1H- and 31P-NMR studies of ditercalinium binding to a d(GCGC)2 and d(CCTATAGG)2 minihelices: a sequence specificity study

The structures of the complexes formed in aqueous solution between ditercalinium, a bis-intercalating drug, and both the self-complementary tetranucleotide d(GCGC)2 and octanucleotide d(CCTATAGG)2, have been investigated by 400-MHz 1H-nmr and 162-MHz 31P-nmr. All the nonexchangeable protons, as well as the exchangeable imino protons and the phosphorus signals, have been assigned. Both oligonucleotides have been shown to adopt a right-handed B-DNA type structure. The addition of ditercalinium to the oligonucleotides lead to the formation of complexes in slow exchange at the nmr time scale with the free helices. At all drug-to-helix ratios studied, the ditercalinium was found in the bound form, whereas free and complexed oligonucleotides were in slow exchange, allowing resonance assignments through two-dimensional chemical exchange experiments. for d(GCGC)2 the strong upfield shifts induced on all aromatic protons of both the bases and the drug by complexation with ditercalinium suggest an interaction by intercalation of the two rings. However, the loss of twofold symmetry upon binding, as well as the chemical shift variation of the drug proton signals of one of the chromophores with temperature and concentration, favor a model in which the drug-nucleotide complexes have one ring of the drug intercalated and the other stacked on top of the external base pair. The intermolecular contacts between drug protons and nucleotide protons give a defined geometry for complexation that is consistent with the proposed model. In contrast, with d(CCTATAGG)2 several drug-nucleotide complexes were formed and a large increase in line broadening was observed at high drug-to-DNA ratios, precluding a detailed analysis of these complexes. However, the large upfield shift in the imino proton resonances together with the shielding of the ditercalinium ring protons favor a model with bis-intercalation of ditercalinium. This model is supported by the downfield shift of at least 4 out of 14 phosphorus signals. The results are compared with those obtained on ditercalinium binding to the homologous sequences d(CGCG)2 and d(TTCGCGAA)2, and discussed in terms of sequence specificity.     

The Interaction Effect to Fertilization on the Mineral Nutrition of Canola Under Different Salinity Levels

Journal of Plant Growth Regulation - The objective of this work was to study the effect of increasing rates of salinity with and without fertilizer on the mineral nutrition of canola. It is about...     

A newly synthesized 6-methyl-7H,8H,9H-[1,2,4]triazolo[4,3-b][1,2,4]triazepin-8-one for potential inhibitor of adenosine A1 receptor: a combined experimental and computational studies

Abstract

6-Methyl-7H,8H,9H-[1,2,4]triazolo[4,3-b][1,2,4]triazepin-8-onehas been synthesized, characterized by spectroscopic techniques (FT-IR, ¹H and ¹³C NMR) and finally the structure was confirmed by single crystal X-ray diffraction studies. In the title molecule, C₆H₇N₅O, the 7-membered ring adopts a bowl-like conformation. In the crystal, the molecules form stacks along the c-axis direction through offset π-stacking interactions between the 5-membered rings and C–H···N hydrogen bonds. The stacks are associated via a combination of N–H···N, C–H···O and C–H···N hydrogen bonds. Further, the Hirshfeld surface analysis reveals the nature of molecular interactions and the fingerprint plot provides information about the percentage contribution from each individual molecular contact to the surface. In addition, due to its biological interest the target molecule adenosine A1 receptor was found based on Structural Activity Relationship (SAR) analysis and, further, subjected into molecular docking and molecular dynamics analysis to understand the binding interaction and stability of the molecule in adenosine A1 receptor system. Furthermore, the Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations were carried for free compound and the compound in active site (single point DFT), to know the internal stability.

Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma     

Aboveground biomass estimation of the shrubs, Echiochilon fruticosum (Desf.) and Helianthemum kahiricum (Del.) in the arid zone rangelands of Tunisia

The knowledge of the plant biomass is very important for the assessment of the rangeland productivity. It could help to select the appropriate species for the improvement of natural ecosystems (rehabilitation, restoration and seedling). By examining different correlations between the biomass production and the volume parameters of two North African shrub species of high range value ( Echiochilon fruticosum Desf. and Helianthemum kahiricum Del.), we aimed to establish the appropriate regression models, which could be useful for the prediction of the productivity of these species. The data showed a significant relationship between the total biomass (TB) production and the mean diameter (MD) of the studied species ( R ² = 0.65 for Echiochilon and R ² = 0.75 for Helianthemum ). Likewise, annual fresh production (leaves and current-year shoots) was well correlated with MD of Helianthemum ( R ² = 0.82). However, the correlation between these two parameters was relatively low for Echiochilon ( R ² = 0.42).