scholarly journals Isolation and enzymic properties of levansucrase secreted by Acetobacter diazotrophicus SRT4, a bacterium associated with sugar cane

1995 ◽  
Vol 309 (1) ◽  
pp. 113-118 ◽  
Author(s):  
L Hernandez ◽  
J Arrieta ◽  
C Menendez ◽  
R Vazquez ◽  
A Coego ◽  
...  

Acetobacter diazotrophicus, a nitrogen-fixing bacterium associated with sugar cane, secretes a levansucrase (sucrose-2,6-beta-D-fructan 6-beta-D-fructosyltransferase; EC 2.4.1.10). This enzyme is constitutively expressed and represents more than 70% of the total proteins secreted by strain SRT4. The purified protein consists of a single 58 kDa polypeptide with an isoelectric point of 5.5. Its activity is optimal at pH 5.0. It catalyses transfructosylation from sucrose to a variety of acceptors including water (sucrose hydrolysis), glucose (exchange reaction), fructan (polymerase reaction) and sucrose (oligofructoside synthesis). In vivo the polymerase activity leads to synthesis of a high-molecular-mass fructan of the levan type. A. diazotrophicus levansucrase catalyses transfructosylation via a Ping Pong mechanism involving the formation of a transient fructosyl-enzyme intermediate. The catalytic mechanism is very similar to that of Bacillus subtilis levansucrase. The kinetic parameters of the two enzymes are of the same order of magnitude. The main difference between the two enzyme specificities is the high yield of oligofructoside, particularly 1-kestotriose and kestotetraose, accumulated by A. diazotrophicus levansucrase during sucrose transformation. We discuss the hypothesis that these catalytic features may serve the different biological functions of each enzyme.

1999 ◽  
Vol 341 (2) ◽  
pp. 285-291 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donna D. SONG ◽  
Nicholas A. JACQUES

The recombinant fructosyltransferase (Ftf) of Streptococcus salivarius was expressed in Escherichia coli and purified to electrophoretic homogeneity after a combination of adsorption, ion-exchange and gel-filtration chromatography. The N-terminal signal sequence of the Ftf was removed by E. coli at the same site as in its natural host. The purified Ftf exhibited maximum activity at pH 6.0 and 37 °C, was activated by Ca2+, but inhibited by the metal ions Cu2+, Zn2+, Hg2+ and Fe3+. The enzyme catalysed the transfer of the fructosyl moiety of sucrose to a number of acceptors, including water, glucose and sucrose via a Ping Pong mechanism involving a fructosyl-enzyme intermediate. While this mechanism of catalysis is utilized by the levansucrases of Bacillus subtilis and Acetobacter diazotrophicus and the values of the kinetic constants for the three enzymes are similar, sucrose was a far more efficient fructosyl-acceptor for the Ftf of S. salivarius than for the two other enzymes.


1995 ◽  
Vol 312 (1) ◽  
pp. 281-286 ◽  
Author(s):  
S V Calugaru ◽  
B G Hall ◽  
M L Sinnott

Plasmids containing the ebgAo and ebgAa genes of Escherichia coli under the control of the lac repressor and promoter have been constructed and inserted into Salmonella typhimurium CH3. This system expresses the large subunit of the ebgo and ebga beta-galactosidase in high yield (20-60% of total protein). The large subunits have been purified to homogeneity. As isolated they are tetramers of significant catalytic activity; the N-terminal amino acid residue is Met, but it is not formylated. The kcat. values for a series of aryl galactosides were 6-200-fold reduced from the corresponding values for the holoenzymes. kcat/Km Values for glycosides of acidic aglycones, though, were unchanged, whilst kcat./Km values for galactosides of less acidic aglycones showed a modest (up to 10-fold) decrease. The kcat. values for glycosides of acidic aglycones hydrolysed by ebgo and ebga large subunits were essentially invariant with aglycone pK, suggesting that hydrolysis of the galactosyl-enzyme intermediate had become rate-determining for these substrates. Rate-determining hydrolysis of the glycosyl-enzyme intermediate was confirmed by pre-steady-state measurements and nucleophilic competition with methanol. Absence of the small subunit was thus estimated to cause a 200-fold decrease in degalactosylation rate for ebgo and a 20-fold one for ebga. beta 1g(V/K) values of -0.57 +/- 0.08 for ebgo and -0.54 +/- 0.08 for ebga isolated subunits were significantly more negative than for holoenzymes. It is suggested that the small subunit is associated with the optimal positioning of the electrophilic Mg2+ ions in these enzymes. Use of PCR in the construction of the plasmid also inadvertently led to the production of psi ebgo large subunit in which there was a PCR-introduced Leu9-->His change. Values of kcat. for aryl galactosides, calculated on the assumption that the psi ebgo large subunit, like the ebgo and ebga large subunits, was 100% active as isolated, were about an order of magnitude lower than for true ebgo large subunit, whilst Km values were similar. The very significant kinetic effect of this inadvertant site-undirected mutagenesis indicates that quite large kinetic effects of amino-acid replacements in enzymes may have no obvious mechanistic significance.


