Trametes versicolor carboxylate reductase uncovered

ABSTRACT: The first carboxylate reductase from Trametes versicolor was identified, cloned, and expressed in Escherichia coli. The enzyme reduces aromatic acids such as benzoic acid and derivatives, cinnamic acid, and 3-phenylpropanoic acid, but also aliphatic acids such as octanoic acid are reduced. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT: [Image: see text

Behavioral genetics and taste

This review focuses on behavioral genetic studies of sweet, umami, bitter and salt taste responses in mammals. Studies involving mouse inbred strain comparisons and genetic analyses, and their impact on elucidation of taste receptors and transduction mechanisms are discussed. Finally, the effect of genetic variation in taste responsiveness on complex traits such as drug intake is considered. Recent advances in development of genomic resources make behavioral genetics a powerful approach for understanding mechanisms of taste

Frequent CEO Turnover and Firm Performance: The Resilience Effect of Workforce Diversity

© 2020, Springer Nature B.V. CEO turnover (or succession) is a critical event in an organization that influences organizational processes and performance. The objective of this study is to investigate whether workforce diversity (i.e., age, gender, and education-level diversity) might have a resilience effect on firm performance under the frequency of CEO turnover. Based on a sample of 409 Korean firms from 2010 to 2015, our results show that firms with more frequent CEO turnover have a lower firm performance. However, firms with more gender and education-level diversity could buffer the disruptive effect of frequent CEO turnover on firm performance to offer a benefit to the organization. Our theory and findings suggest that effectively managing diverse workforce can be a resilience factor in an uncertain organizational environment because diverse workforce has complementary skills and behaviors that can cope better with uncertainty and signals social inclusion of an organization, thus fostering a long-term exchange relationship. These findings contribute to the literature on CEO turnover (or succession) and diversity

First total synthesis of (+)-epogymnolactam, a novel autophagy inducer

A novel autophagy inducer, (+)-epogymnolactam (1), was first synthesized from cis-4-benzyloxy-2-butene-1-ol (2) in eight steps. A reliable preparation of optically pure epoxy alcohol (+)-3 from monobenzyl derivative (2) was established by a tandem strategy, Sharpless epoxidation/lipase kinetic resolution

Quantitative assays for esterified oxylipins generated by immune cells

Phospholipid-esterified oxylipins include newly described families of bioactive lipids generated by lipoxygenases in immune cells. Until now, assays for their quantitation were not well developed or widely available. Here, we describe a mass spectrometric protocol that enables accurate measurement of several esterified oxylipins—in particular hydro(pero)xyeicosatetraenoic acids, hydroxyoctadecadienoic acids, hydroxydocosahexaenoic acids and keto-eicosatetraenoic acids—attached to either phosphatidylethanolamine or phosphatidylcholine. Lipids are isolated from cells or tissue using a liquid-phase organic extraction, then analyzed by HPLC–tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS/MS) in multiple reaction–monitoring mode. The protocol can simultaneously monitor up to 23 species. Generation of standards takes ~2 d. Following this, extraction of 30 samples takes ~3 h, with LC/MS/MS run time of 50 min per sample