Whole-cell antigens of members of the sulfate-reducing genus Desulfovibrio

Antisera have been developed against the wholecell antigens of Desulfovibrio africanus Benghazi and Walvis Bay, D. vulgaris Hildenborough, D. salexigens British Guiana, D. gigas, and D. desulfuricans Essex 6. An enzymelinked immunoadsorption assay (ELISA) was developed to measure the reaction of these antisera with the homologous and heterologous antigens. The ELISA method demonstrated a reaction between pre-immune sera and cells of D. africanus, D. gigas and D. desulfuricans, suggesting the presence of a lectin-like substance on these cell surfaces. Extensive cross-reactions were seen between the antisera and heterologous cells, suggesting the sharing of a number of surface antigens amongst the Desulfovibrio. However, the pattern of these cross-reactions was different from that observed for an ELISA reaction developed for the cytochrome c₃ from various Desulfovibrio.Abbreviation ELISA enzyme-linked immunoadsorption assay     

Properties of the ATP-sensitive K+ current activated by levcromakalim in isolated pulmonary arterial myocytes

Tension and patch clamp recording techniques were used to investigate the relaxation of rabbit pulmonary artery and the properties of the K⁺ current activated by levcromakalim in isolated myocytes. Under whole-cell voltage clamp, holding at –60 mV in symmetrical 139 mm K⁺, levcromakalim (10 m) induced a noisy inward current of –116 ± 19 pA (n = 13) which developed over 1 to 2 min. This current could be blocked by either glibenclamide (10 m) or phencyclidine (5–50 M) and was unaffected when extracellular Ca²⁺ was removed. Both these drugs inhibited the levcromakalim-induced relaxation of muscle strips precontracted with 20 mm [K⁺] _o . Application of voltage ramps in symmetrical 139 mm K⁺ confirmed that the levcromakalim-induced current was carried by K⁺ ions and was weakly voltage dependent over the potential range from –100 to +40 mV.The unitary current amplitude and density of the channels underlying the levcromakalim-activated whole-cell K⁺ current was estimated from the noise in the current record. We estimate that levcromakalim caused activation of around 300 channels per cell, with a single channel current of 1.1 pA, corresponding to a slope conductance of about 19 pS. Furthermore, cells dialyzed with an ATP-free pipette solution developed a large noisy inward current at –60 mV, which could subsequently be blocked by flash photolysis of caged ATP. Analysis of the noise associated with this current indicated that the single channel amplitude underlying the ATP-blocked current was 1.4 pA, a value similar to that estimated for the levcromakalim-induced current. We conclude that the conductance of this ATP-sensitive channel is likely to be small under physiological conditions and that it is present at low density.We thank SmithKline & Beecham for the gift of levcromakalim, ICI Pharmaceuticals for the gift of charybdotoxin and Prof. D. Colquhoun for the noise analysis programs. We also thank Mr. R. Davey for technical assistance with tension experiments. This work was supported by the British Heart Foundation and the Wellcome Trust. L.H.C. is a Wellcome Research Fellow and P.L. is an intermediate fellow of the BHF.     

Characterization of mechanosensitive channels in Escherichia coli cytoplasmic membrane by whole-cell patch clamp recording

Whole-cell patch clamp recordings were done on giant protoplasts of Escherichia coli. The pressure sensitivity of the protoplasts was studied. Two different unit conductance mechanosensitive channels, 1100 ± 25 pS and 350 ± 14 pS in 400 mm symmetric KCl solution, were observed upon either applying positive pressure to the interior of the cells or down shocking the cells osmotically. The 1100 pS conductance channel discriminated poorly among the monovalent ions tested and it was permeable to Ca²⁺ and glutamate^?. Both of the two channels were sensitive to the osmotic gradient across the membrane; the unit conductances of the channels remained constant while the mean current of the cell was increased by increasing the osmotic gradient. Both of the channels were voltage sensitive. Voltage-ramp results showed that the pressure sensitivity of protoplasts was voltage dependent: there were more channels active upon depolarization than hyperpolarization. The mech anosensitive channels were reversibly blocked by gadolinium ion. Also they could reversibly be inhibited by protons. Mutations in two of the potassium efflux systems, KefB and KefC, did not affect the channel activity, while a null mutation in the gene for KefA changed the channel activity significantly. This indicates a potential modulation of these channels by KefA.     

Contribution of Val/Ile87 residue in the extracellular domain in agonist-induced current responses of the human and rat P2X7 receptors

Purinergic Signalling - The P2X7 receptor (P2X7R) is an ATP-gated cation channel with a critical role in many physiological and pathological processes, and shows prominent functional differences...     

