Picture courtesy of
Dr. Edward Arnold (Rutgers University)

Center for Molecular Biophysics
& Biophysical Chemistry
Rutgers University
610 Taylor Road
Piscataway, NJ 08854

Phone: 732/445-6376

Fax: 732/445-1493

Masayori Inouye
Professor of Biochemistry, UMDNJ
(732) 235-4115
Robert Wood Johnson Medical School Tower, Room 625

Transmembrane Signal Transduction by Protein Histidine: Adaptive responses of E. coli to medium osmolarity provides and ideal system to study signal transduction across the membrane. Osmotic signals modulate the histidine kinase activity of EnvZ protein, a transmembrane osmosensor to phosphorylate OmpR protein, a transcriptional factor, which regulates the expression of two membrane proteins. Molecular genetical as well as biochemical and biophysical approaches are taken to elucidate the signal transduction mechanisms.

Cold-shock Response and Adaptation: In nature, living organisms are constantly exposed to temperature changes. In contrast to heat-shock response, cold-shock response is not well understood. We have demonstrated that when E. coli cells are exposed to low temperature, a number of proteins called 'cold-shock proteins' are specifically induced.

Among them, there are ribosome-associated proteins, which are required for protein synthesis at low temperature, and RNA/DNA chaperones, which are considered to play important roles in mRNA translation, transcription and DNA replication. We are attempting to elucidate how the gene expression for cold-shock proteins is regulated and what the functions are of individual cold-shock proteins. In addition to E. coli, we are also investigating how human cells respond to low temperature.