An Evaluation of the Metachromasia of Bromophenol Blue

The heterogeneity of bromophenol blue from different commercial sources was revealed by paper chromatography. Isopropanol:ammonia:water (20:1:2) as the solvent system gave the best separation. A variety of impurities: violet, pink, light blue and yellow coloured ones were observed. Two of the yellow fractions showed a spectral shift to red in the presence of ammonia vapour. The respone of the main dye component with the anionic chromotropes such as heparin and hyaluronate was found to be metachromatic similar to that exhibited by the dye solution and not due to a polychromatic effect. The metachromatic effect was blocked by FeCl₃ as in the case of cationic dye metachromasy. The observed metachromatic colour is not one of the colours which characterize those resulting from changes caused by pH.     

Side reactions in the synthesis of phosphotyrosine-containing peptides

Summary A series of phosphopeptides Tyr(PO₃H₂)-Val-Pro-Xxx-Leu (Xxx=Met, Met(O), Nle, Dab or Cys), derived from the native platelet-derived growth factor- receptor (PDGF-) sequence, has been prepared to study their interaction with the src-homology 2 (SH2) domains of the p85 subunit of PI3 kinase. The phosphopeptides were synthesized using Fmoc methodology incorporating N-Boc dibenzyl-protected phosphotyrosine (Boc-Tyr[PO₃(Bzl)₂]) as the N-terminal amino acid, since the benzyl groups can be removed during resin cleavage with TFA. Only peptides containing methionine were found to exist partially as S-benzyl sulfonium salts after TFA cleavage from the resin. The desired peptide could be obtained from the S-benzyl sulfonium salt by hydrogenolysis.     

Influence of light,DMSO and glycerol on the hatchability ofThamnocephalus platyurus Packard cysts

Effects of two light intensities and different concentration of dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) and glycerol on hydrated cyst hatching inThamnocephalus platyurus were studied. A maximum of 65±6% hatching was recorded within seven days at 2500 lux continuous light regime. Hatching was at a minimum during the first two days, peaked between the third and fourth days, decreased thereafter. Hatching success was a function of duration of light exposure. Eight percent of cysts hatched in the dark, while cysts exposed to 24h light and subsequently incubated in the dark showed 27±2% hatching. Hatchability was significantly increased (23%) in 0.0375% DMSO and 0.0125% glycerol. Concentration above 0.05% DMSO and 0.025% glycerol had no or a negative influence on hatching. Since low concentrations of DMSO were non-toxic, apolar compounds like Ca²⁺ ionophore can be dissolved in DMSO to study the role of Calcium in cyst hatching.     

Microalgae metabolites: A rich source for food and medicine

Microalgae are one of the important components in food chains of aquatic ecosystems and have been used for human consumption as food and as medicines. The wide diversity of compounds synthesized from different metabolic pathways of fresh and marine water algae provide promising sources of fatty acids, steroids, carotenoids, polysaccharides, lectins, mycosporine-like amino acids, halogenated compounds, polyketides, toxins, agar agar, alginic acid and carrageenan. This review discusses microalgae used to produce biological substances and its economic importance in food science, the pharmaceutical industry and public health.     

Overexpression of Glyoxalase III gene in transgenic sugarcane confers enhanced performance under salinity stress

Journal of Plant Research - The glyoxalase pathway is a check point to monitor the elevation of methylglyoxal (MG) level in plants and is mediated by glyoxalase I (Gly I) and glyoxalase II (Gly II)...     

Human Ubiquitin C Promoter Based Expression of Erythropoietin in CHO K1 Cell Lines: A Simple Transfectants Screening Approach

Erythropoietin (EPO), a glycoprotein hormone that regulates the production of erythrocytes in the human body, is of clinical importance in the treatment of anemia. Low expression levels of this recombinant hormone and time-consuming screening methods have made its commercial production expensive. Cloning of human EPO gene in a shuttle vector pUB6/V5-HisB driven by human ubiquitin C promoter and its transfection in CHO K1 cell lines by electroporation resulted in a moderate level of EPO expression. The limiting-dilution screening method required several months to obtain high expression stable transfectants but needed only short duration for selection in contrast to the present screening strategy. The supernatants of stably transfected cells were found to be biologically active by in vitro erythroid cluster forming activity.     

Retraction Note to: In vitro somatic embryogenesis from immature female flower of Musa AAB cv. Chenichampa and molecular analysis of transcript factors (TFs) during somatic embryogenesis

Plant Cell, Tissue and Organ Culture (PCTOC) - This article has been retracted. Please see the retraction notice for more detail: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11240-020-01912-4     

Dimerization of a flocculent protein from Moringa oleifera: experimental evidence and in silico interpretation

Many proteins exist in dimeric and other oligomeric forms to gain stability and functional advantages. In this study, the dimerization property of a coagulant protein (MO_2.1) from Moringa oleifera seeds was addressed through laboratory experiments, protein–protein docking studies and binding free energy calculations. The structure of MO_2.1 was predicted by homology modelling, while binding free energy and residues-distance profile analyses provided insight into the energetics and structural factors for dimer formation. Since the coagulation activities of the monomeric and dimeric forms of MO_2.1 were comparable, it was concluded that oligomerization does not affect the biological activity of the protein.