Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Peter J. Dahl, Sophia M. Yi, Yangqi Gu, Atanu Acharya, Catharine Shipps, Jens Neu, J. Patrick O'Brien, Uriel N. Morzan, Subhajyoti Chaudhuri, Matthew J. Guberman-Pfeffer, Dennis Vu, Sibel Ebru Yalcin, Victor S. Batista, Nikhil S. Malvankar
Summary: Geobacter sulfurreducens transports respiratory electrons over micrometers through nanowires composed of polymerized cytochrome OmcS. Individual nanowires exhibit hopping conductance and show a significant increase in their intrinsic conductance upon cooling. The cooling effect is caused by the rearrangement of hydrogen bonding networks in the nanowires, resulting in a temperature-sensitive switch for charge transport controlled by the protein surrounding the hemes.
Article
Physics, Fluids & Plasmas
Zi-Xuan Su, De-Hua Shi, Yong-Xin Liu, Kai Zhao, Fei Gao, You-Nian Wang
Summary: A synergistic combination of multiple diagnostic methods was used to investigate the temporal evolution of electrical and plasma parameters in a pulsed RF argon discharge, showing significant changes in electron density, optical emission intensity, and current density at different radial positions during pre-ignition, ignition, and post-ignition phases. This study lays the groundwork for future research on plasma ignition processes under various conditions, such as for practical etching processes.
PLASMA SOURCES SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Biotechnology & Applied Microbiology
Gurusamy Muneeswaran, Sanjay K. S. Patel, Sanath Kondaveeti, Ramasamy Shanmugam, Krishnasamy Gopinath, Virendra Kumar, Sang-Yong Kim, Jung-Kul Lee, Vipin Chandra Kalia, In-Won Kim
Summary: This study investigates the medium requirements to increase xylitol production using Candida tropicalis. Single addition or omission of medium components reveals the importance of Zn2+ for cell growth and xylitol production, as well as the necessity of biotin and thiamine for the growth of Candida tropicalis. Surprisingly, the presence of only biotin in the medium results in less growth but significantly higher xylitol release.
INDIAN JOURNAL OF MICROBIOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Immunology
Sihan Liu, Yanxia Fu, Kunrong Mei, Yinan Jiang, Xiaojun Sun, Yinyin Wang, Fangli Ren, Congshan Jiang, Liesu Meng, Shemin Lu, Zhihai Qin, Chen Dong, Xinquan Wang, Zhijie Chang, Shigao Yang
Summary: The study found that in rheumatoid arthritis, soluble glycosylated interleukin-17 receptor D (sIL-17RD) exacerbates the disease by enhancing the proinflammatory response induced by TNF-alpha. The shedding of IL-17RD is regulated by the proteolytic enzyme TACE and is enhanced by TNF-alpha expression in macrophages, suggesting it may be a new target for the therapy of RA.
CELLULAR & MOLECULAR IMMUNOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Douglas Weber, David Patsch, Annika Neumann, Margit Winkler, Dorte Rother
Summary: The challenge of accessing aldehydes from carboxylate moieties was overcome by utilizing carboxylate reductases (CARs) with optimized cultivation conditions, post-translational modification, and appropriate expression strain selection to successfully increase the specific activity of Nocardia otitidiscaviarum (NoCAR) by 110-fold. This highly active NoCAR could reduce sodium benzoate to benzaldehyde with high selectivity in just 2 hours.
Article
Physics, Mathematical
Guoqiang Ren
Summary: This paper studies a quasilinear chemotaxis model with signal-dependent motility and proves the existence of at least one global weak solution for the system.
JOURNAL OF MATHEMATICAL PHYSICS
(2022)
Article
Entomology
Mojtaba Esmaeily, Khalil Talebi, Vahid Hosseininaveh, Jamasb Nozari, Daniel Burckhardt, Colin J. Jackson, John G. Oakeshott
Summary: Psyllid populations in Iran, specifically Cacopsylla permixta and Cacopsylla bidens, exhibit significant variations in susceptibility and resistance to multiple insecticides, with metabolic differences potentially playing a role in resistance variations. These populations show resistance to diazinon and imidacloprid, and possibly cross-resistance to organophosphates and neonicotinoids. Developing resistance management plans is crucial as metabolic resistance to various insecticides is evolving in both species.
PHYSIOLOGICAL ENTOMOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Bo Zhuang, Rivo Ramodiharilafy, Ursula Liebl, Alexey Aleksandrov, Marten H. Vos
Summary: This study revealed the photophysical properties of anionic semireduced flavin radicals and discovered their photoproducts in five different flavoprotein oxidases. It was found that photoexcitation leads to the oxidation of protein-bound anionic flavin radicals on a fast timescale, followed by decay of the generated photoproducts within a narrow time range. The active-site residues were proposed as the electron acceptors based on computational analysis.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
(2022)
Review
Biotechnology & Applied Microbiology
Claudia F. Moratti, Colin Scott, Nicholas V. Coleman
Summary: Monooxygenases are enzymes that facilitate the degradation of alkanes and alkenes by bacteria. The regulatory components associated with these enzymes can be used to create efficient biosensors. However, there is still a wealth of unexplored genetic and functional diversity in the regulation of monooxygenases. Further research and development in this area can advance the commercialization and application of biosensors.
FRONTIERS IN BIOENGINEERING AND BIOTECHNOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Biology
Bingyin Peng, Naga Chandra Bandari, Zeyu Lu, Christopher B. Howard, Colin Scott, Matt Trau, Geoff Dumsday, Claudia E. Vickers
Summary: This study addresses the problem of temporal control in microbial metabolic engineering by using a modular engineering approach. New genetic circuits were designed and constructed to achieve precise control of heterologous pathways driven by the GAL promoter, resulting in increased production efficiency.
