Naphthoquinones as covalent reversible inhibitors of cysteine proteases : studies on inhibition mechanism and kinetics

The facile synthesis and detailed investigation of a class of highly potent protease inhibitors based on 1,4-naphthoquinones with a dipeptidic recognition motif (HN-l-Phe-l-Leu-OR) in the 2-position and an electron-withdrawing group (EWG) in the 3-position is presented. One of the compound representatives, namely the acid with EWG = CN and with R = H proved to be a highly potent rhodesain inhibitor with nanomolar affinity. The respective benzyl ester (R = Bn) was found to be hydrolyzed by the target enzyme itself yielding the free acid. Detailed kinetic and mass spectrometry studies revealed a reversible covalent binding mode. Theoretical calculations with different density functionals (DFT) as well as wavefunction-based approaches were performed to elucidate the mode of action

Bottom-up effects of plant diversity on multitrophic interactions in a biodiversity experiment

Biodiversity is rapidly declining1, and this may negatively affect ecosystem processes, including economically important ecosystem services. Previous studies have shown that biodiversity has positive effects on organisms and processes4 across trophic levels. However, only a few studies have so far incorporated an explicit food-web perspective. In an eight-year biodiversity experiment, we studied an unprecedented range of above- and below-ground organisms and multitrophic interactions. A multitrophic data set originating from a single long-term experiment allows mechanistic insights that would not be gained from meta-analysis of different experiments. Here we show that plant diversity effects dampen with increasing trophic level and degree of omnivory. This was true both for abundance and species richness of organisms. Furthermore, we present comprehensive above-ground/below-ground biodiversity food webs. Both above ground and below ground, herbivores responded more strongly to changes in plant diversity than did carnivores or omnivores. Density and richness of carnivorous taxa was independent of vegetation structure. Below-ground responses to plant diversity were consistently weaker than above-ground responses. Responses to increasing plant diversity were generally positive, but were negative for biological invasion, pathogen infestation and hyperparasitism. Our results suggest that plant diversity has strong bottom-up effects on multitrophic interaction networks, with particularly strong effects on lower trophic levels. Effects on higher trophic levels are indirectly mediated through bottom-up trophic cascades

The genomic landscape of balanced cytogenetic abnormalities associated with human congenital anomalies

Despite the clinical significance of balanced chromosomal abnormalities (BCAs), their characterization has largely been restricted to cytogenetic resolution. We explored the landscape of BCAs at nucleotide resolution in 273 subjects with a spectrum of congenital anomalies. Whole-genome sequencing revised 93% of karyotypes and demonstrated complexity that was cryptic to karyotyping in 21% of BCAs, highlighting the limitations of conventional cytogenetic approaches. At least 33.9% of BCAs resulted in gene disruption that likely contributed to the developmental phenotype, 5.2% were associated with pathogenic genomic imbalances, and 7.3% disrupted topologically associated domains (TADs) encompassing known syndromic loci. Remarkably, BCA breakpoints in eight subjects altered a single TAD encompassing MEF2C, a known driver of 5q14.3 microdeletion syndrome, resulting in decreased MEF2C expression. We propose that sequence-level resolution dramatically improves prediction of clinical outcomes for balanced rearrangements and provides insight into new pathogenic mechanisms, such as altered regulation due to changes in chromosome topology

Research and Design of a Routing Protocol in Large-Scale Wireless Sensor Networks

无线传感器网络，作为全球未来十大技术之一，集成了传感器技术、嵌入式计算技术、分布式信息处理和自组织网技术，可实时感知、采集、处理、传输网络分布区域内的各种信息数据，在军事国防、生物医疗、环境监测、抢险救灾、防恐反恐、危险区域远程控制等领域具有十分广阔的应用前景。 本文研究分析了无线传感器网络的已有路由协议，并针对大规模的无线传感器网络设计了一种树状路由协议，它根据节点地址信息来形成路由，从而简化了复杂繁冗的路由表查找和维护，节省了不必要的开销，提高了路由效率，实现了快速有效的数据传输。 为支持此路由协议本文提出了一种自适应动态地址分配算——ADAR（AdaptiveDynamicAddre...As one of the ten high technologies in the future, wireless sensor network, which is the integration of micro-sensors, embedded computing, modern network and Ad Hoc technologies, can apperceive, collect, process and transmit various information data within the region. It can be used in military defense, biomedical, environmental monitoring, disaster relief, counter-terrorism, remote control of haz...学位：工学硕士院系专业：信息科学与技术学院通信工程系_通信与信息系统学号：2332007115216

The DeoR-Type Regulator SugR Represses Expression of ptsG in Corynebacterium glutamicum

Corynebacterium glutamicum grows on a variety of carbohydrates and organic acids. Uptake of the preferred carbon source glucose via the phosphoenolpyruvate-dependent phosphotransferase system (PTS) is reduced during coutilization of glucose with acetate, sucrose, or fructose compared to growth on glucose as the sole carbon source. Here we show that the DeoR-type regulator SugR (NCgl1856) represses expression of ptsG, which encodes the glucose-specific PTS enzyme II. Overexpression of sugR resulted in reduced ptsG mRNA levels, decreased glucose utilization, and perturbed growth on media containing glucose. In mutants lacking sugR, expression of the ptsG′-′cat fusion was increased two- to sevenfold during growth on gluconeogenic carbon sources but remained similar during growth on glucose or other sugars. As shown by DNA microarray analysis, SugR also regulates expression of other genes, including ptsS and the putative NCgl1859-fruK-ptsF operon. Purified SugR bound to DNA regions upstream of ptsG, ptsS, and NCgl1859, and a 75-bp ptsG promoter fragment was sufficient for SugR binding. Fructose-6-phosphate interfered with binding of SugR to the ptsG promoter DNA. Thus, while during growth on gluconeogenic carbon sources SugR represses ptsG, ptsG expression is derepressed during growth on glucose or under other conditions characterized by high fructose-6-phosphate concentrations, representing one mechanism which allows C. glutamicum to adapt glucose uptake to carbon source availability

