The influence of different amino acid residues on properties of a protein surface is of great interest and importance. Hydrodynamically coupled water in the amino acids has the potential to be used as a tool to study surface properties of proteins. The contribution of this coupled water fraction in design ...

Mastoparans are a family of small peptides identified from the venom of hymenopteroid insects. Although they have been characterized as early as 1979, and so far are recognized as a leading biomolecule in potential drug therapy, their precursors, mastoparanogen, have still not been determined. In this paper, several mastoparans from ...

Deficiency of drug glucuronidation in the cat is one of the major reasons why this animal is highly sensitive to the side effects of drugs. The characterization of cytochrome P450 isoforms belonging to the CYP1A subfamily, which exhibit important drug oxidation activities such as activation of pro-carcinogens, was investigated. Two ...

In the detergent industry, fungal endoglucanases are used to release microfibrils from the surfaces of dyed cellulosic fabrics to enhance color brightness. Family 45 endoglucanase (glycoside hydrolase family 45, GH45) EGL3 from Humicola grisea is more resistant to anionic surfactants and oxidizing agents than family 45 endoglucanase RCE1 from Rhizopus ...

Acid-stable equine picornaviruses (ASPs) were identified as a distinct serotype of equine picornaviruses that were isolated from nasal swabs taken from horses with acute febrile respiratory disease in the UK and Japan, and were placed in the group of unclassified picornaviruses. The nucleotide sequence of the P1 region, encoding the ...

Understanding the solvation of amino acids in biomembranes is an important step to better explain membrane protein folding. Several experimental studies have shown that polar residues are both common and important in transmembrane segments, which means they have to be solvated in the hydrophobic membrane, at least until helices have ...

Purification of rosmarinic acid synthase (hydroxycinnamoyl-CoA:hydroxyphenyllactate hydroxycinnamoyltransferase) from suspension cells of Coleus blumei Benth. (Lamiaceae) by fractionated ammonium sulphate precipitation, hydrophobic interaction chromatography and two affinity chromatography steps led to the identification of peptide sequences, which enabled a PCR-based approach to isolate the full-length cDNA encoding this enzyme. The open ...

Crude venom from Thai giant scorpion, Heterometrus laoticus, most commonly found in the northeastern area of Thailand, was evaluated for PD50 (paralytic dose 50) activities from abdominal injection to cricket (Gryllus sp.) and activities against various kinds of microorganisms. It exhibited good results in disc diffusion assay for Bacillus subtilis, ...

So far, various approaches for phylogenetic analysis have been developed. Almost all of them put stress on analyzing nucleic acid sequences or protein primary structures. In this paper, we take the physicochemical properties of amino acids into account and introduce the hydropathy profile of amino acids into phylogenetic analysis. We ...

Syntheses and polymerizations of alpha-amino acid N-carboxyanhydrides (NCAs) were reported for the first time by Hermann Leuchs in 1906. Since that time, these cyclic and highly reactive amino acid derivatives were used for stepwise peptide syntheses but mainly for the formation of polypeptides by ring-opening polymerizations. This review summarizes the ...

Mutations of non-muscle myosin Type IIA or MYH9 are linked to syndromic or nonsyndromic hearing loss. The biologic function of MYH9 in the auditory organ and the pathophysiology of its dysfunction remain to be determined. The mouse represents an excellent model for investigating the biologic role of MYH9 in the ...

EGL3 and RCE1 are glycoside hydrolase family 45 endoglucanases isolated from Humicola grisea and Rhizopus oryzae respectively. The amino acid sequences of the two endoglucanases are homologous; on the other hand, the optimum temperature of EGL3 is higher than that of RCE1. In this study, four chimeric endoglucanases, named ER1, ...

The complete amino acid sequence of [2Fe-2S] ferredoxin from Panax ginseng (Araliaceae) has been determined by automated Edman degradation of the entire S-carboxymethylcysteinyl protein and of the peptides obtained by enzymatic digestion. This ferredoxin has a unique amino acid sequence, which includes an insertion of Tyr at the 3rd position ...

