Selective Determination of Pyridine Alkaloids in Tobacco by PFTBA Ions/Analyte Molecule Reaction Ionization Ion Trap Mass Spectrometry

The application of perfluorotributylamine (PFTBA) ions/analyte molecule reaction ionization for the selective determination of tobacco pyridine alkaloids by ion trap mass spectrometry (IT-MS) is reported. The main three PFTBA ions (CF3+, C3F5+, and C5F10N+) are generated in the external source and then introduced into ion trap for reaction with analytes. Because the existence of the tertiary nitrogen atom in the pyridine makes it possible for PFTBA ions to react smoothly with pyridine and forms adduct ions, pyridine alkaloids in tobacco were selectively ionized and formed quasi-molecular ion [M + H]+and adduct ions, including [M + 69]+, [M + 131]+, and [M + 264]+, in IT-MS. These ions had distinct abundances and were regarded as the diagnostic ions of each tobacco pyridine alkaloid for quantitative analysis in selected-ion monitoring mode. Results show that the limit of detection is 0.2 μg/mL, and the relative standard deviations for the seven alkaloids are in the range of 0.71% to 6.8%, and good recovery of 95.6% and 97.2%. The proposed method provides substantially greater selectivity and sensitivity compared with the conventional approach and offers an alternative approach for analysis of tobacco alkaloids

A glycolipid glycosyltransferase with broad substrate specificity from the marine bacterium “Candidatus Pelagibacter sp.” Strain HTCC7211

In the marine environment, phosphorus availability significantly affects the lipid composition in many cosmopolitan marine heterotrophic bacteria, including members of the SAR11 clade and the Roseobacter clade. Under phosphorus stress conditions, nonphosphorus sugar-containing glycoglycerolipids are substitutes for phospholipids in these bacteria. Although these glycoglycerolipids play an important role as surrogates for phospholipids under phosphate deprivation, glycoglycerolipid synthases in marine microbes are poorly studied. In the present study, we biochemically characterized a glycolipid glycosyltransferase (GTcp) from the marine bacterium “Candidatus Pelagibacter sp.” strain HTCC7211, a member of the SAR11 clade. Our results showed that GTcp is able to act as a multifunctional enzyme by synthesizing different glycoglycerolipids with UDP-glucose, UDP-galactose, or UDP-glucuronic acid as sugar donors and diacylglycerol (DAG) as the acceptor. Analyses of enzyme kinetic parameters demonstrated that Mg2+ notably changes the enzyme’s affinity for UDP-glucose, which improves its catalytic efficiency. Homology modeling and mutational analyses revealed binding sites for the sugar donor and the diacylglycerol lipid acceptor, which provided insights into the retaining mechanism of GTcp with its GT-B fold. A phylogenetic analysis showed that GTcp and its homologs form a group in the GT4 glycosyltransferase family. These results not only provide new insights into the glycoglycerolipid synthesis mechanism in lipid remodeling but also describe an efficient enzymatic tool for the future synthesis of bioactive molecules

Biochemical characterization of the nuclease StoNurA from the hyperthermophilic archaeon Sulfolobus tokodaii

Abstract The DNA nuclease gene ST2109 has been cloned from the hyperthermophilic archaeon Sulfolobus tokodaii and expressed in Escherichia coli. The recombinant protein StoNurA has been purified to homogeneity by affinity chromatography and gel filtration chromatography. Biochemical analyses demonstrated that StoNurA exhibited DNA binding and 5’–3’ exonuclease activities towards ssDNA and dsDNA. The temperature and pH optima of StoNurA were determined to be 65 °C and 8.0, respectively. The activity of StoNurA was found to be dependent of Mn2+, and its half-life of heat inactivation at 100 °C was 5 min. Gel filtration chromatography revealed that StoNurA could form dimers in solution. Pull-down assays also showed that StoNurA physically interacted with a DNA helicase (StoHerA). Our data suggest that NurA may play a key functional role in the processing of DNA recombinational repair

Cloning, Expression and Characterization of a Novel Fructosyltransferase from Aspergillus oryzae ZZ-01 for the Synthesis of Sucrose 6-Acetate

