Thermochemical and Structural Analysis of Tautomers of Sulfur and Selenium Modified RNA Nucleobases

Nucleobases (adenine, cytosine, guanine, and uracil), the four molecules that forms RNA, have been found to be useful in probing in the human body when modified because they can emit light. Non-modified nucleobases do not exhibit emissive properties and cannot be used as probes. Some of the modifications include the substitution of nitrogen atoms with sulfur and selenium, and the resulting modified nucleobases give place to the so-called tz- and ts- RNA alphabets, respectively. Therefore, the aim of this project was to provide insights about the viability, from a computational perspective, of using the modified nucleobases as probes, evaluating the differences in thermochemical, structural and emissive properties of the modified nucleobases with respect to the non-modified ones. Nucleobases can coexist with other modified nucleobases or tautomers, molecules that differ due to the change in position of hydrogen atoms in a molecule’s structure and as a result have different physical and chemical properties. The thermochemical properties evaluation mainly consisted in the computation of the relative Gibbs Free Energy (G), which is related to the fraction F, an index of the relative population among tautomers. This was done using Gaussian 09 software by performing geometry analysis and frequency computations on each one of the tautomers. By comparing the equilibrium fractions, it was determined that in both cases, tz- and ts- guanine and cytosine exist principally in the form of one of their tautomers (Cytosine 2 and Guanine 2) as in the case of the non-modified cases. After confirming which tz- and ts- tautomers were the ones with the largest probable population, infrared (IR) and ultraviolet-visible (UV-vis) spectra were obtained. The IR spectra of selenium and sulfur tautomers of guanine and cytosine indicated that the tautomers had peaks at similar frequencies with respect to each other, however, the intensities varied, implying slight structural changes between the tautomers. On the other hand, the UV-vis spectra showed a change in peak positions between the tautomers with sulfur and selenium, suggesting that the change between sulfur and selenium has an effect on the spectra by shifting the peaks from the original molecules’ λmax values. Their relative population fractions show that only the canonical forms of the modified nucleobases exist in a larger extent than the rest of their tautomer forms. In addition, the features in their UV-vis and IR spectra allow these tautomers to be differentiated from each other

Genome sequence of the Ornithopus/Lupinus-nodulating Bradyrhizobium sp. strain WSM471

Bradyrhizobium sp. strain WSM471 is an aerobic, motile, Gram-negative, non-spore-forming rod that was isolated from an effective nitrogen-(N-2) fixing root nodule formed on the annual legume Ornithopus pinnatus (Miller) Druce growing at Oyster Harbour, Albany district, Western Australia in 1982. This strain is in commercial production as an inoculant for Lupinus and Ornithopus. Here we describe the features of Bradyrhizobium sp. strain WSM471, together with genome sequence information and annotation. The 7,784,016 bp high-quality-draft genome is arranged in 1 scaffold of 2 contigs, contains 7,372 protein-coding genes and 58 RNA-only encoding genes, and is one of 20 rhizobial genomes sequenced as part of the DOE Joint Genome Institute 2010 Community Sequencing Program

Genome sequence of the Lebeckia ambigua-nodulating 'Burkholderia sprentiae' strain WSM5005T

"Burkholderia sprentiae" strain WSM5005(T) is an aerobic, motile, Gram-negative, non-sporeforming rod that was isolated in Australia from an effective N-2-fixing root nodule of Lebeckia ambigua collected in Klawer, Western Cape of South Africa, in October 2007. Here we describe the features of "Burkholderia sprentiae" strain WSM5005T, together with the genome sequence and its annotation. The 7,761,063 bp high-quality-draft genome is arranged in 8 scaffolds of 236 contigs, contains 7,147 protein-coding genes and 76 RNA-only encoding genes, and is one of 20 rhizobial genomes sequenced as part of the DOE Joint Genome Institute 2010 Community Sequencing Program

BeppoSAX Observations of 1 Jy BL Lacertae Objects. I

We present new BeppoSAX observations of seven BL Lacertae objects selected from the 1 Jy sample plus one additional source. The collected data cover the energy range 0.1 - 10 keV (observer's frame), reaching ~ 50 keV for one source (BL Lac). All sources characterized by a peak in their multifrequency spectra at infrared/optical energies (i.e., of the LBL type) display a relatively flat (alpha_x ~ 0.9) X-ray spectrum, which we interpret as inverse Compton emission. Four objects (2/3 of the LBL) show some evidence for a low-energy steepening which is likely due to the synchrotron tail merging into the inverse Compton component around ~ 1 - 3 keV. If this were generally the case with LBL, it would explain why the 0.1 - 2.4 keV ROSAT spectra of our sources are systematically steeper than the BeppoSAX ones (by ~ 0.5 in alpha_x). The broad-band spectral energy distributions fully confirm this picture and a synchrotron inverse Compton model allows us to derive the physical parameters (intrinsic power, magnetic field, etc.) of our sources. Combining our results with those obtained by BeppoSAX on BL Lacs covering a wide range of synchrotron peak frequencies, we confirm and clarify the dependence of the X-ray spectral index on synchrotron peak frequency originally found in ROSAT data.Comment: 14 pages, 7 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS. Postscript file also available at http://icarus.stsci.edu/~padovani/xrayspectra_papers.htm

Genome sequence of the ocean sediment bacterium Saccharomonospora marina type strain (XMU15T)

Saccharomonospora marina Liu et al. 2010 is a member of the genus Saccharomonospora, in the family Pseudonocardiaceae that is poorly characterized at the genome level thus far. Members of the genus Saccharomonospora are of interest because they originate from diverse habitats, such as leaf litter, manure, compost, surface of peat, moist, over-heated grain, and ocean sediment, where they might play a role in the primary degradation of plant material by attacking hemicellulose. Organisms belonging to the genus are usually Gram-positive staining, non-acid fast, and classify among the actinomycetes. Here we describe the features of this organism, together with the complete genome sequence (permanent draft status), and annotation. The 5,965,593 bp long chromosome with its 5,727 protein-coding and 57 RNA genes was sequenced as part of the DOE funded Community Sequencing Program (CSP) 2010 at the Joint Genome Institute (JGI)