A gene encoding an extracellular protease, sptA, was cloned from the halophilic archaeon Natrinema sp. J7. It encoded a polypeptide of 565 amino acids containing a putative 49-amino acid signal peptide, a 103-amino acid propeptide, as well as a mature region and C-terminal extension, with a high proportion of acidic ...

The OprD family of specific porins in Pseudomonas aeruginosa comprises 19 members, some of which have been demonstrated to facilitate the uptake of specific compounds into the cell. The members of this family share considerable amino acid sequence similarity (46-57%), which is unusual among porin molecules. In this work, we ...

In crustaceans, the pigment-dispersing hormone (PDH) is released from the X-organ/sinus gland complex located in the eyestalks, and controls pigment dispersion in the chromatophores. Knowledge concerning the structure and activity of PDH in penaeid shrimps is remains limited, since natural PDH has been purified from only the Kuruma prawn, Marsupenaeus ...

Folding and unfolding simulations of three-dimensional lattice proteins were analyzed using a simplified statistical mechanical model in which their amino acid sequences and native conformations were incorporated explicitly. Using this statistical mechanical model, under the assumption that only interactions between amino acid residues within a local structure in a native ...

In this work we describe the isolation of a new l-amino acid oxidase (LAAO) referred to as BpirLAAO-I from Bothrops pirajai snake venom, which was highly purified using a combination of molecular exclusion, affinity, and hydrophobic chromatography steps. BpirLAAO-I homodimeric acid glycoprotein (approximate Mr and pI of 130,000 and 4.9, ...

The complete amino acid sequence of the thrombin-like serine protease, named kangshuanmei, isolated from the venom of a Chinese snake Agkistrodon halys brevicaudus stejneger, was determined by Edman degradation. The serine protease was composed of 236 amino acid residues and conserved the catalytic triad as His43, Asp88 and Ser182. The ...

Under normal conditions, the cellular prion protein (PrP(c)) undergoes a proteolytic attack between amino acids 111 and 112 which gives rise to the N-terminal secreted N1 fragment and its C-terminal membrane-tethered counterpart C1. Importantly, this cleavage precludes the integrity of the neurotoxic 106-126 sequence. Here, we describe an original and ...

The molecular basis for the spectral tuning of longwave-sensitive (LWS) visual pigments in mammals have been described in a wide range of placental species, including the primates. However, little is known about the molecular mechanisms in marsupial LWS pigments. Here, we have studied and compared the LWS opsins in four ...

Group IIA phospholipase A(2) (PLA(2)) are major components in Viperidae/Crotalidae venom. In the present study, a novel PLA(2) named promutoxin with Arg at the site 49 has been purified from the venom of Protobothrops mucrosquamatus by chromatography. It consists of 122 amino acid residues with a molecular mass of 13,656 ...

Genomic analysis of a hyperthermophilic archaeon Thermococcus sp. NA1 revealed the presence of an 885-bp open reading frame encoding a protein of 295 amino acids with a calculated molecular mass of 32,981 Da. Analysis of the deduced amino acid sequence showed that amino acid residues important for catalytic activity and ...

Glycation is a nonenzymatic process in which proteins react with reducing sugar molecules and thereby impair the function and change the characteristics of the proteins. Glycation is involved in diabetes and aging where the accumulation of glycation products causes side effects. In this study, we statistically investigate the glycation of ...

Genomic comparison of Neodiprion sertifer nucleopolyhedrovirus (NeseNPV) and Neodiprion lecontei nucleopolyhedrovirus (NeleNPV) showed that the hymenopteran baculoviruses had features in common and were distinct from other, fully sequenced lepidopteran and dipteran baculoviruses. Their genomes were small in size (86,462 and 81,755 bp, respectively), had low G+C contents (33.8 and 33.3 ...

