Crystal structure of human PACRG in complex with MEIG1 reveals roles in axoneme formation and tubulin binding

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Ammonium photo-production by heterocytous cyanobacteria: potentials and constraints

Over the last decades, production of microalgae and cyanobacteria has been developed for several applications, including novel foods, cosmetic ingredients and more recently biofuel. The sustainability of these promising developments can be hindered by some constraints, such as water and nutrient footprints. This review surveys data on N₂-fixing cyanobacteria for biomass production and ways to induce and improve the excretion of ammonium within cultures under aerobic conditions. The nitrogenase complex is oxygen sensitive. Nevertheless, nitrogen fixation occurs under oxic conditions due to cyanobacteria-specific characteristics. For instance, in some cyanobacteria, the vegetative cell differentiation in heterocyts provides a well-adapted anaerobic microenvironment for nitrogenase protection. Therefore, cell cultures of oxygenic cyanobacteria have been grown in laboratory and pilot photobioreactors (Dasgupta et al., 2010; Fontes et al., 1987; Moreno et al., 2003; Nayak & Das, 2013). Biomass production under diazotrophic conditions has been shown to be controlled by environmental factors such as light intensity, temperature, aeration rate, and inorganic carbon concentration, also, more specifically, by the concentration of dissolved oxygen in the culture medium. Currently, there is little information regarding the production of extracellular ammonium by heterocytous cyanobacteria. This review compares the available data on maximum ammonium concentrations and analyses the specific rate production in cultures grown as free or immobilized filamentous cyanobacteria. Extracellular production of ammonium could be coupled, as suggested by recent research on non-diazotrophic cyanobacteria, to that of other high value metabolites. There is little information available regarding the possibility for using diazotrophic cyanobacteria as cellular factories may be in regard of the constraints due to nitrogen fixation.     

l-Phenylalanyl-l-Glutamate-Stimulated, Chloride-Dependent Glutamate Binding Represents Glutamate Sequestration Mediated by an Exchange System

Stimulation of glutamate binding by the dipeptide L-phenylalanyl-L-glutamate (Phe-Glu) was inhibited by the peptidase inhibitor bestatin, suggesting that the stimulation was caused by glutamate liberated from the dipeptide and not by the dipeptide itself. It further suggests that this form of glutamate binding should be reinterpreted as glutamate sequestration and that stimulation of binding both by dipeptides and after preincubation with high concentrations of glutamate is likely to be due to counterflow accumulation. Several other criteria indicate that most of glutamate binding stimulated by chloride represents glutamate sequestration: Binding is reduced when the osmolarity of the incubation medium is increased, when membranes incubated with [3H]glutamate are lysed before filtration, and when membranes are made permeable by transient exposure to saponin. Moreover, dissociation of bound glutamate after a 100-fold dilution of the incubation medium is accelerated about 50 times by the addition of glutamate to the dilution medium. This result would be anomalous if glutamate were bound to a receptor site; it suggests instead that glutamate is transported in and out of membrane vesicles by a transport system that preferentially mediates exchange between internal and external glutamate. Glutamate binding contains a component of glutamate sequestration even when measured in the absence of chloride. Sequestration is adequately abolished only after treating membranes with detergents; even extensive lysis, sonication, and freezing/thawing may be insufficient.     

小麦叶绿体中CTK结合蛋白的结合活性研究

叶绿体中存在着与细胞分裂素(CTK)专一结合的蛋白质。这一蛋白与6-苄氨基嘌呤(6 BA)的亲和力很强,解离常数达3.7×10~(-8)mol/L。最大结合量为10.7 pmol 6 BA/mg蛋白,Seatchard分析表明只有一类结合位点。不同的叶绿体纯化步骤对CTK结合蛋白的活性有不同的影响,分离步骤少而快速的差速离心法可以得到具有较高结合活性的叶绿体。叶绿体经分离纯化后,低温保存时的结合活性较稳定,-20℃以下可以较长期保存。用EDTA预处理叶绿体,不降低CTK结合蛋白对6 BA的结合活性,而用高浓度的NaCl处理,可以使叶绿体结合6BA的能力明显下降。这说明EDTA不能使CTK结合蛋白从叶绿体膜系统表面解离,而高浓度NaCl则有这种可能性。     

Specific binding of three neurotoxins with phospholipase A2 activity to synaptosomal membrane preparations from the guinea pig brain