COMMUNICATIONS BIOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Cassidy Whitefield, Nansook Hong, Joshua A. Mitchell, Colin J. Jackson
Summary: This study describes the computational redesign of heparanase for high yield expression in Escherichia coli. Despite the presence of 26 mutations, this mutated form of heparanase exhibited similar kinetics, inhibition, structure, and protein dynamics to the wild type protein. This research facilitates wider study of this important enzyme and reveals the significant effects of evolutionarily conserved and functionally neutral mutations on protein folding and expression.
RSC CHEMICAL BIOLOGY
(2022)
Review
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Buddini Karawdeniya, Adam M. Damry, Krishnan Murugappan, Shridhar Manjunath, Y. M. Nuwan D. Y. Bandara, Colin J. Jackson, Antonio Tricoli, Dragomir Neshev
Summary: Optical metasurfaces have been widely used in sensing applications due to their unique optical properties. Surface modification techniques, such as chemical functionalization and physical texturing, can enhance the specificity and performance of metasurfaces. This review summarizes recent advances in this field and provides detailed guidance for implementation.
Review
Chemistry, Applied
Raquel A. Rocha, Robert E. Speight, Colin Scott
Summary: The development of highly effective methods in enzyme engineering has made the widespread adoption of biocatalysis in industry possible, enabling highly selective chemical syntheses. These methods allow for the adaptation of various enzyme properties, including interactions with substrates and cofactors, tolerance towards nonphysiological industrial environments, and even the introduction of new chemical reactivities. The trend towards increased reaction complexity has also driven the development of engineering methods and design principles to improve cascade performance, through spatial and temporal compartmentalization via biocatalyst colocation and immobilization. Integrated multiscale engineering methods, built around standardization, modularity, and abstraction, are increasingly being recognized as a means to accelerate reaction design and engineering.
ORGANIC PROCESS RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT
(2022)
Article
Biochemical Research Methods
F. Hafna Ahmed, Alessandro T. Caputo, Nigel G. French, Thomas S. Peat, Jason Whitfield, Andrew C. Warden, Janet Newman, Colin Scott
Summary: This study presents the high-resolution crystal structures of four open-source chromoproteins, highlighting their potential in protein engineering and synthetic biology applications.
ACTA CRYSTALLOGRAPHICA SECTION D-STRUCTURAL BIOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Yvonne Joho, Vanessa Vongsouthi, Matthew A. Spence, Jennifer Ton, Chloe Gomez, Li Lynn Tan, Joe A. Kaczmarski, Alessandro T. Caputo, Santana Royan, Colin J. Jackson, Albert Ardevol
Summary: Biocatalytic PET depolymerization is a sustainable and low-energy solution for PET recycling. This study applies ancestral protein reconstruction and protein repair one-stop shop to improve enzyme activity and stability, providing new insights into PETase activity evolution and the role of second-shell mutations around the active site.
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Bo Zhuang, Marten H. Vos, Alexey Aleksandrov
Summary: A study investigated the binding properties of halide inhibitors (chloride and fluoride ions) on glucose oxidase (GOX) through spectral characterization and simulations. It was found that chloride and fluoride ions bind differently to the active site of GOX, leading to opposite effects on the excited state and fluorescence decay kinetics. These findings provide insights into the mechanism of halide inhibition on GOX.
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Suk Woo Kang, James Antoney, David W. Lupton, Robert Speight, Colin Scott, Colin J. Jackson
Summary: Asymmetric reduction by ene-reductases has been extensively studied, with the Old Yellow Enzyme (OYE) family being the most researched. However, the limited substrate range and stereocomplementary pairs of current ene-reductases necessitate the development of a complementary class. Flavin/deazaflavin oxidoreductases (FDORs) that use F-420 as a cofactor have gained attention due to their stereocomplementarity with OYEs. In this study, the activity of eight FDOR-B enzymes was investigated, comparing their specific activity, kinetic properties, and stereoselectivity with FDOR-A enzymes and OYE family.
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Bo Zhuang, Alexey Aleksandrov, Daisuke Seo, Marten H. Vos
Summary: By using ultrafast spectroscopy, it has been found that in ferredoxin-NADP+ oxidoreductase (FNR) enzymes from different sources, the photoexcited fully reduced flavin cofactor (FADred) exhibits significantly different decay rates, with Bacillus subtilis and Rhodopseudomonas palustris showing unusually fast decays and Chlorobaculum tepidum showing slower decay. This finding provides new insights into the photochemistry of fully reduced flavins and their behavior in proteins.
JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY LETTERS
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Poutoum P. Samire, Bo Zhuang, Bertrand Legeret, Angel Baca-Porcel, Gilles Peltier, Damien Sorigue, Alexey Aleksandrov, Frederic Beisson, Pavel Mueller
Summary: Ongoing climate change is driving the search for renewable and carbon-neutral alternatives to fossil fuels. Pho-tocatalytic conversion of fatty acids to hydrocarbons by fatty acid photodecarboxylase (FAP) represents a promising route to green fuels. Chlorella variabilis FAP (CvFAP) has higher catalytic activity on n-octanoic acid, in part, due to an autocatalytic effect of its n-heptane product.
Article
Biotechnology & Applied Microbiology
Raquel A. Rocha, Lygie Esquirol, Vivien Rolland, Philip Hands, Robert E. Speight, Colin Scott
Summary: Enzyme immobilization provides advantages for biocatalysis, but current methods often require surface modification and incur associated costs. This study investigated cellulose and silica carriers for immobilization, using fluorescent proteins as models. Two binding tags were tested and successfully fused to various proteins, but immobilization resulted in loss of enzymatic activity.
ENZYME AND MICROBIAL TECHNOLOGY
(2023)