A family of amphiphilic dioxidovanadium(V) hydrazone complexes as potent carbonic anhydrase inhibitors along with anti-diabetic and cytotoxic activities

BioMetals - A family of dioxidovanadium(V) complexes (1–4) of the type [Na(H2O)x]+[VVO2(HL1?4)]? (x?=?4, 4.5 and 7) where HL2? represents the dianionic form of...     

Integration of microalgal cultivation system for wastewater remediation and sustainable biomass production

Untreated wastewaters have been a great concern and can cause major pollution problems for environment. Conventional approaches for treating wastewater involve tremendous capital cost, have major short comings and are not sustainable. Microalgae culture offers an interesting step for wastewater treatment. Microalgae serve the dual purpose of phycoremediation along with the production of potentially valuable biomass, which can be used for several purposes. The ability of microalgae to accumulate nitrogen, phosphorus, heavy metals and other toxic compounds can be integrated with wastewater treatment system to offer an elegant solution towards tertiary and quaternary treatment. The current review explores possible role of microalgal based wastewater treatment and explores the current progress, key challenges, limitations and future prospects with special emphasis on strategies involved in harvesting, boosting biomass and lipid yield.     

Lipid rafts, fluid/fluid phase separation, and their relevance to plasma membrane structure and function

Novel biophysical approaches combined with modeling and new biochemical data have helped to recharge the lipid raft field and have contributed to the generation of a refined model of plasma membrane organization. In this review, we summarize new information in the context of previous literature to provide new insights into the spatial organization and dynamics of lipids and proteins in the plasma membrane of live cells. Recent findings of large-scale separation of liquid-ordered and liquid-disordered phases in plasma membrane vesicles demonstrate this capacity within the complex milieu of plasma membrane proteins and lipids. Roles for membrane heterogeneity and reorganization in immune cell activation are discussed in light of this new information.     

Probing protein heterogeneity in the plasma membrane using PALM and pair correlation analysis

Photoactivated localization microscopy (PALM) is a powerful approach for investigating protein organization, yet tools for quantitative, spatial analysis of PALM datasets are largely missing. Combining pair-correlation analysis with PALM (PC-PALM), we provide a method to analyze complex patterns of protein organization across the plasma membrane without determination of absolute protein numbers. The approach uses an algorithm to distinguish a single protein with multiple appearances from clusters of proteins. This enables quantification of different parameters of spatial organization, including the presence of protein clusters, their size, density and abundance in the plasma membrane. Using this method, we demonstrate distinct nanoscale organization of plasma-membrane proteins with different membrane anchoring and lipid partitioning characteristics in COS-7 cells, and show dramatic changes in glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI)-anchored protein arrangement under varying perturbations. PC-PALM is thus an effective tool with broad applicability for analysis of protein heterogeneity and function, adaptable to other single-molecule strategies.     

The nucleoporin Seh1 forms a complex with Mio and serves an essential tissue-specific function in Drosophila oogenesis

The nuclear pore complex (NPC) mediates the transport of macromolecules between the nucleus and cytoplasm. Recent evidence indicates that structural nucleoporins, the building blocks of the NPC, have a variety of unanticipated cellular functions. Here, we report an unexpected tissue-specific requirement for the structural nucleoporin Seh1 during Drosophila oogenesis. Seh1 is a component of the Nup107-160 complex, the major structural subcomplex of the NPC. We demonstrate that Seh1 associates with the product of the missing oocyte (mio) gene. In Drosophila, mio regulates nuclear architecture and meiotic progression in early ovarian cysts. Like mio, seh1 has a crucial germline function during oogenesis. In both mio and seh1 mutant ovaries, a fraction of oocytes fail to maintain the meiotic cycle and develop as pseudo-nurse cells. Moreover, the accumulation of Mio protein is greatly diminished in the seh1 mutant background. Surprisingly, our characterization of a seh1 null allele indicates that, although required in the female germline, seh1 is dispensable for the development of somatic tissues. Our work represents the first examination of seh1 function within the context of a multicellular organism. In summary, our studies demonstrate that Mio is a novel interacting partner of the conserved nucleoporin Seh1 and add to the growing body of evidence that structural nucleoporins can have novel tissue-specific roles.     

