Carbon Dioxide Utilisation -The Formate Route

UIDB/50006/2020 CEEC-Individual 2017 Program Contract.The relentless rise of atmospheric CO2 is causing large and unpredictable impacts on the Earth climate, due to the CO2 significant greenhouse effect, besides being responsible for the ocean acidification, with consequent huge impacts in our daily lives and in all forms of life. To stop spiral of destruction, we must actively reduce the CO2 emissions and develop new and more efficient “CO2 sinks”. We should be focused on the opportunities provided by exploiting this novel and huge carbon feedstock to produce de novo fuels and added-value compounds. The conversion of CO2 into formate offers key advantages for carbon recycling, and formate dehydrogenase (FDH) enzymes are at the centre of intense research, due to the “green” advantages the bioconversion can offer, namely substrate and product selectivity and specificity, in reactions run at ambient temperature and pressure and neutral pH. In this chapter, we describe the remarkable recent progress towards efficient and selective FDH-catalysed CO2 reduction to formate. We focus on the enzymes, discussing their structure and mechanism of action. Selected promising studies and successful proof of concepts of FDH-dependent CO2 reduction to formate and beyond are discussed, to highlight the power of FDHs and the challenges this CO2 bioconversion still faces.publishersversionpublishe

The responses of an anaerobic microorganism, Yersinia intermedia MASE-LG-1 to individual and combined simulated Martian stresses

The limits of life of aerobic microorganisms are well understood, but the responses of anaerobic microorganisms to individual and combined extreme stressors are less well known. Motivated by an interest in understanding the survivability of anaerobic microorganisms under Martian conditions, we investigated the responses of a new isolate, Yersinia intermedia MASE-LG-1 to individual and combined stresses associated with the Martian surface. This organism belongs to an adaptable and persistent genus of anaerobic microorganisms found in many environments worldwide. The effects of desiccation, low pressure, ionizing radiation, varying temperature, osmotic pressure, and oxidizing chemical compounds were investigated. The strain showed a high tolerance to desiccation, with a decline of survivability by four orders of magnitude during a storage time of 85 days. Exposure to X-rays resulted in dose-dependent inactivation for exposure up to 600 Gy while applied doses above 750 Gy led to complete inactivation. The effects of the combination of desiccation and irradiation were additive and the survivability was influenced by the order in which they were imposed. Ionizing irradiation and subsequent desiccation was more deleterious than vice versa. By contrast, the presence of perchlorates was not found to significantly affect the survival of the Yersinia strain after ionizing radiation. These data show that the organism has the capacity to survive and grow in physical and chemical stresses, imposed individually or in combination that are associated with Martian environment. Eventually it lost its viability showing that many of the most adaptable anaerobic organisms on Earth would be killed on Mars today

Cordial Languages and Cordial Numbers

The concept of cordial labeling in graphs motivated us to introduce cordial words, cordial languages and cordial numbers. We interpret the notion of cordial labeling in Automata and thereby study the corresponding languages. In this paper we develop a new sequence of numbers called the cordial numbers in number theory using the labeling techniques in graph theory on automata theory

Proteome analysis of Arabidopsis leaf peroxisomes reveals novel targeting peptides, metabolic pathways, and defense mechanisms

We have established a protocol for the isolation of highly purified peroxisomes from mature Arabidopsis thaliana leaves and analyzed the proteome by complementary gel-based and gel-free approaches. Seventy-eight nonredundant proteins were identified, of which 42 novel proteins had previously not been associated with plant peroxisomes. Seventeen novel proteins carried predicted peroxisomal targeting signals (PTS) type 1 or type 2; 11 proteins contained PTS-related peptides. Peroxisome targeting was supported for many novel proteins by in silico analyses and confirmed for 11 representative full-length fusion proteins by fluorescence microscopy. The targeting function of predicted and unpredicted signals was investigated and SSL>, SSI>, and ASL> were established as novel functional PTS1 peptides. In contrast with the generally accepted confinement of PTS2 peptides to the N-terminal domain, the bifunctional transthyretin-like protein was demonstrated to carry internally a functional PTS2. The novel enzymes include numerous enoyl-CoA hydratases, short-chain dehydrogenases, and several enzymes involved in NADP and glutathione metabolism. Seven proteins, including β-glucosidases and myrosinases, support the currently emerging evidence for an important role of leaf peroxisomes in defense against pathogens and herbivores. The data provide new insights into the biology of plant peroxisomes and improve the prediction accuracy of peroxisome-targeted proteins from genome sequences

The null set of the join of paths

For positive integer k, a graph G is said to be k-magic if the edges of G can be labeled with the nonzero elements of Abelian group ℤ k, where ℤ 1= ℤ (the set of integers) and ℤ k is the group of integers mod k≥ 2, so that the sum of the labels of the edges incident to any vertex of G is the same. When this constant sum is 0, we say that G is a zero-sum k-magic graph. The set of all k for which G is a zero-sum k-magic graph is the null set of G. In this paper, we will completely determine the null set of the join of a finite number of paths