Development and Evaluation of a Large-Scale Agent-Based System for Information Literacy Education - Improving the Automatic Collection of Learning Results through Template Matching

Date of Conference: 11-13 April 2011ArticleInformation Technology: New Generations (ITNG), 2011 Eighth International Conference on. 1-6 (2011)conference pape

Architecture of the Bacterial Flagellar Distal Rod and Hook of Salmonella

The bacterial flagellum is a large molecular complex composed of thousands of protein subunits for motility. The filamentous part of the flagellum, which is called the axial structure, consists of the filament, the hook, and the rods, with other minor components-the cap protein and the hook associated proteins. They share a common basic architecture of subunit arrangement, but each part shows quite distinct mechanical properties to achieve its specific function. The distal rod and the hook are helical assemblies of a single protein, FlgG and FlgE, respectively. They show a significant sequence similarity but have distinct mechanical characteristics. The rod is a rigid, straight cylinder, whereas the hook is a curved tube with high bending flexibility. Here, we report a structural model of the rod constructed by using the crystal structure of a core fragment of FlgG with a density map obtained previously by electron cryomicroscopy. Our structural model suggests that a segment called L-stretch plays a key role in achieving the distinct mechanical properties of the rod using a structurally similar component protein to that of the hook

Purification, Characterization and Crystal Structure of Isoamylase from Thermophilic Bacteria Rhodothermus marinus

The isoamylase gene from Rhodothermus marinus was cloned into and expressed in Escherichia coli Top 10. As a result of characterization of purified R. marinus isoamylase. the enzyme had an optimum pH of 4.0 and optimum temperature of 70℃. Thermal inactivation studies of the purified R. marinus isoamylase revealed the enzymatic activity to be uninfluenced after one hour incubation at 60℃. These results suggest that R. marinus isoamylase has high thermostability. The crystallization and crystal structure analysis of R. marinus isoamylase was performed. The three-dimensional structure at 1.9Å resolution was determined in complex with the panose. R. marinus isoamylase is composed of three domains N, A and C, and, has a (β/α)8-barrel in domain A. The secondary structural alignments of the R. marinus isoamylase and P. amyloderamosa isoamylase was carried out. They have the four active-site consensus regions characteristic of the α-amylase family. And the essential residue of the α-amylase family (D359, E395, and D467) was conserved in these enzymes. R. marinus isoamylase has shorter loops than P. amyloderamosa isoamylase. And R. marinus isoamylase had no Ca2+ binding site. These results are thought to be factors of thermostability of R. marinus isoamylase.Rhodothermus marinus 由来イソアミラーゼ遺伝子を組み込んだプラスミド pBX２を使用し，大腸菌 Top10株を形質転換し，16時間の前培養，24時間の本培養後，菌体破砕し，得られた無細胞抽出液を熱処理（80℃，10 min），50ｵ硫安分画，陰イオン交換カラムクロマトグラフィー（DEAEﾝトヨパール），ハイドロキシアパタイトカラムクロマトグラフィーに供して本酵素の精製を行った．本精製酵素の性質検討を行った結果，本酵素の最適反応温度は70℃，pH４であり，また本酵素は60℃で１時間処理しても活性が低下することが無く，Pseudomonas amyloderamosa 由来イソアミラーゼよりも高い耐熱性を有することが判明した．本酵素の結晶化・X線結晶構造解析を行った結果，本酵素は P. amyloderamosa 由来イソアミラーゼと同様Ｎドメイン・ＡドメインＣドメインの３つのドメインから構成されており，活性残基（Ｄ359，Ｅ395，Ｄ467）など活性中心付近のアミノ酸残基も P. amyloderamosa 由来イソアミラーゼと同様，高度に保存されていた．本酵素の熱安定性が P. amyloderamosa 由来イソアミラーゼよりも高 い要因として，P. amyloderamosa 由来イソアミラーゼよりもループの長さが全体的に短いことと，カルシウムイオン結合サイトの欠如が挙げられた．今後さらに構造解析を進めることにより，本酵素の熱安定性機構，反応 機構など更なる知見が得られることが期待される

Angioscopic Evaluation of Stabilizing Effects of Bezafibrate on Coronary Plaques in Patients With Coronary Artery Disease

Background Since long-term administrations of anti-hyperlipidemic agents result in reduction in % stenosis or increase in minimum lumen diameter (MLD) of stenotic coronary segments, it is generally believed that anti-hyperlipidemic agents stabilize vulnerable coronary plaques. However, recent pathologic and angioscopic studies revealed that vulnerability of coronary plaques is not related to severity of stenosis and the rims rather than top of the plaques disrupt, and therefore, angiography is not adequate for evaluation of vulnerability

Superconductivity and physical properties of Ba24Si100 determined from electric transport, specific-heat capacity, and magnetic susceptibility measurements

Both Ba24Si100 and Ba24Ge100 with crystallographically identical structure are found to be superconducting at 1.4 and 0.27 K, respectively. Physical properties of this superconductor Ba24Si100 are studied by electric transport, specific heat capacity, and magnetic susceptibility measurements. The density of states at the Fermi level NEF=0.148 states eV-1(Siatom)-1 and a distinct jump of Cp at the superconducting transition temperature ΔCp=0.272JK-1mol-1 are obtained. An exponential fit of Cp below the superconducting states gives an energy gap 2Δ=0.423meV and shows that this is a superconductor having s-wave character or isotropic energy gap. On the basis of our experimental data other important physical parameters are also derived

Structural Insight into the Rotational Switching Mechanism of the Bacterial Flagellar Motor

Structural analysis of a clockwise-biased rotation mutant of the bacterial flagellar rotor protein FliG provides a new model for the arrangement of FliG subunits in the motor, and novel insights into rotation switching