Snake presynaptic toxins such as crotoxin, β-bungarotoxin and taipoxin block neuromuscular transmission through inhibiting the release of acetylcholine by their phospholipase A₂ activities. On the other hand, many other phospholipase A₂s show little neurotoxicity. It is likely that the difference lies in whether high affinity binding to nerve cell membranes exists or not. To test this idea, crotoxin, β-bungarotoxin and taipoxin were first radioactively labeled with Na(¹²⁵I) without loss of their neurotoxicity. Using the radioactive toxins we have found that each of the three showed specific binding to synaptosomal membranes from guinea pig brain. In contrast, we could not detect specific binding of a non-neurotoxic pancreatic phospholipase A₂. Crotoxin and taipoxin, but not β-bungarotoxin, also bound specifically to membrane preparation from other tissues. The binding of each toxin was not greatly affected by the other two toxins. The photoaffinity labeling technique has been used to obtain further information about the components which bind crotoxin. For this purpose, (¹²⁵I) crotoxin was derivatized with N-hydroxysuccinimidyl-4-azidobenzoate. Autoradiographic analysis of the membranes following photoirradiation in the presence of the modified crotoxin revealed that an 85K dalton component was preferentially covalently conjugated with the crotoxin analogue in a specific manner.     

Comparative antioxidant enzyme study in freshwater fishes. II. Distribution of antioxidant enzymes and lipid peroxidation in omnivorous fish organs

Comparative studies were performed on the activities of superoxide dismutases, catalase and glutathione peroxidase in organ homogenates from three omnivorous fishes, the barbel, crucian carp and common carp. The lipid peroxidation and protein contents of organ homogenates were also compared. These comparative measurements primarily provide control values for subsequent toxicological examinations. The highest total superoxide dismutase activities were found in the liver or roe, kidney, heart and spleen in every cases. The antioxidant enzyme activities and other studied parameters of the organ homogenates partly appear to depend on the feeding mode, but are rather characteristic of the fish variety.     

编码叶绿体QB蛋白的psbA基因在E.coli中的转录表达研究(英文)

叶绿体中的psbA是一个编码QB蛋白的光调节基因。我们用带有豌豆psbA基因和lacZ基因融合体的质粒,研究了无光诱导下在E.coli中的表达。结果表明:含有psbA及其上游166碱基的DNA片段能在黑暗中表达。同时还表明,在植物中,psbA基因启动子是潜在的有较高活性的启动子,在黑暗中不能表达可能是由于受到特定的调节机制制约。叶绿体的psbA基因与E.coli的基因上游“pribnow”盒与“-35”盒有较高的同源性。这为叶绿体与光合原核生物有共同的起源提供了证据。     

Inhibition of nitric oxide synthesis increases mortality in Sindbis virus encephalitis.

Sindbis virus (SV) is an alphavirus that causes acute encephalomyelitis in mice. The outcome is determined by the strain of virus and by the age and genetic background of the host. The mortality rates after infection with NSV, a neurovirulent strain of SV, were as follows v: 81% (17 of 21) in BALB/cJ mice; 20% (4 of 20) in BALB/cByJ mice (P < 0.001); 100% in A/J, C57BL/6J, SJL, and DBA mice; and 79% (11 of 14) in immunodeficient scid/CB17 mice. Treatment with Nomega-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester (L-NAME), a nitric oxide synthetase (NOS) inhibitor, increased mortality to 100% (P < 0.05) in NSV-infected BALB/cJ mice, to 95% (P < 0.001) in BALB/cByJ mice, and to 100% in scid/CB17 mice. BALB/cJ and BALB/cByJ mice had similar levels of inducible NOS mRNA in their brains, which were not affected by L-NAME or NSV infection. Brain NOS activity was similar in BALB/cJ and BALB/cByJ mice before and after infection and was markedly inhibited by L-NAME. NSV replication in the brains of BALB/cJ mice, BALB/cByJ mice, and mice treated with L-NAME was similar. Treatment of N18 neuroblastoma cells with NO donors S-nitroso-N-acetylpenicillamine or sodium nitroprusside in vitro before infection increased cell viability at 42 to 48 h compared with untreated NSV-infected N18 cells with little effect on virus replication. These data suggest that NO protects mice from fatal encephalitis by a mechanism that does not directly involve the immune response or inhibition of virus growth but rather may enhance survival of the infected neuron until the immune response can control virus replication.