Bovine leukemia virus and human T-cell leukemia viruses I and II, members of the Deltaretrovirus group, have two regulatory genes, tax and rex, that are coded in overlapping reading frames. We found that sequence variations in the rex gene of each virus result in amino acid differences significantly more often ...

The phosphotriesterase OpdA from Agrobacterium sp. P230 has about 10-fold higher activity for dimethyl organophosphate (OP) insecticides, than its homologue from Flavobacterium sp. ATCC27551, organophosphate hydrolase (OPH). OpdA shows about 10% amino acid sequence divergence from OPH and also has a 20 residue C-terminal extension. Here we show that the ...

Reduced or simplified amino acid alphabets group the 20 naturally occurring amino acids into a smaller number of representative protein residues. To date, several reduced amino acid alphabets have been proposed, which have been derived and optimized by a variety of methods. The resulting reduced amino acid alphabets have been ...

Chicken pancreatic lipase (CPL) was purified from delipidated pancreas. Pure CPL was obtained after ammonium sulphate fractionation, then DEAE-cellulose, Sephacryl S-200 gel filtration, and FPLC Mono-Q Sepharose columns. The pure lipase is a glycosylated monomer having a molecular mass of about 50kDa. The 23 N-terminal amino acid residues of CPL ...

The integral membrane protein known as prominin was first identified on the apical surface of mouse neural epithelial cells as well as on the surface of human haematopoietic progenitor cells. This report describes a prominin-like sequence and expression analysis of the prominin in the goldfish. The predicted amino acid sequence ...

The isoelectric points of the gap junction proteins connexin26 (Cx26) and connexin32 (Cx32) were determined by isoelectric focusing in free fluids. The isoelectric points were significantly more acidic than predicted from amino acid sequences and different from each other, allowing homomeric channels to be resolved separately. The isoelectric points of ...

Proteasomes are responsible for the cytoplasmic turnover of the vast majority of proteins including regulatory proteins. We have synthesized lipopeptides a new class of non-covalent inhibitors of the 20S proteasome and assayed their inhibitory capacities. Their ability to inhibit at micromolar concentrations chymotrypsin-like and post-acid activities depends on peptide length ...

A Cu,Zn superoxide dismutase (SOD1) gene was cloned from the bumblebee, Bombus ignitus. The SOD1 gene of B. ignitus spans 1,317 bp and consists of three introns and four exons encoding 151 amino acid residues. The B. ignitus SOD1 (BiSOD1) possesses the typical metal-binding ligands of six histidines and one ...

The 70-kDa heat shock protein (Hsp70) is predominantly present intracellularly as a monomer, but a small population is converted to dimers and oligomers under certain conditions. In the present study, we investigated the dimeric structure of human inducible Hsp70. As reported earlier, the C-terminal client-binding domain (amino acids 382-641) was ...

Zhaoermia mangshanensis (formerly Trimeresurus mangshanensis, Ermia mangshanensis) represents a monotypic genus of pitviper known only from Mt Mang in China's Hunan Province, and is among the largest and most spectacular of Asian venomous snakes. The venom of Zhaoermia exhibits high coagulant activity on bovine and human fibrinogen and human plasma, ...

A TOF MS/MS method to directly determine the amino acid sequence in a cyclic lipopeptide without its hydrolysis is described. The fragments of the peptide and the hydrocarbon chains were identified through comparing the MS of two analogues of the lipopeptide; the connecting relationship of amino acid residues in the ...

The amino acid sequence of actinoporin RTX-A (175 aa) from the sea anemone Radianthus macrodactylus was determined by sequencing of clones obtained via amplification of cDNA. It was established that RTX-A possessed high homology with HmgIII from Heteractis magnifica (87%) and StI, StII from Stichodactyla helianthus (84 and 87%, respectively). ...

