Effect of combination of high-intensity ultrasound treatment and dextran glycosylation on structural and interfacial properties of buckwheat protein isolates

This study investigated the effects of high-intensity ultrasound and glycosylation on the structural and interfacial properties of the Maillard reaction conjugates of buckwheat protein isolate (BPI). The covalent attachment of dextran to BPI was confirmed by examination of the Fourier-transform infrared spectra. Emulsifying properties of the conjugates obtained by ultrasound treatment were improved as compared to those obtained by classical heating. Structural feature analyses suggested that conjugates obtained by ultrasound treatment had less α-helix and more random coil, higher surface hydrophobicity and less compact tertiary structure as compared to those obtained by classical heating. The surface activity measurement revealed that the BPI–dextran conjugates obtained by ultrasound treatment were closely packed and that each molecule occupied a small area of the interface. Combination of ultrasonic treatment and glycosylation was proved to be an efficient way to develop new stabilizers and thickening agents for food in this study.     

microRNA-1298 inhibits the malignant behaviors of breast cancer cells via targeting ADAM9

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) regulate the progression of human malignancy by targeting oncogenes or tumor suppressors, which are 12 promising targets for cancer treatment. Increasing evidence has suggested the aberrant expression and tumor-suppressive function of miR-1298 in cancers, however, the regulatory mechanism of miR-1298 in breast cancer (BC) remains unclear. Here, our findings showed that miR-1298 was down-regulated in BC tissues and cell lines. Lower level of miR-1298 was significantly correlated with the advanced progression of BC patients. Experimental study showed that overexpression of miR-1298 inhibited the proliferation, induced apoptosis and cell cycle arrest in BC cells. The in vivo xenograft mice model showed that highly expressed miR-1298 significantly reduced the tumor growth and metastasis. Further mechanism analysis revealed that miR-1298 bound the 3′-untranslated region (UTR) of a disintegrin and metalloproteinase 9 domain (ADAM9) and suppressed the expression of ADAM9 in BC cells. ADAM9 was overexpressed in BC tissues and inversely correlated with miR-1298. Down-regulation of ADAM9 induced apoptosis and cell cycle arrest of BC cells. Moreover, ectopic expression of ADAM9 by transiently transfecting with vector encoding the full coding sequence of ADAM9 attenuated the inhibitory effects of miR-1298 on the proliferation and cell cycle progression of BC cells. Collectively, our results illustrated that miR-1298 played a suppressive role in regulating the phenotype of BC cells through directly repressing ADAM9, suggesting the potential application of miR-1298 in the therapy of BC.     

Temporal,cell-specific,and tissue-preferential expression of myrosinase genes during embryo and seedling development in Sinapis alba

The expression of the genes for two types of myrosinase (EC 3.2.3.1), designated MA and MB, during embryo and seedling development was investigated in Sinapis alba L. by in-situ and RNA slot-blot analyses. The expression of MA and MB genes followed similar temporal profiles during embryogenesis, but MB mRNA was present in considerably higher amounts than MA mRNA. In the embryo, both MA and MB genes are activated in cotyledons and axis. The MB genes are preferentially expressed in the cotyledons whereas MA genes are preferentially expressed in the axis. In the developing seedling, MA mRNA was not present in the organs investigated. By contrast, MB mRNA was found in appreciable amounts in hypocotyls, cotyledons and developing leaves. The MB genes seem to be activated preferentially in tissues undergoing rapid cell division and — or cell expansion.Abbreviations DAP days after pollination - MA, MB A type, B type myrosinases in Sinapis alba Anna-Stina Höglund (Uppsala Genetic Center) is gratefully acknowledged for valuable discussion, Anders Gobl (Department of Immunology, Uppsala University) for kindly advice with the labeling of probes and Qingzhu Zhai (Department of Pharmaceutical Biosciences, Uppsala University) for help with seed harvest. This work was supported by grants from the Swedish Research Council for Forestry and Agriculture.     

Comparative Analysis of Endogenous Hormones and Metabolite Profiles in Early-Spring Flowering Plants and Unflowered Plants Revealing the Strategy of Blossom

Journal of Plant Growth Regulation - Early-spring plants are a special type of plant that complete their life cycle promptly in cold, early spring. Very little effort has been made into researching...     

β2-Microglobulin Amyloid Fibrils Are Nanoparticles That Disrupt Lysosomal Membrane Protein Trafficking and Inhibit Protein Degradation by Lysosomes

Fragmentation of amyloid fibrils produces fibrils that are reduced in length but have an otherwise unchanged molecular architecture. The resultant nanoscale fibril particles inhibit the cellular reduction of the tetrazolium dye 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT), a substrate commonly used to measure cell viability, to a greater extent than unfragmented fibrils. Here we show that the internalization of β₂-microglobulin (β₂m) amyloid fibrils is dependent on fibril length, with fragmented fibrils being more efficiently internalized by cells. Correspondingly, inhibiting the internalization of fragmented β₂m fibrils rescued cellular MTT reduction. Incubation of cells with fragmented β₂m fibrils did not, however, cause cell death. Instead, fragmented β₂m fibrils accumulate in lysosomes, alter the trafficking of lysosomal membrane proteins, and inhibit the degradation of a model protein substrate by lysosomes. These findings suggest that nanoscale fibrils formed early during amyloid assembly reactions or by the fragmentation of longer fibrils could play a role in amyloid disease by disrupting protein degradation by lysosomes and trafficking in the endolysosomal pathway.     

Enhanced catalytic efficiency and enantioselectivity of epoxide hydrolase from Agrobacterium radiobacter AD1 by iterative saturation mutagenesis for (R)-epichlorohydrin synthesis

Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology - Enantioselective hydrolysis of epoxides by epoxide hydrolase (EH) is one of the most attractive approaches for the synthesis of chiral epoxides. So far,...     

Isolation of enantioselective α-hydroxyacid dehydrogenases based on a high-throughput screening method

To isolate enantioselective α-hydroxyacid dehydrogenases (α-HADHs), a high-throughput screening method was established. 2,4-Dinitrophenylhydrazine solution forms a red-brown complex with ketoacid produced during the α-HADH-mediated oxidation of α-hydroxyacid. The complex can be easily quantified by spectrophotometric measurement at 458?nm. The enantioselectivity of α-HADH in each strain can be measured with this colorimetric method using (R)- and (S)-α-hydroxyacid concurrently as substrates to evaluate the apparent enantioselectivity (E _app). The E _app closely matches the value of true enantioselectivity (E _true) determined by HPLC analysis. With this method, a total of 34 stains harboring enantioselective α-HADHs were selected from 526 potential α-HADH-producing microorganisms. Pseudomonas aeruginosa displayed the highest (S)-enantioselective α-HADH activity. This strain appears promising for potential application in industry to produce (R)-α-hydroxyacids. The method described herein represents a useful tool for the high-throughput isolation of enantioselective α-HADHs.