Players Tour Championship

The Players Tour Championship is a series of snooker tournaments comprising six minor-ranking events played in Europe, and an Asian leg comprising three minor-ranking events. The series concludes with a Grand Final, where qualification is based on performance in the other PTC events, and carries the status of a full ranking tournament. Each regular event lasts for at least three days, with qualifying days for amateurs should the event be oversubscribed. Each event costs £100 to enter, and Main Tour players can gain ranking points in the events.

History

The inaugural series ran from late June, with six events at the World Snooker Academy in Sheffield, one in Gloucester and another five in mainland Europe (with 3 in Germany). The finals took place in March featuring the best 24 players who had won the most money and played at least 6 events; 3 in Sheffield and 3 in mainland Europe. The prize money at each event was £50,000 or €50,000 at the regular events, with a total of £200,000 available in the Finals. The first event was held in the World Snooker Academy from 25 to 27 June 2010. In the first season the six events at the Academy were sponsored by Star Xing Pai. The prize money for the Finals was increased to £250,000 in 2011/2012. Originally the events played outside Sheffield were called Euro Players Tour Championship, but this distinction was abandoned for the second season.

Ataluren

Ataluren, formerly known as PTC124, is a pharmaceutical drug for the treatment of Duchenne muscular dystrophy and potentially other genetic disorders. It was designed by PTC Therapeutics and is sold under the trade name Translarna in the European Union.

Medical uses

Ataluren has been tested on healthy humans and humans carrying genetic disorders caused by nonsense mutations, such as some people with cystic fibrosis and Duchenne muscular dystrophy. It is approved for the use in Duchenne in the European Union.

Mechanism of action

Ataluren makes ribosomes less sensitive to premature stop codons (referred to as "read-through"). This may be beneficial in diseases such as Duchenne muscular dystrophy where the mRNA contains a mutation causing premature stop codons or nonsense codons. There is ongoing debate over whether Ataluren is truly a functional drug (inducing codon read-through), or if it is nonfunctional, and the result was a false-positive hit from a biochemical screen based on luciferase.

Ptc1

Ptc1 is a type Two C phosphatase involved in the mating decision of yeast. Ptc1 competes with Fus3 for control of the 4 phosphorylation sites on the scaffold protein Ste5. Presence of the mating pheromone α-factor causes Ptc1 to be recruited to Ste5. This recruitment takes place via a 4 amino acid motif in the Ste5 phosphosites.

Ptc1 is also involved in regulating the osmotic stress of yeast, especially via inactivation of Hog1, a member of the MAPK pathway. This inactivation occurred as a result of dephosphorylation of the phosphotheronine but not the phosphotyrosine residue in the phosphorylation lip of Hog1.

It can be localized to the cytoplasm and nucleus.

Biological Processes

Ptc1 is involved in the following biological processes:

References