Database of protein complexes with multivalent binding ability: Bival‐bind

Phenomena of multivalent binding of ligands with receptors are ubiquitous in biology and of growing interest in material sciences. Multivalency can enhance binding affinity dramatically. To understand the mechanism of multivalent binding in more detail model systems of bi‐ and multivalent receptors are needed, but are difficult to find. Furthermore it is useful to know about multivalent receptors, which can serve as targets to design multivalent drugs. The present contribution tries to close this gap. The Bival‐Bind database ( http://agknapp.chemie.fu‐berlin.de/bivalbind ) provides a relatively complete list – 2073 protein complexes with less than 90% sequence identity – out of the protein database, which can serve as bi‐ or multivalent receptors. Steric clashes of molecular spacers – necessary to connect the monomeric ligand units – with the receptor surface can diminish binding affinity dramatically and, thus, abolish the expected enhancement of binding affinity due to the multivalency. The potential multivalent receptors in the Bival‐Bind database are characterized with respect to the receptor surface topography. A height profile between the receptor binding pockets is provided, which is an important information to estimate the influence of unfavorable spacer receptor interaction. Proteins 2014; 82:744–751. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Synthesis, crystal structure and properties of the novel chiral 3D coordination polymer with S-carboxymethyl-l-cysteine

Reaction of fresh Mn(OH)₂ precipitate and S-carboxymethyl-l-cysteine (H₂SCMC) in aqueous solution afforded a novel chiral 3D coordination polymer Mn(H₂O)(SCMC) 1, which crystallizes in the acentric polar space group P2₁ with cell constants a = 5.079(1) Å, b = 9.617(2) Å, c = 8.649(2) Å, β = 94.40(3)°, V = 421.2(1) Å³, Z = 2, and exhibit a SHG effect and ferroelectricity (a remnant polarization P_r = 0.0159 uC cm⁻², coercive field E_c = 0.83 kV cm⁻², saturation of the spontaneous polarization P_s = 0.234 uC cm⁻²). To the best of our knowledge, the present compound represents the first example of S-carboxymethyl-l-cysteine coordination polymers that exhibit possible ferroelectric behavior. The structural analysis revealed that the Mn²⁺ ions in 1 are each coordinated by one N atom and five O atoms of four S-carboxymethyl-l-cysteine ligand bridges four symmetry-related Mn²⁺ ions to form 3D MOF of 6⁶ topology type with irregular chiral channels extending along [1 0 0]. The temperature-dependent magnetic susceptibilities shows that 1 obeys Curie-Weiss law χ_m = C/(T − Θ) with C = 4.23 cm³ mol⁻¹ K and Θ = −5.86 K and the best fit gave a weak antiferromagnetic coupling (J = −0.282(5) cm⁻¹) among Mn ions.     

中温碱性脂肪酶的研究——Ⅲ.扩展青霉PF868变株碱性脂肪酶的纯化及其酶学性质

扩展青霉PF868变株发酵液经硫酸铵盐析和Sephadex-G-200及Sepharose4B柱层析纯化,获得纯化倍数为32.4的酶粉.该酶分子量为23442Dal.酶学特性表明:该酶的最适作用温度为32℃,50℃保温30min仍保留50%酶活性,最适pH为9.0,作用pH稳定范围在7.0—10.0之间.Ca~(2+)Mg~(2+)对酶有激活作用.Fe~(2+)、Cu~(2+)和Mn~(2+)对酶活力有抑制作用.     

一类竞争扩散方程组在Neumann边条件下解的渐近行为

本文主要采用比较方法讨论了一类竞争扩散方程组在Neumann边条件下解的渐近行为,得到了解的稳定性区域．     

Aspergillus sp.脂肪酶发酵条件优化及酶学性质的研究

作者为了得到一种热稳定性较好的脂肪酶新酶种,通过研究分离白极端环境的Aspergillus sp．的最佳产酶条件及其所产脂肪酶的酶学性质,得出了该菌产酶的最佳发酵条件为：以1％黄豆饼粉为氮源、0．2％玉米淀粉为碳源,1．5％橄榄油为诱导物,起始pH6．0左右。装量10mL（250mL三角瓶。摇瓶转速180r／min）、发酵时间为96h。在最佳发酵条件下可得最大发酵酶活36U/mL。Aspergillus sp．所产的脂肪酶的酶学性质是：最适pH为9．0,在pH5．0—10．0于20℃下放置24h后,残余酶活仍保持在起始酶活的90％以上;该酶的最适温度为50℃,50℃保温60min后仍保留70％以上的酶活。Aspergillus sp．所产脂肪酶的热稳定性较好。     

Biomimetic repeat protein derived from Xenopus tropicalis for fibrous scaffold fabrication

Collagen, silk, and elastin are the fibrous proteins consist of representative amino acid repeats. Because these proteins exhibited distinguishing mechanical properties, they have been utilized in diverse applications, such as fiber‐based sensors, filtration membranes, supporting materials, and tissue engineering scaffolds. Despite their infinite prevalence and potential, most studies have only focused on a few repeat proteins. In this work, the hypothetical protein with a repeat motif derived from the frog Xenopus tropicalis was obtained and characterized for its potential as a novel protein‐based material. The codon‐optimized recombinant frog repeat protein, referred to as ‘xetro’, was produced at a high rate in a bacterial system, and an acid extraction‐based purified xetro protein was successfully fabricated into microfibers and nanofibers using wet spinning and electrospinning, respectively. Specifically, the wet‐spun xetro microfibers demonstrated about 2‐ and 1.5‐fold higher tensile strength compared with synthetic polymer polylactic acid and cross‐linked collagen, respectively. In addition, the wet‐spun xetro microfibers showed about sevenfold greater stiffness than collagen. Therefore, the mass production potential and greater mechanical properties of the xetro fiber may result in these fibers becoming a new promising fiber‐based material for biomedical engineering. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Biopolymers 103: 659–664, 2015.     

