Facile transition of poly[d(TG)·d(CA)] into a left-handed helix in physiological conditions

Nature ◽  
1983 ◽  
Vol 302 (5909) ◽  
pp. 632-634 ◽  
Author(s):  
David B. Haniford ◽  
David E. Pulleyblank
2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (10) ◽  
pp. 1495-1503
Author(s):  
Alaa F. Nahhas ◽  
Alrayan F. Nahhas ◽  
Thomas J. Webster

The fast-growing use of supramolecular hydrogelators as biomaterials for a variety of applications, ranging from wound healing to drug delivery to tissue engineering, has highlighted the importance of synthetic design over recent years. Here, we report a new class of nanosheet stereocomplexes in aqueous solution and at physiological conditions (i. e., pH7.4), which are formed by physically mixing right- and left-handed tripeptide supramolecular hydrogelators without any external stimulus. Such tripeptides were obtained by incorporating either α-aminoisobutyric acid (Aib, U) or alanine (Ala, A) at the C-terminus or middle position of known peptide hydrogelators containing naphthalene and two phenylalanine residues. For hydrogels of these peptides, our results show that their morphologies and physical properties changed upon mixing with the L- and D-forms of the peptides forming suspension stereocomplexes. These interactions reduced molecular mobility by forming new structures with new properties and, therefore, increased the thermal stability of the compound promising for numerous medical applications.


2020 ◽  
Vol 48 (22) ◽  
pp. 12957-12971
Author(s):  
Chaehee Park ◽  
Xu Zheng ◽  
Chan Yang Park ◽  
Jeesoo Kim ◽  
Seul Ki Lee ◽  
...  

Abstract Left-handed Z-DNA is radically different from the most common right-handed B-DNA and can be stabilized by interactions with the Zα domain, which is found in a group of proteins, such as human ADAR1 and viral E3L proteins. It is well-known that most Zα domains bind to Z-DNA in a conformation-specific manner and induce rapid B–Z transition in physiological conditions. Although many structural and biochemical studies have identified the detailed interactions between the Zα domain and Z-DNA, little is known about the molecular basis of the B–Z transition process. In this study, we successfully converted the B–Z transition-defective Zα domain, vvZαE3L, into a B–Z converter by improving B-DNA binding ability, suggesting that B-DNA binding is involved in the B–Z transition. In addition, we engineered the canonical B-DNA binding protein GH5 into a Zα-like protein having both Z-DNA binding and B–Z transition activities by introducing Z-DNA interacting residues. Crystal structures of these mutants of vvZαE3L and GH5 complexed with Z-DNA confirmed the significance of conserved Z-DNA binding interactions. Altogether, our results provide molecular insight into how Zα domains obtain unusual conformational specificity and induce the B–Z transition.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Debabrata Maity ◽  
Andrew D. Hamilton

A metal-free and achiral tri-pyridylamide foldamer, DM 11, containing a critical naphthalimide side chain self-assembles in a left-handed helical manner in the presence of chiral adenosine phosphates, under physiological conditions.


Author(s):  
Å. Thureson-Klein

Giant mitochondria of various shapes and with different internal structures and matrix density have been observed in a great number of tissues including nerves. In most instances, the presence of giant mitochondria has been associated with a known disease or with abnormal physiological conditions such as anoxia or exposure to cytotoxic compounds. In these cases degenerative changes occurred in other cell organelles and, therefore the giant mitochondria also were believed to be induced structural abnormalities.Schwann cells ensheating unmyelinated axons of bovine splenic nerve regularly contain giant mitochondria in addition to the conventional smaller type (Fig. 1). These nerves come from healthy inspected animals presumed not to have been exposed to noxious agents. As there are no drastic changes in the small mitochondria and because other cell components also appear reasonably well preserved, it is believed that the giant mitochondria are normally present jin vivo and have not formed as a post-mortem artifact.