A 1521 bp gene encoding for a novel fructosyltransferase from Aspergillus oryzae ZZ-01 (AoFT) has been amplified by RACE and TAIL PCR, and functionally overexpressed in Escherichia coli BL 21-CodonPlus (DE3)-RIL. The recombinant A. oryzae ZZ-01 fructosyltransferases (r-AoFT) was purified to homogeneity after Ni-NTA affinity and Superdex-200 gel filtration chromatography. SDS-PAGE analysis of the purified r-AoFT revealed a single protein band with an apparent molecular mass of 60.0 kDa. The r-AoFT enzyme exhibited its optimal activity at 55 °C and pH 5.5, and maintained about 63% of its activity even after 60 min of treatment at 60 °C. The addition of Mg2+ led to an increase in the activity of r-AoFT, whereas Zn2+, Cu2+ and Ni2+ led to a reduction in its activity. Six site-directed mutants of r-AoFT (D39A, D164A, E216A, N38L, S99A and Y282A) were constructed and characterized biochemically. The N38L, S99A and Y282A mutants had lower Km and higher Vmax values than the wild-type enzyme, highlighting their higher binding affinity for the substrates. These results therefore suggest that r-AoFT could be used for the enzymatic synthesis of Suc6A from sucrose and glucose 6-acetate

Utjecaj dodatka Tweena 80 i acetona na lučenje, strukturu i antioksidacijsku aktivnost egzopolisaharida iz gljive Lentinus tigrinus

In this study, the effects of the addition of Tween 80 and acetone on secretion, structure and antioxidant activities of Lentinus tigrinus exopolysaccharides (EPS) were investigated. It was found that Tween 80 and acetone displayed a stimulatory effect on EPS secretion. The EPS obtained by the addition of Tween 80 (EPS-T), acetone (EPS-A) and control (EPS-C) were purified by Sepharose CL-6B gel filtration chromatography and molecular mass of purified fractions was estimated to be 22.1, 137 and 12 kDa, respectively. Monosaccharide composition analysis indicated that EPS-T, EPS-A and EPS-C were mainly composed of glucose and mannose. Congo Red test indicated that EPS-T and EPS-A had a highly ordered conformation of triple helix, while EPS-C had a random coil conformation. Furthermore, EPS-A exhibited higher DPPH scavenging and antiproliferative activities than EPS-C and EPS-T, which might be attributed to the molecular mass.U ovom je radu istražen utjecaj dodatka Tweena 80 i acetona podlozi za uzgoj gljive Lentinus tigrinus na lučenje, strukturu i antioksidacijsku aktivnost egzopolisaharida (EPS). Utvrđeno je da Tween 80 i aceton pospješuju lučenje egzopolisaharida. Dobiveni egzopolisaharidi pročišćeni su gel filtracijom na koloni Sepharose CL-6B, a molekularna masa dobivenih frakcija bila je: 22,1 kDa uz dodatak Tween 80 (EPS-T), 137 kDa uz dodatak acetona (EPS-A), te 12 kDa u kontrolnom uzorku (EPS-C). Ispitivanjem monosaharidnog sastava dobivenih egzopolisaharida utvrđeno je da se uglavnom sastoje od glukoze i manoze. Određivanjem strukture egzopolisaharida pomoću bojila Congo Red ustanovljeno je da EPS-T i EPS-A imaju konformaciju trostrukog heliksa, a EPS-C nasumičnu strukturu tzv. slučajnog klupka (engl. random coil). Osim toga, EPS-A imao je veću sposobnost uklanjanja DPPH radikala i izraženiji antiproliferacijski učinak od EPS-C i EPS-T, vjerojatno zbog toga što je imao najveću molekularnu masu

Fermentation characteristics in stirred-tank reactor of exopolysaccharides with hypolipidemic activity produced by Pleurotus geesteranus 5#

In this study, the hypolipidemic effect of exopolysaccharides (EPS) from Pleurotus geesteranus 5# fermenting liquor by the optimal culture conditions in a 5-L stirred-tank reactor was investigated. The hypolipidemic effect of the polysaccharide, investigated in streptozotocin induced diabetic mice, decreased plasma glucose, total cholesterol and triacylglycerol concentrations by 17.1 %, 18.8 % and 12.0 %, respectively. The results of the present investigation strongly demonstrate the potential of this polysaccharide to prevent hyperglycemia in the experimental animals. Under optimal culture conditions, the maximum concentrations of mycelial and EPS were 22.63 g/L after 7 d cultivation and 11.09 g/L after 10 d, respectively. Furthermore, the morphological parameters (i.e. mean diameter, circularity, roughness and compactness) of the pellets and the broth viscosity were characterized. It was proved that compactness of the pellet morphology (R2=0.963, p<0.01) was significantly and positively determined with mycelial biomass. Moreover, mean diameter (R2=93.3, p<0.01) and broth viscosity (R2=0.950, p<0.01) were significantly and positively determined with EPS content

