Lena Burri

Adipose tissue metabolism is closely linked to insulin resistance, and differential fat distributions are associated with disorders like hypertension, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. Adipose tissues vary in their impact on metabolic risk due to diverse gene expression profiles, leading to differences in lipolysis and in the production and release of adipokines and cytokines, thereby affecting the function of other tissues. In this paper, the roles of the various adipose tissues in obesity are summarized, with particular focus on mitochondrial function. In addition, we discuss how a functionally mitochondrial-targeted compound, the modified fatty acid tetradecylthioacetic acid (TTA), can influence mitochondrial function and decrease the size of specific fat depots.

The biological activities of omega-3 fatty acids (n-3 FAs) have been under extensive study for several decades. However, not much attention has been paid to differences of dietary forms, such as triglycerides (TGs) versus ethyl esters or phospholipids (PLs). New innovative marine raw materials, like krill and fish by-products, present n-3 FAs mainly in the PL form. With their increasing availability, new evidence has emerged on n-3 PL biological activities and differences to n-3 TGs. In this review, we describe the recently discovered nutritional properties of n-3 PLs on different parameters of metabolic syndrome and highlight their different metabolic bioavailability in comparison to other dietary forms of n-3 FAs.

Omp85 is a protein found in Gram-negative bacteria where it serves to integrate proteins into the bacterial outer membrane. Members of the Omp85 family of proteins are defined by the presence of two domains: an N-terminal, periplasmic domain rich in POTRA repeats and a C-terminal beta-barrel domain embedded in the outer membrane. The widespread distribution of Omp85 family members together with their fundamental role in outer membrane assembly suggests the ancestral Omp85 arose early in the evolution of prokaryotic cells. Mitochondria, derived from an ancestral bacterial endosymbiont, also use a member of the Omp85 family to assemble proteins in their outer membranes. More distant relationships are seen between the Omp85 family and both the core proteins in two-partner secretion systems and the Toc75 family of protein translocases found in plastid outer envelopes. Aspects of the ancestry and molecular architecture of the Omp85 family of proteins is providing insight into the mechanism by which proteins might be integrated and assembled into bacterial outer membranes.

Trafficking of cargo molecules through the secretory pathway relies on packaging and delivery of membrane vesicles. These vesicles, laden with cargo, carry integral membrane proteins that can determine with which target membrane the vesicle might productively fuse. The membrane fusion process is highly conserved in all eukaryotes and the central components driving membrane fusion events involved in vesicle delivery to target membranes are a set of integral membrane proteins called SNAREs. The yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae has served as an extremely useful model for characterizing components of membrane fusion through genetics, biochemistry and bioinformatics, and it is now likely that the complete set of SNAREs is at hand. Here, we present the details from the searches for SNAREs, summarize the domain structures of the complete set, review what is known about localization of SNAREs to discrete membranes, and highlight some of the surprises that have come from the search.