Stereoselective synthesis of the key intermediate of ticagrelor and its diverse analogs using a new alcohol dehydrogenase from Rhodococcus kyotonensis

Bioreduction catalyzed by alcohol dehydrogenase/reductase is one of the most valuable biotransformation processes widely used in industry. The (S)-2-Chloro-1-(3, 4-difluorophenyl) ethanol is a key chiral synthon for synthesizing the antithrombotic agent ticagrelor. Herein, a new alcohol dehydrogenase (named Rhky-ADH) identified from Rhodococcus kyotonensis by an enzyme promiscuity-based genome mining method was successfully cloned and functionally expressed in Escherichia coli. The whole cell biocatalyst harboring Rhky-ADH was biochemically characterized and was shown to be able to convert 2-Chloro-1-(3, 4-difluorophenyl) ethanone to (S)-2-Chloro-1-(3, 4-difluorophenyl) ethanol with more than 99 % enantiomeric excess (ee) and 99 % conversion. Our data showed that the optimum temperature and pH for Rhky-ADH were 25 °C and pH 8.0, respectively. The addition of NADH and an appropriate concentration of isopropanol enhanced the activity of Rhky-ADH, and 1 mM Mn²⁺ increased the enzyme activity by about 8 %. Substrate specificity experiments showed that Rhky-ADH had notable enzyme promiscuity and could reduce several ketones with high stereoselectivity. Our investigation on this novel enzyme adds another rare biocatalyst to the toolbox for producing chiral alcohols, which are widely used in the pharmaceutical industry.     

Effect of hydrophobicity degree of polymer particles on lipase immobilization and on biocatalyst performance

Abstract

Many studies describe the advantages of using hydrophobic particles on lipase immobilisation. However, many of these works neglect the effect of other variables of the supports, such as specific area and porosity, on the biocatalyst performance, and do not evaluate the influence of the hydrophobicity level of the particles on the biocatalysts’ activity as a single variable. Thus, the focus of the present work was to evaluate the effect of the hydrophobicity degree of polymeric particles on the biocatalysts’ activities, mitigating the influence of other variables. The study was divided into two steps. Firstly, distinct particles, exhibiting different composition and hydrophobicity levels, were used for the immobilization of a commercial lipase B from Candida antarctica (CAL-B). Then, distinct core-shell polymeric particles presenting different functional compounds on the surface were produced, using as comonomers styrene, divinylbenzene, 1-octene, vinylbenzoate and cardanol. Such particles were subsequently used for CAL-B immobilisation and the performance of the biocatalysts was evaluated on hydrolysis (using p-nitrophenyl laurate, as substrate) and esterification (using ethanol and oleic acid, as substrate) reactions. Based on the screening step, it was observed that for non-porous particles the correlation coefficients between the hydrophobicity level of the supports and the biocatalysts performance, for both hydrolysis and esterification reactions, were very low (0.32 and 0.45, respectively). It highlights that there was no significant correlation between these variables and that, probably, the chemical composition of the polymeric chains affects more significantly the biocatalyst performance. Then, analysing the subsequent stage, it was observed that small changes in the surface composition of the core-shell particles result in significant changes on the textural properties of the supports (specific area ranging from 1.2?m².g^?1 to 18.3?m².g^?1; and contact angles ranging from 71° (hydrophilic particles) to 92° (hydrophobic supports) when polymer films were put in contact with water). Such particles were also employed on CAL-B immobilization and it was noticed that higher correlation coefficients were achieved for hydrolysis (ρ?=?0.53) and esterification (ρ?=?0.74) reactions. Therefore, it is shown that the hydrophobicity degree of such supports starts to affect more effectively the biocatalysts performance when other textural features of the supports become more significant, such as specific area and porosity.     

重组大肠杆菌全细胞催化L-苏氨酸合成2,5-二甲基吡嗪

2,5-二甲基吡嗪 (2,5-dimethylpyrazine,2,5-DMP) 在食品香料与医药方面具有重要的经济价值,工业上普遍采用环境不友好且反应条件苛刻的化学合成法来生产。文中结合代谢工程和辅因子工程策略设计高效催化L-苏氨酸合成2,5-DMP的全细胞催化剂,实现微生物转化法合成2,5-DMP。本研究首先分析了不同微生物来源的苏氨酸脱氢酶 (Threonine dehydrogenase,TDH) 对2,5-DMP合成的影响,发现来源于大肠杆菌Escherichia coli中EcTDH具有最佳的催化能力,2,5-DMP产量达到 (438.3±23.7) mg/L。随后结合辅因子工程,通过引入乳脂链球菌Lactococcus cremoris中NADH氧化酶 (NADH oxidase,LcNoxE) 并优化其表达方式发现通过融合表达EcTDH和LcNoxE可平衡胞内NADH/NAD+水平,维持较高细胞存活率,进一步提高2,5-DMP产量。最后,通过阻断合成2,5-DMP的支路代谢途径,可以显著减少副产物积累,增加2,5-DMP产量,同时提高L-苏氨酸转化率。最终获得的重组菌EcΔkΔAΔBΔA/TDHEcNoxELc-PSstT在含有5 g/L L-苏氨酸的转化体系中于37 ℃、200 r/min孵化24 h,可积累 (1 095.7±81.3) mg/L的2,5-DMP,L-苏氨酸转化率达到76%,产物得率为0.288 g/(g L-苏氨酸)。因此,文中构建的重组菌可以实现高效催化L-苏氨酸合成2,5-DMP,具有一定的工业应用潜力。