Observation of additional calcium ion in the crystal structure of the triple mutant K56,120,121M of bovine pancreatic phospholipase A2

Phospholipase A(2) catalyses hydrolysis of the ester bond at the C2 position of 3-sn-phosphoglycerides. Here we report the 1.9A resolution crystal structure of the triple mutant K56,120,121M of bovine pancreatic phospholipase A(2). The structure was solved by molecular replacement method using the orthorhombic form of the recombinant phospholipase A(2). The final protein model contains all the 123 amino acid residues, two calcium ions, 125 water molecules and one 2-methyl-2-4-pentanediol molecule. The model has been refined to a crystallographic R-factor of 19.6% (R(free) of 25.9%) for all data between 14.2A and 1.9A. The residues 62-66, which are in a surface loop, are always disordered in the structures of bovine pancreatic phospholipase A(2) and its mutants. It is interesting to note that the residues 62-66 in the present structure is ordered and the conformation varies substantially from those in the previously published structures of this enzyme. An unexpected and interesting observation in the present structure is that, in addition to the functionally important calcium ion in the active site, one more calcium ion is found near the N terminus. Detailed structural analyses suggest that binding of the second calcium ion could be responsible for the conformational change and the ordering of the surface loop. Furthermore, the results suggest a structural reciprocity between the k(cat)(*) allosteric site and surface loop at the i-face, which represents a newly identified structural property of secreted phospholipase A(2).     

Assessment of phytochemicals,antioxidant and antimutagenic activity in micropropagated plants of Quercus serrata,a high value tree species of Himalaya

The major aim of the present study was to: (i) develop an efficient clonal in vitro propagation procedure, and (ii) investigate and compare phytochemicals, antioxidant, and DNA damage protection activity in methanolic extracts of in vitro raised and mother plant leaves of Quercus serrata. The study succeeded in establishing an efficient clonal micropropagation procedure using nodal segments taken from in vivo growing mother plant. The WP medium supplemented with six-benzyleaminopurine (BAP: 8.88 μM) plus indole-3-acetic acid (IAA: 1.43μM) produced the highest number of shoots/explant having maximum average shoot length. In vitro derived shoots exhibited best rooting upon application of 100μM indole-3-butyric acid for 48 h. Among studied phytochemicals, the total phenol content was recorded higher from in vitro raised plants and total flavonoid in the mother plant. Antioxidant activities were recorded higher in case of in vitro raised plants. Also, the methanolic leaf extract of in vitro raised plants exhibited higher antimutagenic activity that of mother plant. These findings indicate Q. serrata as a promising source of natural antioxidants that could be utilized commercially for the prevention of photoaging and oxidative stress-mediated skin diseases.     

Modeling the structure of the frameshift-stimulatory pseudoknot in SARS-CoV-2 reveals multiple possible conformers

The coronavirus causing the COVID-19 pandemic, SARS-CoV-2, uses −1 programmed ribosomal frameshifting (−1 PRF) to control the relative expression of viral proteins. As modulating −1 PRF can inhibit viral replication, the RNA pseudoknot stimulating −1 PRF may be a fruitful target for therapeutics treating COVID-19. We modeled the unusual 3-stem structure of the stimulatory pseudoknot of SARS-CoV-2 computationally, using multiple blind structural prediction tools followed by μs-long molecular dynamics simulations. The results were compared for consistency with nuclease-protection assays and single-molecule force spectroscopy measurements of the SARS-CoV-1 pseudoknot, to determine the most likely conformations. We found several possible conformations for the SARS-CoV-2 pseudoknot, all having an extended stem 3 but with different packing of stems 1 and 2. Several conformations featured rarely-seen threading of a single strand through junctions formed between two helices. These structural models may help interpret future experiments and support efforts to discover ligands inhibiting −1 PRF in SARS-CoV-2.     

