Report of ACPGBI President, 2016

Some GPCRs transmit signals through adenylyl cyclase (AC), a transmembrane enzyme. AC helps synthesize second messenger cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP). AC catalyzes cyclization reaction and converts ATP to cAMP by releasing a pyrophosphate. The pyrophosphate is further hydrolyzed to phosphate by the enzyme pyrophosphatase, which drives cAMP synthesis to completion. However, cAMP is rapidly degraded to 5′ AMP by the enzymes phosphodiesterase (PDE), preventing overstimulation of...

Guanine nucleotide-binding proteins (G-proteins), also known as GTPases, are a superfamily of proteins that regulate many cellular processes, such as cell signaling, vesicular transport, and the regulation of cell shape and motility. Mutation or dysfunction of these proteins can lead to disease. There are around 40,000 known G-proteins that can broadly be classified into two groups ‒  small G-proteins consisting of a single domain and large multi-domain G-proteins.
Large G-proteins,...

Genome-wide association studies or GWAS are used to identify whether common SNPs are associated with certain diseases. Suppose specific SNPs are more frequently observed in individuals with a particular disease than those without the disease. In that case, those SNPs are said to be associated with the disease. Chi-square analysis is performed to check the probability of the allele likely to be associated with the disease.
GWAS does not require the identification of the target gene involved in...