蜀南竹海毛竹林土壤物理性质空间异质性

土壤空间异质性是土壤的重要综合属性,对土壤的结构与功能以及植被的空间格局有重要影响。以蜀南竹海核心区毛竹林土壤为研究对象,采用1∶10000地形图为工作底图,按公里网格布点,应用地统计学方法,分析了土壤物理性质的空间异质性,旨在为研究区毛竹林的可持续经营提供基础数据和理论参考。结果表明:除土壤最大持水量和最小持水量外,研究区土壤粘粒、容重、非毛管孔隙度、毛管孔隙度和毛管持水量等5个土壤物理性质空间变异性明显,其半变异函数用指数、高斯和球状模型拟合,变程范围在1252.3—11887.1 m,块金值和基台值比值范围为0.03%—52.07%,表明各物理性质有不同程度的空间自相关性;土壤持水特性有较大的块金值,说明存在小尺度的空间异质性;普通克里格插值及物理性质空间分布图表明,土壤物理性质在空间分布上具有斑块性,在不同土层深度的空间分布有一致性。人为干扰是影响研究区土壤物理性质空间分布格局的一个主要原因。减少人为干扰,优化林分结构,维护与提高毛竹林生产力。     

Weighted Wilcoxon-type smoothly clipped absolute deviation method

Summary .  Shrinkage-type variable selection procedures have recently seen increasing applications in biomedical research. However, their performance can be adversely influenced by outliers in either the response or the covariate space. This article proposes a weighted Wilcoxon-type smoothly clipped absolute deviation (WW-SCAD) method, which deals with robust variable selection and robust estimation simultaneously. The new procedure can be conveniently implemented with the statistical software R . We establish that the WW-SCAD correctly identifies the set of zero coefficients with probability approaching one and estimates the nonzero coefficients with the rate   n ^−1/2  . Moreover, with appropriately chosen weights the WW-SCAD is robust with respect to outliers in both the x and y directions. The important special case with constant weights yields an oracle-type estimator with high efficiency in the presence of heavier-tailed random errors. The robustness of the WW-SCAD is partly justified by its asymptotic performance under local shrinking contamination. We propose a Bayesian information criterion type tuning parameter selector for the WW-SCAD. The performance of the WW-SCAD is demonstrated via simulations and by an application to a study that investigates the effects of personal characteristics and dietary factors on plasma beta-carotene level.     

Auxin-induced changes in the cell wall structure: Changes in the sugar compositions, intrinsic viscosity and molecular weight distributions of matrix polysaccharides of the epicotyl cell wall of Vigna angularis

Rapid effects of indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) on the mechanical properties of cell wall, and sugar compositions, intrinsic viscosity and molecular weight distribution of cell wall polysaccharides were investigated with excised epicotyl segments of Vigna angularis Ohwi et Ohashi cv. Takara.

• 1 IAA caused cell wall loosening as studied by stress-relaxation analysis within 15 min after the IAA application.
• 2 IAA stimulated the decrease in the content of arabinose and galactose in the hemicellulose 1 h after its application. The amounts of other component sugars in the cell wall polysaccharides remained constant during the IAA-induced segment growth.
• 3 The intrinsic viscocity of the pectin increased as early as 30 min after the IAA application. This effect was not prevented when elongation growth of the segment was osmotically suppressed by 0.15 M mannitol.
• 4 Gel permeation chromatography of the pectin on a Sepharose 4 B column demonstrated that IAA caused increase in the mass-average molecular weight of the pectin. Analysis of the sugar compositions of the pectin eluted from the Sepharose 4 B column indicated that IAA increased the molecular weight of the polysaccharides composed of uronic acid, galactose, rhamnose and arabinose. This effect became apparent within 30 min after the IAA application. Furthermore, IAA increased the molecular weight of the pectin when elongation growth of the epicotyl segments was osmotically suppressed by 0.15 M mannitol.
• 5 Hemicellulose of the cell wall chromatographed on a Sepharose CL-4 B column. Analysis of the neutral sugar compositions and the iodine staining property (specific for xyloglucans) of the polysaccharide solution eluted from the column indicated that the hemicellulose consisted of xyloglucans, arabinogalactans and polysaccharides composed of xylose and/or mannose. IAA caused a decrease in the arabinogalactan content and depolymerization of xyloglucans. These IAA effects became apparent within 30 min after the IAA application. These changes occurred even when elongation growth of the epicotyl segments was osmotically suppressed by 0.15 M mannitol.

Polymerization of the pectin, degradation of arabinogalactans and depolymerization of xyloglucans appear to be involved in the mechanism by which IAA induces cell wall loosening and therefore extension growth of cells.     

大脑活动光子学检测中内源信号分析

现代的神经功能成像方法,比如ＰＥＴ、ｆＭＲＩ都是利用与活动相关的血液上的动力变化来间接取得脑部诱发电活动的。然而,在神经科学与生理学中,无损伤的大脑功能光子学检测技术正展现出它的优势而逐渐成为重要的神经成像方法［１］,其中内源信号在大脑活动光学成像中得到广泛应用。本文就近年来内源信号各成分及其光学特性的研究做一概述,探讨内源信号所揭示的生理过程,并提出其在脑研究领域中还有待深入探索的问题。