Semi-rational engineering of CYP153A35 to enhance ω-hydroxylation activity toward palmitic acid

Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology - CYP153A35 from Gordonia alkanivorans was recently characterized as fatty acid ω-hydroxylase. To enhance the catalytic activity of CYP153A35 toward...     

Adapting Strategy of Biennial Endangered <Emphasis Type="Italic">Halenia corniculata</Emphasis> (L.) Cornaz to Environmental Stress and Its Implications for Conservation Plan

Under intensive environmental stress, reported that plants have complementary and positive interactions instead of competition among species. In order to examine whether there as a possible correlation between the performance of Halenia corniculata and the coverage/height of other plants with the same distribution, a total of 30 plots were established at two representative distributional areas. The height, total number of chasmogamous flowers and cleistogamous flowers, their overall plots coverage, and observed plants species on each plot were determined. Our results revealed that the number of chasmogamous and cleistogamous flowers of Halenia corniculata was increased when its height was increased. The performance of Halenia corniculata was found to have a significant correlation with the overall coverage of observed plants species in the plot as well as the height of observed plants in established plots. Our results suggest that the biennial plant Halenia corniculata might be able to choose a site inhabited by other perennial plants in the high-altitude region under environmental stress for appropriate growth and reproduction. One main reason that Halenia corniculata seedlings could be established in regions where other plants are inhabited might be due to the degree of light requirement by the seedling stage is different from that at the adult stage. The size of Halenia corniculata population in South Korea was found to be proportional to that of available sites that could support its life cycle, suggesting that available sites need to be secure in order to maintain its life cycle.     

Cloning of an aminoalcoholphosphotransferase cDNA from chinese cabbage roots

Aminoalcoholphosphotransferase is the enzyme that catalyzes the synthesis of phosphatidylcholine and phosphatidylethanolamine from diacylglycerol using CDP-aminoalcohol such as CDP-choline and CDP-ethanolamine. To determine its cDNA structure from roots of Chinese cabbage,Brassica campestris L. ssp.pekinensis, degenerate primers were designed from the regions showing high amino acid homology between yeastCPT1 and soybeanAAPT1 and used for PCR amplification of Chinese cabbage DNA. Chinese cabbage aminoalcoholphosphotransferase cDNA (AAPT) contains an open reading frame of 1,167 bp coding for a protein of 389 amino acids. It shared 81% identity and 94% similarity with soybeanAAPT1 at the predicted amino acid level. Hydropathy profile analysis suggested that the predicted protein structure of Chinese cabbage aminoalcoholphosphotransferase was very similar to the soybean enzyme, showing an overall hydrophobicity and having the same number of predicted transmembrane domains. Southern analysis indicated that there might be close isoforms of the enzyme.AAPT was expressed equally well in young shoots and roots.     

Relationship between root vigour,photosynthesis and biomass in soybean cultivars during 87 years of genetic improvement in the northern China

During the last century, the world soybean yield has been constantly enhancing at a remarkable rate. Factors limiting the soybean yield may be multiple. It is widely acknowledged that changes of root metabolism can influence aboveground characteristics, such as the seed yield and photosynthesis. In this study, we considered root bleeding sap mass (BSM) and root activity (RA) as indicators of the root growth vigour. We used 27 soybean cultivars, spanning from 1923 to 2009, to evaluate the contribution of root characteristic improvement to efficient photosynthesis and dry matter production. The BSM, RA, net photosynthetic rate (P_N), and organ biomass were measured at different growth stages, such as the fourth leaf node, flowering, podding, and seed-filling stage. Our results showed that the soybean cultivars increased their biomass and P_N thanks to genetic improvement. At the same time, BSM and RA also increased in dependence on a year of cultivar release. However, both P_N and biomass were positively correlated with root characteristics only at the podding stage. Our data revealed that the improved root characteristic may have contributed to the enhanced photosynthesis, biomass, and yield of soybean cultivars during last 87 years of genetic improvement. We suggest that BSM and RA could be used as important indexes for further practice in soybean production improvement.     

Optimized Bicompartment Two Solution Cells for Effective and Stable Operation of Li–O2 Batteries

Lithium–oxygen batteries are in fact the only rechargeable batteries that can rival internal combustion engines, in terms of high energy density. However, they are still under development due to low‐efficiency and short lifetime issues. There are problems of side reactions on the cathode side, high reactivity of the Li anode with solution species, and consumption of redox mediators via reactions with metallic lithium. Therefore, efforts are made to protect/block the lithium metal anode in these cells, in order to mitigate side reactions. However, new approach is required in order to solve the problems mentioned above, especially the irreversible reactions of the redox mediators which are mandatory to these systems with the Li anode. Here, optimized bicompartment two solution cells are proposed, in which detrimental crossover between the cathode and anode is completely avoided. The Li metal anode is cycled in electrolyte solution containing fluorinated ethylene carbonate, in which its cycling efficiency is excellent. The cathode compartment contains ethereal solution with redox mediator that enables oxidation of Li₂O₂ at low potentials. The electrodes are separated by a solid electrolyte membrane, allowing free transport of Li ions. This approach increases cycle life of lithium oxygen cells and their energy efficiency.     

Probe signal correction for differential methylation hybridization experiments

Background  

Non-biological signal (or noise) has been the bane of microarray analysis. Hybridization effects related to probe-sequence composition and DNA dye-probe interactions have been observed in differential methylation hybridization (DMH) microarray experiments as well as other effects inherent to the DMH protocol.