More recently, one of the major β-defensins produced in skin, β-defensin 3, has been discovered to function as a melanocortin receptor ligand in vivo and in vitro, but its biophysical and pharmacological basis of action has been enigmatic.
However, ROS have also been discovered to function as important regulators of many biological processes, such as cell growth and development, hormone signaling and stress responses [1].
Histones, as chromatin structure proteins, have recently been discovered to function as DAMPs involved in multiple cellular processes.
Rho GTPases have recently been discovered to function as key mediators of β-catenin nuclear translocation and the available data demonstrated significant roles of GTPases in chondrocyte hypertrophy, maturation and OA development [ 69- 80].
The gene cluster rrnS-CR trnI-trnQ-trnM-nad2 in the proposed ancestral mitogenome has been discovered to function as a hot spot for gene rearrangements in arthropod mitogenomes.
This gene came into sight when it was discovered to function in the synaptic development of neurons such as plasticity, polarization and targeting (Borrell et al., 1999; Matsuki et al., 2010; Rogers et al., 2011).
lncRNAs have been discovered to perform regulatory functions in various biological processes, including cell cycle, pluripotency, cell differentiation and development, due to its special property to interact with both DNAs and proteins 35, 36.
As our results point to an anti-apoptotic effect of AtTCTP on mammalian BAX-induced PCD in planta, and as plant proteins have been discovered to have comparable functions to mammalian Bcl-2 family proteins, it could be assumed that AtTCTP acts in a similar way as mammalian TCTP.
In addition to this well-known role as an ECM, hemicentin-1 has recently been discovered to have another unique function [ 7].
Small proteins have recently been discovered to play important roles in biological functions.
Sin3 has recently been discovered to be involved in various cellular functions ranging from T-cell development, cell-cycle progression, differentiation, senescence, protein stabilization, energy metabolism and cell survival [ 4, 8, 9, 12, 14– 20].