Characterization of a Novel Nicotine Hydroxylase from Pseudomonas sp. ZZ-5 That Catalyzes the Conversion of 6-Hydroxy-3-Succinoylpyridine into 2,5-Dihydroxypyridine

A novel nicotine hydroxylase was isolated from Pseudomonas sp. ZZ-5 (HSPHZZ). The sequence encoding the enzyme was 1206 nucleotides long, and encoded a protein of 401 amino acids. Recombinant HSPHZZ was functionally overexpressed in Escherichia coli BL21-Codon Plus (DE3)-RIL cells and purified to homogeneity after Ni-NTA affinity chromatography. Liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) analyses indicated that the enzyme could efficiently catalyze the conversion of 6-hydroxy-3-succinoylpyridine (HSP) into 2,5-dihydroxypyridine (2,5-DHP) and succinic acid in the presence of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH) and flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD). The kinetic constants (Km, kcat, and kcat/Km) of HSPHZZ toward HSP were 0.18 mM, 2.1 s−1, and 11.7 s−1 mM−1, respectively. The optimum temperature, pH, and optimum concentrations of substrate and enzyme for 2,5-DHP production were 30 °C, 8.5, 1.0 mM, and 1.0 μM, respectively. Under optimum conditions, 85.3 mg/L 2,5-DHP was produced in 40 min with a conversion of 74.9%. These results demonstrated that HSPHZZ could be used for the enzymatic production of 2,5-DHP in biotechnology applications

Enzymatic Hydrolytic Resolution of Racemic Ibuprofen Ethyl Ester Using an Ionic Liquid as Cosolvent

The aim of this study was to develop an ionic liquid (IL) system for the enzymatic resolution of racemic ibuprofen ethyl ester to produce (S)-ibuprofen. Nineteen ILs were selected for use in buffer systems to investigate the effects of ILs as cosolvents for the production of (S)-ibuprofen using thermostable esterase (EST10) from Thermotoga maritima. Analysis of the catalytic efficiency and conformation of EST10 showed that [OmPy][BF4] was the best medium for the EST10-catalyzed production of (S)-ibuprofen. The maximum degree of conversion degree (47.4%), enantiomeric excess of (S)-ibuprofen (96.6%) and enantiomeric ratio of EST10 (177.0) were achieved with an EST10 concentration of 15 mg/mL, racemic ibuprofen ethyl ester concentration of 150 mM, at 75 °C , with a reaction time of 10 h. The reaction time needed to achieve the highest yield of (S)-ibuprofen was decreased from 24 h to 10 h. These results are relevant to the proposed application of ILs as solvents for the EST10-catalyzed production of (S)-ibuprofen

Effect of Tween 80 and Acetone on the Secretion, Structure and Antioxidant Activities of Exopolysaccharides from Lentinus tigrinus

In this study, the effects of the addition of Tween 80 and acetone on secretion, structure and antioxidant activities of Lentinus tigrinus exopolysaccharides (EPS) were investigated. It was found that Tween 80 and acetone displayed a stimulatory effect on EPS secretion. The EPS obtained by the addition of Tween 80 (EPS-T), acetone (EPS-A) and control (EPS-C) were purified by Sepharose CL-6B gel filtration chromatography and molecular mass of purified fractions was estimated to be 22.1, 137 and 12 kDa, respectively. Monosaccharide composition analysis indicated that EPS-T, EPS-A and EPS-C were mainly composed of glucose and mannose. Congo Red test indicated that EPS-T and EPS-A had a highly ordered conformation of triple helix, while EPS-C had a random coil conformation. Furthermore, EPS-A exhibited higher DPPH scavenging and antiproliferative activities than EPS-C and EPS-T, which might be attributed to the molecular mass