The N-terminal domain of Lhcb proteins is critical for recognition of the LHCII kinase

AbstractThe light-harvesting chlorophyll (Chl) a/b complex of photosystem (PS) II (LHCII) plays important roles in the distribution of the excitation energy between the two PSs in the thylakoid membrane during state transitions. In this process, LHCII, homo- or heterotrimers composed of Lhcb1–3, migrate between PSII and PSI depending on the phosphorylation status of Lhcb1 and Lhcb2. We have studied the mechanisms of the substrate recognition of a thylakoid threonine kinase using reconstituted site-directed trimeric Lhcb protein–pigment complex mutants. Mutants lacking the positively charged residues R/K upstream of phosphorylation site (Thr) in the N-terminal domain of Lhcb1 were no longer phosphorylated. Besides, the length of the peptide upstream of the phosphorylated site (Thr) is also crucial for Lhcb phosphorylation in vitro. Furthermore, the two N-terminal residues of Lhcb appear to play a key role in the phosphorylation kinetics because Lhcb with N-terminal RR was phosphorylated much faster than with RK. Therefore, we conclude that the substrate recognition of the LHCII kinase is determined to a large extent by the N-terminal sequence of the Lhcb proteins. The study provides new insights into the interactions of the Lhcb proteins with the LHCII kinase

Synthesis and biological evaluation of pentacyclic triterpenoid derivatives as potential novel antibacterial agents

A series of ursolic acid (UA), oleanolic acid (OA) and 18β-glycyrrhetinic acid (GA) derivatives were synthesized by introducing a range of substituted aromatic side-chains at the C-2 position after the hydroxyl group at C-3 position was oxidized. Their antibacterial activities were evaluated in vitro against a panel of four Staphylococcus strains. The results revealed that the introduction of aromatic side-chains at the C-2 position of GA led to the discovery of potent triterpenoid derivatives for inhibition of both drug sensitive and resistant S. aureus, while the other two series derivatives of UA and OA showed no significant antibacterial activity even at high concentrations. In particular, GA derivative showed good potency against all four strains of Staphylococcus (MIC = 1.25 - 5 μmol/L) with acceptable pharmacokinetics properties and low cytotoxicity in vitro. Molecular docking was also performed using S. aureus DNA gyrase structure to rationalize the observed antibacterial activity. Therefore, this series of GA derivatives have strong potential for the development of a new type of triterpenoid antibacterial agent

The unfolded protein response in immunity and inflammation.

The unfolded protein response (UPR) is a highly conserved pathway that allows the cell to manage endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress that is imposed by the secretory demands associated with environmental forces. In this role, the UPR has increasingly been shown to have crucial functions in immunity and inflammation. In this Review, we discuss the importance of the UPR in the development, differentiation, function and survival of immune cells in meeting the needs of an immune response. In addition, we review current insights into how the UPR is involved in complex chronic inflammatory diseases and, through its role in immune regulation, antitumour responses.This work was supported by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research Rubicon grant 825.13.012 (J.G.); US National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants DK044319, DK051362, DK053056 and DK088199, and the Harvard Digestive Diseases Center (HDDC) grant DK034854 (R.S.B.); National Institutes of Health grants DK042394, DK088227, DK103183 and CA128814 (R.J.K.); and European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant 260961, ERC Consolidator Grant 648889, and the Wellcome Trust Investigator award 106260/Z/14/Z (A.K.).This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Nature Publishing Group via http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nri.2016.6

Mechanism of water inrush in tunnel construction in karst area

With the rapid developing trend of long, large and deep construction characteristics for underground engineering in the world, China has the largest number of karst tunnels with the wide scales and great difficulties. As the hydrogeological conditions are becoming unprecedentedly complex, water inrush disaster becomes the bottleneck problem for the further development of traffic tunnels. Based on the statistical analysis of a large number of cases of water inrush in karst tunnels, influence factors of water inrush have been put forward from the view of karst hydrogeological factors and engineering disturbance of human factors. Karst hydrogeological factors include geological defect, strata dip, formation lithology, landform and underground level. Human factors of engineering disturbance include excavation and reinforcement geological prediction, monitoring and measurement of surrounding rock. It also introduces some geological disasters caused by the water inrush in tunnel excavation. In terms of the formation of water inrush channel, water inrush types are divided into geological defects inrush, non-geological defects inrush and the combination. Conclusions will be beneficial to further research on hazards control of underground construction