2005 ◽  
Vol 83 (4) ◽  
pp. 497-504 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benoit Coulombe ◽  
Marie-France Langelier

High resolution X-ray crystal structures of multisubunit RNA polymerases (RNAP) have contributed to our understanding of transcriptional mechanisms. They also provided a powerful guide for the design of experiments aimed at further characterizing the molecular stages of the transcription reaction. Our laboratory used tandem-affinity peptide purification in native conditions to isolate human RNAP II variants that had site-specific mutations in structural elements located strategically within the enzyme's catalytic center. Both in vitro and in vivo analyses of these mutants revealed novel features of the catalytic mechanisms involving this enzyme.Key words: RNA polymerase II, transcriptional mechanisms, mutational analysis, mRNA synthesis.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Chao Ma ◽  
Jing Sun ◽  
Bo Li ◽  
Yang Feng ◽  
Yao Sun ◽  
...  

AbstractThe development of biomedical glues is an important, yet challenging task as seemingly mutually exclusive properties need to be combined in one material, i.e. strong adhesion and adaption to remodeling processes in healing tissue. Here, we report a biocompatible and biodegradable protein-based adhesive with high adhesion strengths. The maximum strength reaches 16.5 ± 2.2 MPa on hard substrates, which is comparable to that of commercial cyanoacrylate superglue and higher than other protein-based adhesives by at least one order of magnitude. Moreover, the strong adhesion on soft tissues qualifies the adhesive as biomedical glue outperforming some commercial products. Robust mechanical properties are realized without covalent bond formation during the adhesion process. A complex consisting of cationic supercharged polypeptides and anionic aromatic surfactants with lysine to surfactant molar ratio of 1:0.9 is driven by multiple supramolecular interactions enabling such strong adhesion. We demonstrate the glue’s robust performance in vitro and in vivo for cosmetic and hemostasis applications and accelerated wound healing by comparison to surgical wound closures.


2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
M. H. Sanad ◽  
A. B. Farag ◽  
S. F. A. Rizvi

Abstract This study presents development and characterization of a radiotracer, [125I]iodonefiracetam ([125I]iodoNEF). Labeling with high yield and radiochemical purity was achieved through the formation of a [125I]iodoNEF radiotracer after investigating many factors like oxidizing agent content (chloramines-T (Ch-T)), substrate amount (Nefiracetam (NEF)), pH of reaction mixture, reaction time and temperature. Nefiracetam (NEF) is known as nootropic agent, acting as N-methyl-d-aspartic acid receptor ligand (NMDA). The radiolabeled compound was stable, and exhibited the logarithm of the partition coefficient (log p) value of [125I]iodonefiracetam as 1.85 (lipophilic). Biodistribution studies in normal mice confirmed the suitability of the [125I]iodoNEF radiotracer as a novel tracer for brain imaging. High uptake of 8.61 ± 0.14 percent injected dose/g organ was observed in mice


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Vittorino Lanzio ◽  
Gregory Telian ◽  
Alexander Koshelev ◽  
Paolo Micheletti ◽  
Gianni Presti ◽  
...  