Conserved Water Mediated H-bonding Dynamics of Inhibitor,Cofactor, Asp 364 and Asn 303 in Human IMPDH II

Abstract

The IMPDH (Inosine monophosphate dehydrogenase)-II is largely produced in cancer cells. Extensive MD-simulation (2 ns) of the 1B3O, 1NFB, 1NF7, 1LRT, and 1MEW PDB-structures revealed the presence of a conserved water molecule, which is H-bonded and stabilized by the surrounding ribose hydroxyl (O2) of inhibitor, nitrogen (NN) of cofactor, carboxyl oxygen (OD2) and amide nitrogen atoms of the active site Asp 364 and Asn 303 of human. These water-mediated interaction are partially supported in the solvated and X-ray structures. The stereochemistry of the four- centered H-bonds around the conserved water center may be exploited to design a better model inhibitor for IMPDH-II.     

DASH: a method for identical-by-descent haplotype mapping uncovers association with recent variation

Rare variants affecting phenotype pose a unique challenge for human genetics. Although genome-wide association studies have successfully detected many common causal variants, they are underpowered in identifying disease variants that are too rare or population-specific to be imputed from a general reference panel and thus are poorly represented on commercial SNP arrays. We set out to overcome these challenges and detect association between disease and rare alleles using SNP arrays by relying on long stretches of genomic sharing that are identical by descent. We have developed an algorithm, DASH, which builds upon pairwise identical-by-descent shared segments to infer clusters of individuals likely to be sharing a single haplotype. DASH constructs a graph with nodes representing individuals and links on the basis of such segments spanning a locus and uses an iterative minimum cut algorithm to identify densely connected components. We have applied DASH to simulated data and diverse GWAS data sets by constructing haplotype clusters and testing them for association. In simulations we show this approach to be significantly more powerful than single-marker testing in an isolated population that is from Kosrae, Federated States of Micronesia and has abundant IBD, and we provide orthogonal information for rare, recent variants in the outbred Wellcome Trust Case-Control Consortium (WTCCC) data. In both cohorts, we identified a number of haplotype associations, five such loci in the WTCCC data and ten in the isolated, that were conditionally significant beyond any individual nearby markers. We have replicated one of these loci in an independent European cohort and identified putative structural changes in low-pass whole-genome sequence of the cluster carriers.     

A method to find palindromes in nucleic acid sequences

Various types of sequences in the human genome are known to play important roles in different aspects of genomic functioning. Among these sequences, palindromic nucleic acid sequences are one such type that have been studied in detail and found to influence a wide variety of genomic characteristics. For a nucleotide sequence to be considered as a palindrome, its complementary strand must read the same in the opposite direction. For example, both the strands i.e the strand going from 5'' to 3'' and its complementary strand from 3'' to 5'' must be complementary. A typical nucleotide palindromic sequence would be TATA (5'' to 3'') and its complimentary sequence from 3'' to 5'' would be ATAT. Thus, a new method has been developed using dynamic programming to fetch the palindromic nucleic acid sequences. The new method uses less memory and thereby it increases the overall speed and efficiency. The proposed method has been tested using the bacterial (3891 KB bases) and human chromosomal sequences (Chr-18: 74366 kb and Chr-Y: 25554 kb) and the computation time for finding the palindromic sequences is in milli seconds.     

Isolation of a TRAIL antagonist from the serum of HIV-infected patients

Virus-host interactions are characterized by the selection of adaptive mechanisms by which to evade pathogenic and defense mechanisms, respectively. In primary T cells infected with HIV, HIV infection up-regulates TNF-related apoptosis inducing ligand (TRAIL) and death-inducing TRAIL receptors, but blockade of TRAIL:TRAIL receptor interaction does not alter HIV-induced cell death. Instead, HIV infection results in a novel splice variant that we call TRAIL-short (TRAIL-s), which antagonizes TRAIL-R2. In HIV patients, plasma TRAIL-s concentration increases with increasing viral load and renders cells resistant to TRAIL-induced death. Knockdown of TRAIL-s abrogates this resistance. We propose that TRAIL-s is a novel adaptive mechanism of apoptosis resistance acquired by HIV-infected cells to avoid their elimination by TRAIL-dependent effector mechanism.     

