Construction of Electrochemical Chiral Interfaces with Integrated Polysaccharides via Amidation

Polysaccharides of sodium carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) and chitosan (CS) were integrated together via amidation reactions between the carboxyl groups on sodium CMC and the amino groups on CS. Compared with individual sodium CMC and CS, the integrated polysaccharides with a mass ratio of 1:1, CMC–CS (1:1), exhibited a three-dimensional (3D) porous network structure, resulting in a significantly enhanced hydrophility due to the exposed polar functional groups in the CMC–CS (1:1). Chiral interfaces were constructed with the integrated polysaccharides and used for electrochemical enantiorecognition of tryptophan (Trp) isomers. The CMC–CS (1:1) chiral interfaces exhibited excellent selectivity toward the Trp isomers owing to the highly hydrophilic feature of CMC–CS (1:1) and the different steric hindrance during the formation of H bonds between Trp isomers and CMC–CS (1:1). Also, the optimization in the preparation of integrated polysaccharides such as mass ratio and combination mode (amidation or electrostatic interactions) was investigated. The CMC–CS (1:1) presented the ability of determining the percentage of d-Trp in racemic mixtures, and thus, the proposed electrochemical chiral interfaces could be regarded as a potential biosensing platform for enantiorecognition of chiral compounds

Coinduction of a Chiral Microenvironment in Polypyrrole by Overoxidation and Camphorsulfonic Acid for Electrochemical Chirality Sensing

Polypyrrole (PPy) was synthesized by a galvanostatic method using (1<i>S</i>)-(+)-10-camphorsulfonic acid ((+)-CSA) as the dopant, and the produced PPy was further overoxidized in a solution of (+)-CSA. A chiral microenvironment was successfully formed in the overoxidized PPy (OPPy) as a result of the synergistic effects of overoxidation and (+)-CSA, resulting in a twisted helical architecture of the OPPy chains. The formation of optically active OPPy was confirmed from aspects of its morphology (SEM and AFM) and circular-dichroism (CD) spectra. Finally, an electrochemical chirality sensor was fabricated on the basis of the resultant OPPy, which exhibited excellent biomolecular homochirality in the discrimination of tryptophan (Trp) enantiomers

Major characteristics of DGE libraries.

<p>Major characteristics of DGE libraries.</p

Gene expression in three strains of <i>V. volvacea</i>.

<p>(<b>a</b>) Venn diagrams showing genes expressed in the three strains. (<b>b</b>) The histogram shows the percentage of genes that are differentially expressed in the three strains of <i>V. volvacea</i>.</p

Electrochemical Enantioselective Recognition in a Highly Ordered Self-Assembly Framework

Construction of convenient systems for isomer discrimination is of great importance for medical and life sciences. Here, we report a simple and effective chiral sensing device based on a highly ordered self-assembly framework. Cu²⁺-modified β-cyclodextrin (Cu-β-CD) was self-assembled to the ammonia-ethanol cotreated chitosan (ae-CS), and the highly ordered framework was gradually formed during the “re-growth” process of the shrinked ae-CS films. Tryptophan (Trp) isomers were well discriminated with the highly ordered framework by electrochemical approach. This study is the first example showing how an ordered structure influences chiral recognition

Crystallinity Dependence of Ruthenium Nanocatalyst toward Hydrogen Evolution Reaction

The development of highly active and durable inexpensive electrocatalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is still a formidable challenge. Herein, an ordered hexagonal-closed-packed (hcp)-Ru nanocrystal coated with a thin layer of N-doped carbon (hcp-Ru@NC) was fabricated through the thermal annealing of polydopamine (PDA)-coated Ru nanoparticle (RuNP@PDA). As an alternative to Pt/C catalyst, the hcp-Ru@NC nanocatalyst exhibited the small overpotential of 27.5 mV at a current density of 10 mA cm^–2, as well as long-term stability for HER in acid media. Interestingly, the HER performance of hcp-Ru is highly dependent on its crystallinity. The calculation from density functional theory (DFT) revealed that the difference in HER activity over various exposed surface causes the crystallinity-dependent property of hcp-Ru. The results provided clues to guide the design of Ru-based inexpensive HER electrocatalyst

Effects of the formation of heterokaryon on gene expression.

a<p>TMP: Tags per million.</p

The colonial characteristics of <i>V. volvacea</i> stains PYd15(a, b), H1521(c, d) and PYd21(e, f).

