research of nearly unprecedented scale. Among the different strategies that are being used to understand the disease and develop effective treatments, the study of physical molecular interactions can provide fine-grained resolution of the mechanisms behind the virus biology and the human organism response. We present a curated dataset of physical molecular interactions focused on proteins from SARS-CoV-2, SARS-CoV-1 and other members of the Coronaviridae family that has been manually extracted by International Molecular Exchange (IMEx) Consortium curators. Currently, the dataset comprises over 4400 binarized interactions extracted from 151 publications. The dataset can be accessed in the standard formats recommended by the Proteomics Standards Initiative (HUPO-PSI) at the IntAct database website (https://www.ebi.ac.uk/intact) and will be continuously updated as research on COVID-19 progresses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motivation Combining multiple layers of information underlying biological complexity into a structured framework represent a challenge in systems biology. A key task is the formalization of such information in models describing how biological entities interact to mediate the response to external and internal signals. Several databases with signalling information, focus on capturing, organizing and displaying signalling interactions by representing them as binary, causal relationships between biological entities. The curation efforts that build these individual databases demand a concerted effort to ensure interoperability among resources. Results Aware of the enormous benefits of standardization efforts in the molecular interaction research field, representatives of the signalling network community agreed to extend the PSI-MI controlled vocabulary to include additional terms representing aspects of causal interactions. Here, we present a common standard for the representation and dissemination of signalling information: the PSI Causal Interaction tabular format (CausalTAB) which is an extension of the existing PSI-MI tab-delimited format, now designated PSI-MITAB 2.8. We define the new term 'causal interaction', and related child terms, which are children of the PSI-MI 'molecular interaction' term. The new vocabulary terms in this extended PSI-MI format will enable systems biologists to model large-scale signalling networks more precisely and with higher coverage than before. Availability and implementation PSI-MITAB 2.8 format and the new reference implementation of PSICQUIC are available online (https://psicquic.github.io/ and https://psicquic.github.io/MITAB28Format.html). Supplementary information Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Systems biologists study interaction data to understand the behaviour of whole cell systems, and their environment, at a molecular level. In order to effectively achieve this goal, it is critical that researchers have high quality interaction datasets available to them, in a standard data format, and also a suite of tools with which to analyse such data and form experimentally testable hypotheses from them. The PSI-MI XML standard interchange format was initially published in 2004, and expanded in 2007 to enable the download and interchange of molecular interaction data. PSI-XML2.5 was designed to describe experimental data and to date has fulfilled this basic requirement. However, new use cases have arisen that the format cannot properly accommodate. These include data abstracted from more than one publication such as allosteric/cooperative interactions and protein complexes, dynamic interactions and the need to link kinetic and affinity data to specific mutational changes. Results: The Molecular Interaction workgroup of the HUPO-PSI has extended the existing, well-used XML interchange format for molecular interaction data to meet new use cases and enable the capture of new data types, following extensive community consultation. PSI-MI XML3.0 expands the capabilities of the format beyond simple experimental data, with a concomitant update of the tool suite which serves this format. The format has been implemented by key data producers such as the International Molecular Exchange (IMEx) Consortium of protein interaction databases and the Complex Portal. Conclusions: PSI-MI XML3.0 has been developed by the data producers, data users, tool developers and database providers who constitute the PSI-MI workgroup. This group now actively supports PSI-MI XML2.5 as the main interchange format for experimental data, PSI-MI XML3.0 which additionally handles more complex data types, and the simpler, tab-delimited MITAB2.5, 2.6 and 2.7 for rapid parsing and download. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ring finger protein 11 (RNF11) is a RING (really interesting new gene)-H2 E3 ligase that is overexpressed in several human tumor tissues. The mature protein, which is anchored to membranes via a double acylation, localizes to early endosome and recycling compartments. Apart from its subcellular localization, additional lines of evidence implicate RNF11 in the mechanisms underlying vesicle traffic. Here we identify two acidic-cluster dileucine (Ac-LL) motifs, which are recognized by the VHS domains of Golgi-localized, gamma adaptin era-containing, ADP-ribosylation factor-binding protein (GGA) adaptors, as the molecular determinants governing RNF11 sorting at the trans-Golgi network and its internalization from the plasma membrane. We also show that RNF11 recruits itch to drive the ubiquitination of GGA3. This function is experimentally detectable only in cells overexpressing an RNF11 variant that is inactivated in the RING domain, indicating that RNF11 recruits GGA3 and controls its ubiquitination by regulating itch activity. Accordingly, our data demonstrate the involvement of itch in regulating GGA3 stability. Indeed, we observe that the endogenous levels of GGA3 are increased in cells knocked down for itch and endogenous GGA3 is hyperubiquitinated in an itch-dependent manner in a cell line expressing catalytically inactive RNF11. Our data are consistent with a model whereby the RING E3 ligase RNF11 is a novel GGA cargo actively participating in regulating the ubiquitination of the GGA protein family. The results that we are presenting put RNF11 at the center of a finally regulated system where it acts both as an adaptor and a modulator of itch-mediated control of ubiquitination events underlying membrane traffic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ring finger protein 11 (RNF11) is a small RING E3-ligase overexpressed in numerous human prostate, colon and invasive breast cancers. Although functional studies have implicated RNF11 in a variety of biological processes, including signal transduction and apoptosis, the molecular mechanisms underlying its function are still poorly understood. In this study we show that RNF11 is a membrane-associated E3 ligase co-localizing with markers of both the early and the recycling endosomes. Several modification and protein interaction signals in the RNF11 sequence are shown to affect its compartmentalization. Membrane binding requires two acylation motifs driving the myristoylation of Gly2 and the S-palmitoylation of Cys4. Accordingly, genetic removal of the myristoylating signal results in diffuse staining, whereas an RNF11 protein mutated in the palmitoylation signal is retained in compartments of the early secretory pathway. However, amino-terminal fusion to green fluorescent protein of a 10-residue peptide containing both acylation signals re-localizes the chimera to the plasma membrane, but it is not sufficient to direct it to the recycling compartment suggesting that additional signals contribute to the correct localization. In addition, we show that membrane anchoring through acylation is necessary for RNF11 to be post-translationally modified by the addition of several ubiquitin moieties and that loss of acylation severely impairs the in vivo ubiquitination mediated by the HECT E3-ligases Itch and Nedd4. Finally, in cells transfected with RNF11 we observe a correlation between high RNF11 expression, as in tumor cells, and a swelling of the endosomal compartment suggesting a possible role of the dysregulation of the endosome compartment in tumorigenesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heterotopic ossification (HO) is a pathological condition characterized by the deposition of mineralized tissue in ectopic locations such as the skeletal muscle. The precise cellular origin and molecular mechanisms underlying HO are still debated. In our study we focus on the differentiation of mesoangioblasts (MABs), a population of multipotent skeletal muscle precursors. High-content screening for small molecules that perturb MAB differentiation decisions identified Idoxuridine (IdU), an antiviral and radiotherapy adjuvant, as a molecule that promotes MAB osteogenic differentiation while inhibiting myogenesis. IdU-dependent osteogenesis does not rely on the canonical BMP-2/SMADs osteogenic pathway. At pro-osteogenic conditions IdU induces a mild DNA Damage Response (DDR) that activates ATM and p38 eventually promoting the phosphorylation of the osteogenesis master regulator RUNX2. By interfering with this pathway IdU-induced osteogenesis is severely impaired. Overall, our study suggests that induction of the DDR promotes osteogenesis in muscle resident MABs thereby offering a new mechanism that may be involved in the ectopic deposition of mineralized tissue in the muscle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]