Disease relevance of Rab38

• Rab38 is expressed in melanocytes and it has been clarified that a point mutation in the postulated GTP-binding domain of Rab38 is the gene responsible for oculocutaneous albinism in chocolate mice [1].
• We produced recombinant Rab38 using a baculovirus/insect cell-protein expression system [1].
• In the rat, only two HPS models are known, Fawn-hooded (FH) and Tester Moriyama (TM), non-complementing strains in which HPS-like hypopigmentation and platelet storage pool deficiency result from a mutation of the Ruby (red eyed dilution; R) locus on Chromosome (Chr) 1 [2].

High impact information on Rab38

• We produced polyhistidine-tagged recombinant Rab38 and a polyclonal antibody with a synthetic peptide [3].
• The cDNA encoding a novel Rab-related small G protein (Rab38) has been cloned from rat lung cDNA library and recorded in GenBank (accession no. M94043) [3].
• Immunofluorescence cytochemistry performed on cultured alveolar type II cells showed that Rab38 distributed extensively in the cytoplasm with a distribution pattern similar to endoplasmic reticulum rather than other subcellular organelles [3].
• Furthermore, we find that Pro-Q Diamond staining is a sensitive method for measuring the phosphate levels of natriuretic peptide receptors, but protein levels are best detected by Western blot analysis, not SYPRO Ruby staining [4].
• Here, we use Pro-Q Diamond and SYPRO Ruby dyes to quantify the phosphorylation status and protein levels, respectively, of natriuretic peptide receptors from tissues and cells [4].

Biological context of Rab38

• This ancestor appears to have been a sub-strain of the outbred Long Evans (LE) strain, and several modern LE sub-strains carry the Rab38 Met1Ile R mutation on the same Chr 1 marker haplotype [2].
• SYPRO Ruby Protein Gel Stain is a novel, ruthenium-based fluorescent dye for the detection of proteins in sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) gels that has properties making it well suited to high-throughput proteomics projects [5].

Anatomical context of Rab38

• Immunofluorescence staining demonstrated that expressed GST-tagged Rab38 was mainly co-localized with endoplasmic reticulum-resident protein and also partly with intermittent vesicles between the endoplasmic reticulum and the Golgi complex [1].
• These results indicate that Rab38 is expressed non-ubiquitously in specific tissues and regulates early vesicle transport relating to the endoplasmic reticulum, and hence suggest that Rab38 abnormality may cause multiple organ diseases as well as oculocutaneous albinism [1].
• We prepared horizontal slices of the temporal entorhinal-hippocampal region of the rat on a vibratome, and the perforant path axons were traced by application of the fluorescent tracer Mini Ruby on the entorhinal cortex [6].

Associations of Rab38 with chemical compounds

• A combination of Triton X-114 phase separation and nickel-affinity chromatography yielded exclusively prenylated Rab38 that bound [alpha-32P]-GTP [1].
• In this report, mass spectra generated from human serum or rat liver proteins stained with either colloidal Coomassie blue, Daiichi silver, SYPRO Orange, SYPRO Red, SYPRO Ruby, or SYPRO Tangerine are compared [7].

References