<p>(a,c,e). strains were growth on PDA plates and images were captured after 4 d of growth. (b,d,f). strains were growth on a straw-based medium and images were captured after 15 d of cultivation.</p

Comparison of the number of CAZymes in <i>V. volvacea</i> genome with those in other fungi genomes [3].

<p>Enzymes: GH for glycoside hydrolase, GT for glycosyltransferase, PL for polysaccharide lyases, and CE for carbohydrate esterases. Species abbreviations and genome references: V. vol. for <i>Volvariella volvacea</i> (current paper), S. com. for <i>Schizophyllum commune</i><a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0058780#pone.0058780-Ohm1" target="_blank">[3]</a>, P. chr. for <i>Phanerochaete chrysosporium</i><a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0058780#pone.0058780-Martinez2" target="_blank">[30]</a>, P. pla. for <i>Postia placenta</i><a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0058780#pone.0058780-Martinez3" target="_blank">[31]</a>, C. cin. for <i>Coprinopsis cinerea</i><a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0058780#pone.0058780-Stajich1" target="_blank">[14]</a>, L. bio. for <i>Laccaria bicolor</i><a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0058780#pone.0058780-Martin1" target="_blank">[32]</a>, C. neo. for <i>Cryptococcus neoformans</i><a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0058780#pone.0058780-Loftus1" target="_blank">[33]</a>; U. may. for <i>Ustilago maydis</i><a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0058780#pone.0058780-Kmper1" target="_blank">[34]</a>, S.cer. for <i>Saccharomyces cerevisiae</i><a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0058780#pone.0058780-Goffeau1" target="_blank">[35]</a>, N.cra. for <i>Neurospora crassa</i><a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0058780#pone.0058780-Galagan1" target="_blank">[36]</a>, T. mel. for <i>Tuber melanosporum</i><a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0058780#pone.0058780-Martin2" target="_blank">[37]</a>, A.nig. for <i>Aspergillus niger</i><a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0058780#pone.0058780-Pel1" target="_blank">[38]</a>, P.ind. for <i>Piriformospora indica</i><a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0058780#pone.0058780-Zuccaro1" target="_blank">[39]</a>, P. chr. for <i>Penicillium chrysogenum</i><a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0058780#pone.0058780-vandenBerg1" target="_blank">[40]</a>, and T.ree. for <i>Trichoderma reesei</i><a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0058780#pone.0058780-Martinez1" target="_blank">[2]</a>.</p

Double clustering of the carbohydrate-cleaving families of 8 basidiomycete genomes.

<p><b>Top tree:</b> S. com. for <i>Schizophyllum commune</i>; V. vol. for <i>Volvariella volvacea</i>; P. chr. for <i>Phanerochaete chrysosporium</i>; C. cin. for <i>Coprinopsis cinerea</i>; P. pla. for <i>Postia placenta</i>; L. bio. for <i>Laccaria bicolor</i>; C. neo. for <i>Cryptococcus neoformans</i>; U. may. for <i>Ustilago maydis</i>. <b>Left tree:</b> the enzyme families are represented by their class (GH for glycoside hydrolase; PL for polysaccharide lyase; CE for carbohydrate esterase) and family number according to the carbohydrate-active enzyme database <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0058780#pone.0058780-Cantarel1" target="_blank">[23]</a>. <b>Right side:</b> known substrate of CAZy families. Abundance of the different enzymes within a family is represented by a colour scale from 0 (black) to >20 (red) occurrences per species.</p