Regulation of L-lactate utilization by the FadR-type regulator LldR of Corynebacterium glutamicum

Georgi T, Engels V, Wendisch VF. Regulation of L-lactate utilization by the FadR-type regulator LldR of Corynebacterium glutamicum. Journal of Bacteriology. 2008;190(3):963-971.Corynebacterium glutamicum can grow on L-lactate as a sole carbon and energy source. The NCg12816-lldD operon encoding a putative transporter (NCg12816) and a quinone-dependent L-lactate dehydrogenase (LldD) is required for L-lactate utilization. DNA affinity chromatography revealed that the FadR-type regulator LldR (encoded by NCg12814) binds to the upstream region of NCg12816-lldD. Overexpression of lldR resulted in strongly reduced NCg12816-lldD mRNA levels and strongly reduced LldD activity, and as a consequence, a severe growth defect was observed in cells grown on L-lactate as the sole carbon and energy source, but not in cells grown on glucose, ribose, or acetate. Deletion of lldR had no effect on growth on these carbon sources but resulted in high NCg12816-lldD mRNA levels and high LldD activity in the presence and absence Of L-lactate. Purified His-tagged LldR bound to a 54-bp fragment of the NCg12816-lldD promoter, which overlaps with the transcriptional start site determined by random amplification of cDNA ends-PCR and contains a putative operator motif typical of FadR-type regulators, which is (-1)TNGTNNNACNA(10). Mutational analysis revealed that this motif with hyphenated dyad symmetry is essential for binding of LldD to the NCg12816-lldD promoter. L-Lactate, but not D-lactate, interfered with binding of LldR Hi, to the NCg12816-lldD promoter. Thus, during growth on media lacking L-lactate, LldR represses expression of NCg12816-lldD. In the presence Of L-lactate in the growth medium or under conditions leading to intracellular L-lactate accumulation, the L-lactate utilization operon is induced

ScrB (Cg2927) is a sucrose-6-phosphate hydrolase essential for sucrose utilization by Corynebacterium glutamicum

Engels V, Georgi T, Wendisch VF. ScrB (Cg2927) is a sucrose-6-phosphate hydrolase essential for sucrose utilization by Corynebacterium glutamicum. Fems Microbiology Letters. 2008;289(1):80-89.Corynebacterium glutamicum can grow on a variety of carbohydrates from which glucose, fructose and sucrose are taken up and phosphorylated by the phosphoenolpyruvate-dependent phosphotransferase system (PTS). Here, we show that cg2927 (scrB) encodes sucrose-6-phosphate hydrolase. The purified His-tagged protein hydrolyzed sucrose-6-phosphate and sucrose, but not sucrose-6 '-phosphate. The K-m value for sucrose was 190 mM while the K-m for sucrose-6-phosphate was much lower, 0.04 mM. Sucrose-6-phosphate hydrolase activity was stimulated by MgSO4 and fructose-6-phosphate and was inhibited by MnCl2, CaCl2, CuSO4 and ZnSO4. A scrB deletion mutant could not grow on sucrose as the sole carbon source. In addition, growth in the absence of scrB was severely decreased when sucrose was present in addition to glucose, fructose or acetate, suggesting that higher intracellular concentrations of sucrose-6-phosphate are toxic. Transcriptional start sites in the cg2929-cg2928-scrB-ptsS locus could be revealed upstream of cg2929 and upstream of the sucrose-specific PTS gene ptsS. Of these, only ptsS showed increased expression when grown in the presence of sucrose, which was due to control by the transcriptional regulator SugR. The sucrose-6-phosphate hydrolase activity, however, was increased two-to threefold during growth in fructose-or sucrose-containing media, regardless of the presence or absence of SugR

The Global Repressor SugR Controls Expression of Genes of Glycolysis and of the l-Lactate Dehydrogenase LdhA in Corynebacterium glutamicum▿

The transcriptional regulator SugR from Corynebacterium glutamicum represses genes of the phosphoenolpyruvate-dependent phosphotransferase system (PTS). Growth experiments revealed that the overexpression of sugR not only perturbed the growth of C. glutamicum on the PTS sugars glucose, fructose, and sucrose but also led to a significant growth inhibition on ribose, which is not taken up via the PTS. Chromatin immunoprecipitation combined with DNA microarray analysis and gel retardation experiments were performed to identify further target genes of SugR. Gel retardation analysis confirmed that SugR bound to the promoter regions of genes of the glycolytic enzymes 6-phosphofructokinase (pfkA), fructose-1,6-bisphosphate aldolase (fba), enolase (eno), pyruvate kinase (pyk), and NAD-dependent l-lactate dehydrogenase (ldhA). The deletion of sugR resulted in increased mRNA levels of eno, pyk, and ldhA in acetate medium. Enzyme activity measurements revealed that SugR-mediated repression affects the activities of PfkA, Fba, and LdhA in vivo. As the deletion of sugR led to increased LdhA activity under aerobic and under oxygen deprivation conditions, l-lactate production by C. glutamicum was determined. The overexpression of sugR reduced l-lactate production by about 25%, and sugR deletion increased l-lactate formation under oxygen deprivation conditions by threefold. Thus, SugR functions as a global repressor of genes of the PTS, glycolysis, and fermentative l-lactate dehydrogenase in C. glutamicum