Lipid segregation and IgE receptor signaling: a decade of progress

Recent work to characterize the roles of lipid segregation in IgE receptor signaling has revealed a mechanism by which segregation of liquid ordered regions from disordered regions of the plasma membrane results in protection of the Src family kinase Lyn from inactivating dephosphorylation by a transmembrane tyrosine phosphatase. Antigen-mediated crosslinking of IgE receptors drives their association with the liquid ordered regions, commonly called lipid rafts, and this facilitates receptor phosphorylation by active Lyn in the raft environment. Previous work showed that the membrane skeleton coupled to F-actin regulates stimulated receptor phosphorylation and downstream signaling processes, and more recent work implicates cytoskeletal interactions with ordered lipid rafts in this regulation. These and other results provide an emerging view of the complex role of membrane structure in orchestrating signal transduction mediated by immune and other cell surface receptors.     

Structural determinants for partitioning of lipids and proteins between coexisting fluid phases in giant plasma membrane vesicles

The structural basis for organizational heterogeneity of lipids and proteins underlies fundamental questions about the plasma membrane of eukaryotic cells. A current hypothesis is the participation of liquid ordered (Lo) membrane domains (lipid rafts) in dynamic compartmentalization of membrane function, but it has been difficult to demonstrate the existence of these domains in live cells. Recently, giant plasma membrane vesicles (GPMVs) obtained by chemically induced blebbing of cultured cells were found to phase separate into optically resolvable, coexisting fluid domains containing Lo-like and liquid disordered (Ld)-like phases as identified by fluorescent probes. In the present study, we used these GPMVs to investigate the structural bases for partitioning of selected lipids and proteins between coexisting Lo-like/Ld-like fluid phases in compositionally complex membranes. Our results with lipid probes show that the structure of the polar headgroups, in addition to acyl chain saturation, can significantly affect partitioning. We find that the membrane anchor of proteins and the aggregation state of proteins both significantly influence their distributions between coexisting fluid phases in these biological membranes. Our results demonstrate the value of GPMVs for characterizing the phase preference of proteins and lipid probes in the absence of detergents and other perturbations of membrane structure.     

The attack of the phytopathogens and the trumpet solo: Identification of a novel plant antifungal peptide with distinct fold and disulfide bond pattern

Phytopathogens cause economic losses in agribusiness. Plant-derived compounds have been proposed to overcome this problem, including the antimicrobial peptides (AMPs). This paper reports the identification of Ps-AFP1, a novel AMP isolated from the Pisum sativum radicle. Ps-AFP1 was purified and evaluated against phytopathogenic fungi, showing clear effectiveness. In silico analyses were performed, suggesting an unusual fold and disulfide bond pattern. A novel fold and a novel AMP class were here proposed, the αβ-trumpet fold and αβ-trumpet peptides, respectively. The name αβ-trumpet was created due to the peptide's fold, which resembles the musical instrument. The Ps-AFP1 mechanism of action was also proposed. Microscopic analyses revealed that Ps-AFP1 could affect the fungus during the hyphal elongation from spore germination. Furthermore, confocal microscopy performed with Ps-AFP1 labeled with FITC shows that the peptide was localized at high concentration along the fungal cell surface. Due to low cellular disruption rates, it seems that the main target is the fungal cell wall. The binding thermogram and isothermal titration, molecular dynamics and docking analyses were also performed, showing that Ps-AFP1 could bind to chitin producing a stable complex. Data here reported provided novel structural–functional insights into the αβ-trumpet peptide fold.     

Production of nutritionally desirable fatty acids in seed oil of Indian mustard (Brassica juncea L.) by metabolic engineering

Development of a designer oilseed crop with improved yield attributes and enhanced nutritional quality for the benefits of mankind and animal husbandry is now achievable with the combination of genetic engineering and plant breeding. In spite of their immense importance, the fatty acid profiles of most oilseed crops are imbalanced that necessitate the use of metabolic engineering strategies to overcome the various shortfalls in order to improve the nutritional quality of these edible oils. Indian mustard (Brassica juncea L.), being one of the important oilseed crops in Indian subcontinent naturally contains ~50 % nutritionally undesirable very long chain unsaturated fatty acids (VLCUFAs), e.g. erucic acid (C_22:1). For the purpose of nutritional improvement of B. juncea seed oil, several metabolic engineering strategies have been employed to divert the carbon flux from the production of VLCUFAs to other important fatty acids. Stearic acid, being a saturated but nutritionally neutral fatty acid, is naturally inadequate in most of the conventional oil seeds. Due to its neutral effect on consumer’s health and as an important industrial ingredient, increased in planta production of stearic acid in the seed oil not only helps in reduction of production cost but also lessens the trans fatty acid production during commercial hydrogenation process. In this review metabolic engineering strategies to minimize the VLCUFAs along with increased production of stearic acid in the seed oil of B. juncea are discussed, so that further breeding attempts can be made to improve the nutritionally desirable fatty acid profile in the suitable cultivars of this important oilseed crop.