Author(s):  
George C. Ruben ◽  
William Krakow

Tobacco primary cell wall and normal bacterial Acetobacter xylinum cellulose formation produced a 36.8±3Å triple-stranded left-hand helical microfibril in freeze-dried Pt-C replicas and in negatively stained preparations for TEM. As three submicrofibril strands exit the wall of Axylinum , they twist together to form a left-hand helical microfibril. This process is driven by the left-hand helical structure of the submicrofibril and by cellulose synthesis. That is, as the submicrofibril is elongating at the wall, it is also being left-hand twisted and twisted together with two other submicrofibrils. The submicrofibril appears to have the dimensions of a nine (l-4)-ß-D-glucan parallel chain crystalline unit whose long, 23Å, and short, 19Å, diagonals form major and minor left-handed axial surface ridges every 36Å.The computer generated optical diffraction of this model and its corresponding image have been compared. The submicrofibril model was used to construct a microfibril model. This model and corresponding microfibril images have also been optically diffracted and comparedIn this paper we compare two less complex microfibril models. The first model (Fig. 1a) is constructed with cylindrical submicrofibrils. The second model (Fig. 2a) is also constructed with three submicrofibrils but with a single 23 Å diagonal, projecting from a rounded cross section and left-hand helically twisted, with a 36Å repeat, similar to the original model (45°±10° crossover angle). The submicrofibrils cross the microfibril axis at roughly a 45°±10° angle, the same crossover angle observed in microflbril TEM images. These models were constructed so that the maximum diameter of the submicrofibrils was 23Å and the overall microfibril diameters were similar to Pt-C coated image diameters of ∼50Å and not the actual diameter of 36.5Å. The methods for computing optical diffraction patterns have been published before.


Author(s):  
N. Seki ◽  
Y. Toyama ◽  
T. Nagano

It is believed that i ntramembra.nous sterols play an essential role in membrane stability and permeability. To investigate the distribution changes of sterols in sperm membrane during epididymal maturation and capacitation, filipin has been used as a cytochemical probe for the detection for membrane sterols. Using this technique in combination with freeze fracturing, we examined the boar spermatozoa under various physiological conditions.The spermatozoa were collected from: 1) caput, corpus and cauda epididymides, 2) sperm rich fraction of ejaculates, and 3)the uterus 2hr after natural coition. They were fixed with 2.5% glutaraldehyde in 0.05M cacodylate buffer (pH 7.4), and treated with the filipin solution (final concentration : 0.02.0.05%) for 24hr at 4°C with constant agitation. After the filipin treatment, replicas were made by conventional freeze-fracture technique. The density of filipin-sterol complexes (FSCs) was determined in the E face of the plasma membrane of head regions.


BDJ ◽  
1995 ◽  
Vol 178 (12) ◽  
pp. 448-448 ◽  
Author(s):  
J M Brown
Keyword(s):  

2020 ◽  
Vol 92 (2) ◽  
pp. 20502
Author(s):  
Behrokh Beiranvand ◽  
Alexander S. Sobolev ◽  
Anton V. Kudryashov

We present a new concept of the thermoelectric structure that generates microwave and terahertz signals when illuminated by femtosecond optical pulses. The structure consists of a series array of capacitively coupled thermocouples. The array acts as a hybrid type microwave transmission line with anomalous dispersion and phase velocity higher than the velocity of light. This allows for adding up the responces from all the thermocouples in phase. The array is easily integrable with microstrip transmission lines. Dispersion curves obtained from both the lumped network scheme and numerical simulations are presented. The connection of the thermocouples is a composite right/left-handed transmission line, which can receive terahertz radiation from the transmission line ports. The radiation of the photon to the surface of the thermocouple structure causes a voltage difference with the bandwidth of terahertz. We examined a lossy composite right/left-handed transmission line to extract the circuit elements. The calculated properties of the design are extracted by employing commercial software package CST STUDIO SUITE.


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