MOTIVATION: A central problem in genomics is to determine the function of a protein using the information contained in its amino acid sequence. Variable length Markov chains (VLMC) are a promising class of models that can effectively classify proteins into families and they can be estimated in linear time and ...

Selecting an individual membrane protein and probing its mechanical properties has become possible by AFM-based single-molecule force spectroscopy. In contrast to earlier studies, we extracted and unfolded bacteriorhodopsin monomers from the purple membrane not only from the cytoplasmic side, but also from the extracellular side, and recorded the force extension ...

Two squash family protease inhibitors were obtained from wax gourd (Benicasa hispida [Thunb] Cogn.). Even though they were distinctly separated by reversed-phase chromatography, the amino acid sequences of two inhibitors were identical. Both inhibitors were converted into each other, perhaps due to cis-trans isomerization of characteristic Pro in the C-terminal ...

Previous physiological studies have suggested central roles of brain natriuretic peptide (BNP). However, little information is available about the localization of BNP in the brain. In this study, we determined cDNA sequence encoding the entire coding region of prepro-BNP of Japanese and cynomologus monkeys, and then examined the immunohistochemical localization ...

The misfolded infectious isoform of the prion protein (PrP(Sc)) is thought to replicate in an autocatalytic manner by converting the cellular form (PrP(C)) into its pathogenic folding variant. The similarity in the amino acid sequence of PrP(C) and PrP(Sc) influences the conversion efficiency and is considered as the major determinant ...

Finding opportunities to construct sugar motifs and to transfer them to targets of biological relevance and rapid identification of glycosylation events are important goals for glycobiology and a field of increasing interest. Here we have applied an enzyme microarray screening system for the identification of new acceptor specificities of the ...

In this paper we reported the purification, the biological characterization and the amino acid sequence of two new isoforms basic 6-1 (Bj-IV) and 6-2 (Bj-V) PLA(2) D49 purified from the Bothrops jararacussu venom. The isoforms 6-1 and 6-2 had a sequence of amino acids of 121 amino acid residues 6-1: ...

Phospholipase B (PLB) from the asporogenous yeast Candida utilis was purified to homogeneity from a culture broth. The apparent molecular mass was 90-110 kDa by SDS-PAGE. The enzyme had two pH optima, one acidic (pH 3.0) and the other alkaline (pH 7.5). At acidic pH the enzyme hydrolyzed all phospholipids ...

Plants and fungi can synthesize each of the 20 amino acids by using biosynthetic pathways inherited from their bacterial ancestors. However, the ability to synthesize nine amino acids (Phe, Trp, Ile, Leu, Val, Lys, His, Thr, and Met) was lost in a wide variety of eukaryotes that evolved the ability ...

SUMMARY: Analysis of proteomics data, specifically mass spectrometry data, commonly relies on libraries of known information such as atomic masses, known stable isotopes, atomic compositions of amino acids, observed modifications of known amino acids and ion masses that directly correspond to known amino acid sequences. The Java Analysis Framework (JAF) ...

Phospholipases A2 (PLA2) comprise a superfamily of enzymes that hydrolyze phospholipids to a free fatty acid, e.g., arachidonate, and a 2-lysophospholipid. Dissecting their individual functions has relied in large part on pharmacological inhibitors that discriminate among PLA2. Group VIA PLA2 (iPLA2beta) has a GTSTG serine lipase consensus sequence, and studies ...

XK, a putative membrane transporter, is a component of the XK/Kell complex of the Kell blood group system. XK's substrate is unknown but absence of the protein, as occurs in the McLeod phenotype, is associated with red cell acanthocytosis and late onset central nervous system and neuromuscular abnormalities known as ...

Microtubules (MT) are important for cell behavior and maintenance, yet the factors regulating MT assembly in vivo remain obscure. In a biochemical search, we have isolated a small (4.7 kDa) acidic, phosphorylated polypeptide, which we named MINUS (microtubule nucleation suppressor) for its activity to inhibit MT nucleation [P. Fanara, B. ...