AbstractThe combination of electrophysiology and optogenetics enables the exploration of how the brain operates down to a single neuron and its network activity. Neural probes are in vivo invasive devices that integrate sensors and stimulation sites to record and manipulate neuronal activity with high spatiotemporal resolution. State-of-the-art probes are limited by tradeoffs involving their lateral dimension, number of sensors, and ability to access independent stimulation sites. Here, we realize a highly scalable probe that features three-dimensional integration of small-footprint arrays of sensors and nanophotonic circuits to scale the density of sensors per cross-section by one order of magnitude with respect to state-of-the-art devices. For the first time, we overcome the spatial limit of the nanophotonic circuit by coupling only one waveguide to numerous optical ring resonators as passive nanophotonic switches. With this strategy, we achieve accurate on-demand light localization while avoiding spatially demanding bundles of waveguides and demonstrate the feasibility with a proof-of-concept device and its scalability towards high-resolution and low-damage neural optoelectrodes.


Author(s):  
Vladimir P. Zhdanov

AbstractOne of the suggested ways of the use of nanoparticles in virology implies their association with and subsequent deactivation of virions. The conditions determining the efficiency of this approach in vivo are now not clear. Herein, I propose the first kinetic model describing the corresponding processes and clarifying these conditions. My analysis indicates that nanoparticles can decrease concentration of infected cells by a factor of one order of magnitude, but this decrease itself (without feedback of the immune system) is insufficient for full eradication of infection. It can, however, induce delay in the progress of infection, and this delay can help to form sufficient feedback of the immune system.


2002 ◽  
Vol 364 (2) ◽  
pp. 343-347 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gareth J.O. EVANS ◽  
Alan MORGAN

The secretory vesicle cysteine string proteins (CSPs) are members of the DnaJ family of chaperones, and function at late stages of Ca2+-regulated exocytosis by an unknown mechanism. To determine novel binding partners of CSPs, we employed a pull-down strategy from purified rat brain membrane or cytosolic proteins using recombinant hexahistidine-tagged (His6-)CSP. Western blotting of the CSP-binding proteins identified synaptotagmin I to be a putative binding partner. Furthermore, pull-down assays using cAMP-dependent protein kinase (PKA)-phosphorylated CSP recovered significantly less synaptotagmin. Complexes containing CSP and synaptotagmin were immunoprecipitated from rat brain membranes, further suggesting that these proteins interact in vivo. Binding assays in vitro using recombinant proteins confirmed a direct interaction between the two proteins and demonstrated that the PKA-phosphorylated form of CSP binds synaptotagmin with approximately an order of magnitude lower affinity than the non-phosphorylated form. Genetic studies have implicated each of these proteins in the Ca2+-dependency of exocytosis and, since CSP does not bind Ca2+, this novel interaction might explain the Ca2+-dependent actions of CSP.


Marine Drugs ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (7) ◽  
pp. 356 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hanaa Ali Hussein ◽  
Mohd Azmuddin Abdullah

Cancer is the main cause of death worldwide, so the discovery of new and effective therapeutic agents must be urgently addressed. Diatoms are rich in minerals and secondary metabolites such as saturated and unsaturated fatty acids, esters, acyl lipids, sterols, proteins, and flavonoids. These bioactive compounds have been reported as potent anti-cancer, anti-oxidant and anti-bacterial agents. Diatoms are unicellular photosynthetic organisms, which are important in the biogeochemical circulation of silica, nitrogen, and carbon, attributable to their short growth-cycle and high yield. The biosilica of diatoms is potentially effective as a carrier for targeted drug delivery in cancer therapy due to its high surface area, nano-porosity, bio-compatibility, and bio-degradability. In vivo studies have shown no significant symptoms of tissue damage in animal models, suggesting the suitability of a diatoms-based system as a safe nanocarrier in nano-medicine applications. This review presents an overview of diatoms’ microalgae possessing anti-cancer activities and the potential role of the diatoms and biosilica in the delivery of anticancer drugs. Diatoms-based antibodies and vitamin B12 as drug carriers are also elaborated.


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