Molecular detection and ecological significance of the cyanobacterial genera Geitlerinema and Leptolyngbya in black band disease of corals

Black band disease (BBD) is a pathogenic, sulfide-rich microbial mat dominated by filamentous cyanobacteria that infect corals worldwide. We isolated cyanobacteria from BBD into culture, confirmed their presence in the BBD community by using denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE), and demonstrated their ecological significance in terms of physiological sulfide tolerance and photosynthesis-versus-irradiance values. Twenty-nine BBD samples were collected from nine host coral species, four of which have not previously been investigated, from reefs of the Florida Keys, the Bahamas, St. Croix, and the Philippines. From these samples, seven cyanobacteria were isolated into culture. Cloning and sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene using universal primers indicated that four isolates were related to the genus Geitlerinema and three to the genus Leptolyngbya. DGGE results, obtained using Cyanobacteria-specific 16S rRNA primers, revealed that the most common BBD cyanobacterial sequence, detected in 26 BBD field samples, was related to that of an Oscillatoria sp. The next most common sequence, 99% similar to that of the Geitlerinema BBD isolate, was present in three samples. One Leptolyngbya- and one Phormidium-related sequence were also found. Laboratory experiments using isolates of BBD Geitlerinema and Leptolyngbya revealed that they could carry out sulfide-resistant oxygenic photosynthesis, a relatively rare characteristic among cyanobacteria, and that they are adapted to the sulfide-rich, low-light BBD environment. The presence of the cyanotoxin microcystin in these cultures and in BBD suggests a role in BBD pathogenicity. Our results confirm the presence of Geitlerinema in the BBD microbial community and its ecological significance, which have been challenged, and provide evidence of a second ecologically significant BBD cyanobacterium, Leptolyngbya.     

Association of ALOX5AP with ischemic stroke: a population-based case-control study

Arachidonate 5-lipoxygenase activating protein (ALOX5AP) has been reported to demonstrate linkage and association with ischemic stroke and myocardial infarction. However, replication studies have been conflicting and to date, a significant proportion of blacks have not been studied. We prospectively recruited cases of ischemic stroke from all 16 hospitals in the Greater Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky region and demographically matched them to stroke-free population-based controls. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were selected based on association with ischemic stroke in prior studies. Allelic, genotypic and haplotypic association testing was performed using HAPLOVIEW. Multiple logistic regression was used to control for the presence of traditional risk factors including hypertension, diabetes, hypercholesterolemia and smoking. A total of 357 cases and 482 controls were genotyped. The SNPs, rs9579646 and rs4769874 were found to be significantly associated at both allelic (P = 0.019 and P < 10⁻⁴, respectively) and genotypic level with ischemic stroke among whites after correction for multiple testing. Haplotype association was identified with ischemic stroke as well as ischemic stroke subtypes among whites. Although an overall haplotype association with ischemic stroke was identified among blacks no evidence of association among individual haplotypes, alleles or genotypes were observed. Allele frequencies for the SNPs examined were markedly different among whites and blacks. In conclusion, we report significant association of variants of ALOX5AP with ischemic stroke and ischemic stroke subtypes among whites. No significant association was identified among blacks.     

Evolutionary insights from suffix array-based genome sequence analysis

Gene and protein sequence analyses, central components of studies in modern biology are easily amenable to string matching and pattern recognition algorithms. The growing need of analysing whole genome sequences more efficiently and thoroughly, has led to the emergence of new computational methods. Suffix trees and suffix arrays are data structures, well known in many other areas and are highly suited for sequence analysis too. Here we report an improvement to the design of construction of suffix arrays. Enhancement in versatility and scalability, enabled by this approach, is demonstrated through the use of real-life examples.The scalability of the algorithm to whole genomes renders it suitable to address many biologically interesting problems. One example is the evolutionary insight gained by analysing unigrams, bi-grams and higher n-grams, indicating that the genetic code has a direct influence on the overall composition of the genome. Further, different proteomes have been analysed for the coverage of the possible peptide space, which indicate that as much as a quarter of the total space at the tetra-peptide level is left un-sampled in prokaryotic organisms, although almost all tri-peptides can be seen in one protein or another in a proteome. Besides, distinct patterns begin to emerge for the counts of particular tetra and higher peptides, indicative of a ‘meaning’ for tetra and higher n-grams.The toolkit has also been used to demonstrate the usefulness of identifying repeats in whole proteomes efficiently. As an example, 16 members of one COG, coded by the genome of Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Rv have been found to contain a repeating sequence of 300 amino acids.