In new research recently published in the journal Cell Reports, a team of scientists from the University of Massachusetts Amherst delved into the mysteries of how cells weather stress. Using bacterial cells, the researchers discovered that a damage-repairing enzyme, called ClpX, can not only mutate to fix multiple cellular issues but can respond to changing levels of cellular energy to help keep a cell healthy.
September 28, 2022
In new research recently published in the journal Cell Reports, a team of scientists from the University of Massachusetts Amherst delved into the mysteries of how cells weather stress. Using bacterial cells, the researchers discovered that a damage-repairing enzyme, called ClpX, can not only mutate to fix multiple cellular issues but can respond to changing levels of cellular energy to help keep a cell healthy.
„What we’re really interested in,“ says Peter Chien, professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at UMass Amherst and the paper’s senior author, „is how cells respond to stress. We study a class of enzymes, called proteases, which target and destroy harmful proteins within a cell. These proteases can selectively recognize specific, individual proteins singular proteins.