Microalgal Hydrogen Production

Microalgae, as facultative aerobic organisms, convert solar energy to produce biohydrogen under anaerobic condition. Biohydrogen is a kind of ideal clean and renewable energy source with great commercial potential. Many endeavors have been focused on improving the biohydrogen yields by various means. Here, the research history of hydrogen production by microalgae (including cyanobacteria and green algae), the characteristics of nitrogenase and hydrogenase, the mechanisms of hydrogen production, the technological progress, and the application of enzymatic, genetic, and metabolic engineering methods to improve hydrogen production by microalgae are reviewed. In addition, the regulation of anaerobic metabolisms of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii after the disruption of key enzymes functioning in the fermentative pathways is discussed. Finally, the main challenges and obstacles facing the more efficient production and commercialization of hydrogen production from microalgae in the future are proposed

9-cis-Neoxanthin in Light Harvesting Complexes of Photosystem II Regulates the Binding of Violaxanthin and Xanthophyll Cycle

The light-harvesting chlorophyll a/b complex of photosystem II (LHCII) is able to switch to multiple functions under different light conditions (i.e. harvesting solar energy for photosynthesis and dissipating excess excitation energy for photoprotection). The role of the different carotenoids bound to LHCII in regulating the structure and function of the complex is a long-lasting question in photosynthesis research. 9-cis-Neoxanthin (Nx) is one of the important carotenoids, which can only be found in the LHCIIs. High-resolution structural analysis of LHCII shows that Nx is located between different monomeric LHCIIs, with one side protruding into the lipid membrane. In this study, the various functional significances of this unique feature of Nx binding in LHCII are studied with the in vitro reconstituted LHCIIs both with and without Nx and the native complexes isolated either from wild-type Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) or from its mutant aba4-3 lacking Nx. Our results reveal that the binding of Nx affects the binding affinity of violaxanthin (Vx) to LHCII significantly. In the absence of Nx, Vx has a much higher binding affinity to trimeric LHCII. The strong coordination between Nx and Vx at the interfaces of adjacent monomers of LHCII plays an important role both in operating the xanthophyll cycle and in the transient modulation of nonphotochemical quenching

9-cis-Neoxanthin in Light Harvesting Complexes of Photosystem II Regulates the Binding of Violaxanthin and Xanthophyll Cycle

The light-harvesting chlorophyll a/b complex of photosystem II (LHCII) is able to switch to multiple functions under different light conditions (i.e. harvesting solar energy for photosynthesis and dissipating excess excitation energy for photoprotection). The role of the different carotenoids bound to LHCII in regulating the structure and function of the complex is a long-lasting question in photosynthesis research. 9-cis-Neoxanthin (Nx) is one of the important carotenoids, which can only be found in the LHCIIs. High-resolution structural analysis of LHCII shows that Nx is located between different monomeric LHCIIs, with one side protruding into the lipid membrane. In this study, the various functional significances of this unique feature of Nx binding in LHCII are studied with the in vitro reconstituted LHCIIs both with and without Nx and the native complexes isolated either from wild-type Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) or from its mutant aba4-3 lacking Nx. Our results reveal that the binding of Nx affects the binding affinity of violaxanthin (Vx) to LHCII significantly. In the absence of Nx, Vx has a much higher binding affinity to trimeric LHCII. The strong coordination between Nx and Vx at the interfaces of adjacent monomers of LHCII plays an important role both in operating the xanthophyll cycle and in the transient modulation of nonphotochemical quenching

The PsbS protein plays important roles in photosystem II supercomplex remodeling under elevated light conditions.

Leaves from three different Arabidopsis lines with different expression levels of PsbS protein showed different levels of non-photochemical quenching. The PsbS deficient plant npq4 showed remarkable reduction of electron transport rate, while the other two lines with a moderate amount (wild type) or an overexpression of PsbS (L17) presented unchanged electron transport rates under the same range of high light intensities. Biochemical investigation revealed that the plant with the highest PsbS content (L17) sustained the highest level of stable PSII-LHCII supercomplex structure, and displayed the smallest fluorescence quenching in the thylakoid membranes, the most efficient linear electron transport and the smallest cyclic electron transport. Based on these observations, it is proposed that the remodeling of PSII-LHCII supercomplexes affected by PsbS plays important roles in regulating the energy balance in thylakoid membrane and in ensuring the sophisticated coordination between energy excitation and dissipation. (C) 2014 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved