3,657 research outputs found
Thermal inactivation and conformational lock studies on glucose oxidase
In this study, the dissociative thermal inactivation
and conformational lock theories are applied for the
homodimeric enzyme glucose oxidase (GOD) in order to
analyze its structure. For this purpose, the rate of activity
reduction of glucose oxidase is studied at various temperatures
using b-D-glucose as the substrate by incubation of
enzyme at various temperatures in the wide range between
40 and 70 �C using UV–Vis spectrophotometry. It was
observed that in the two ranges of temperatures, the
enzyme has two different forms. In relatively low temperatures,
the enzyme is in its dimeric state and has normal
activity. In high temperatures, the activity almost disappears
and it aggregates. The above achievements are confirmed
by dynamic light scattering. The experimental
parameter ‘‘n’’ as the obvious number of conformational
locks at the dimer interface of glucose oxidase is obtained
by kinetic data, and the value is near to two. To confirm the
above results, the X-ray crystallography structure of the
enzyme, GOD (pdb, 1gal), was also studied. The secondary
and tertiary structures of the enzyme to track the thermal
inactivation were studied by circular dichroism and
fluorescence spectroscopy, respectively. We proposed a
mechanism model for thermal inactivation of GOD based
on the absence of the monomeric form of the enzyme by
circular dichroism and fluorescence spectroscopy
Molecular evolution: sex accelerates adaptation
An analysis confirms the long-standing theory that sex increases the rate of
adaptive evolution by accelerating the speed at which beneficial mutations sweep
through sexual, as opposed to asexual, populations
Hidden Magnetism and Quantum Criticality in the Heavy Fermion Superconductor CeRhIn5
With understood exceptions, conventional superconductivity does not coexist
with long-range magnetic order[1]. In contrast, unconventional
superconductivity develops near a boundary separating magnetically ordered and
magnetically disordered phases[2,3]. A maximum in the superconducting
transition temperature Tc develops where this boundary extrapolates to T=0 K,
suggesting that fluctuations associated with this magnetic quantum-critical
point are essential for unconventional superconductivity[4,5]. Invariably
though, unconventional superconductivity hides the magnetic boundary when T <
Tc, preventing proof of a magnetic quantum-critical point[5]. Here we report
specific heat measurements of the pressure-tuned unconventional superconductor
CeRhIn5 in which we find a line of quantum-phase transitions induced inside the
superconducting state by an applied magnetic field. This quantum-critical line
separates a phase of coexisting antiferromagnetism and superconductivity from a
purely unconventional superconducting phase and terminates at a quantum
tetracritical point where the magnetic field completely suppresses
superconductivity. The T->0 K magnetic field-pressure phase diagram of CeRhIn5
is well described with a theoretical model[6,7] developed to explain
field-induced magnetism in the high-Tc cuprates but in which a clear
delineation of quantum-phase boundaries has not been possible. These
experiments establish a common relationship among hidden magnetism, quantum
criticality and unconventional superconductivity in cuprate and heavy-electron
systems, such as CeRhIn5.Comment: journal reference adde
Transcriptome pathways unique to dehydration tolerant relatives of modern wheat
Among abiotic stressors, drought is a major factor responsible for dramatic yield loss in agriculture. In order to reveal differences in global expression profiles of drought tolerant and sensitive wild emmer wheat genotypes, a previously deployed shock-like dehydration process was utilized to compare transcriptomes at two time points in root and leaf tissues using the Affymetrix GeneChip(R) Wheat Genome Array hybridization. The comparison of transcriptomes reveal several unique genes or expression patterns such as differential usage of IP(3)-dependent signal transduction pathways, ethylene- and abscisic acid (ABA)-dependent signaling, and preferential or faster induction of ABA-dependent transcription factors by the tolerant genotype that distinguish contrasting genotypes indicative of distinctive stress response pathways. The data also show that wild emmer wheat is capable of engaging known drought stress responsive mechanisms. The global comparison of transcriptomes in the absence of and after dehydration underlined the gene networks especially in root tissues that may have been lost in the selection processes generating modern bread wheats
Electrophysiological Evidence for Spatiotemporal Flexibility in the Ventrolateral Attention Network
Successful completion of many everyday tasks depends on interactions between voluntary attention, which acts to maintain current goals, and reflexive attention, which enables responding to unexpected events by interrupting the current focus of attention. Past studies, which have mostly examined each attentional mechanism in isolation, indicate that volitional and reflexive orienting depend on two functionally specialized cortical networks in the human brain. Here we investigated how the interplay between these two cortical networks affects sensory processing and the resulting overt behavior. By combining measurements of human performance and electrocortical recordings with a novel analytical technique for estimating spatiotemporal activity in the human cortex, we found that the subregions that comprise the reflexive ventrolateral attention network dissociate both spatially and temporally as a function of the nature of the sensory information and current task demands. Moreover, we found that together with the magnitude of the early sensory gain, the spatiotemporal neural dynamics accounted for the high amount of the variance in the behavioral data. Collectively these data support the conclusion that the ventrolateral attention network is recruited flexibly to support complex behaviors
On-demand semiconductor single-photon source with near-unity indistinguishability
Single photon sources based on semiconductor quantum dots offer distinct
advantages for quantum information, including a scalable solid-state platform,
ultrabrightness, and interconnectivity with matter qubits. A key prerequisite
for their use in optical quantum computing and solid-state networks is a high
level of efficiency and indistinguishability. Pulsed resonance fluorescence
(RF) has been anticipated as the optimum condition for the deterministic
generation of high-quality photons with vanishing effects of dephasing. Here,
we generate pulsed RF single photons on demand from a single,
microcavity-embedded quantum dot under s-shell excitation with 3-ps laser
pulses. The pi-pulse excited RF photons have less than 0.3% background
contributions and a vanishing two-photon emission probability.
Non-postselective Hong-Ou-Mandel interference between two successively emitted
photons is observed with a visibility of 0.97(2), comparable to trapped atoms
and ions. Two single photons are further used to implement a high-fidelity
quantum controlled-NOT gate.Comment: 11 pages, 11 figure
Reciprocal Sign Epistasis between Frequently Experimentally Evolved Adaptive Mutations Causes a Rugged Fitness Landscape
The fitness landscape captures the relationship between genotype and evolutionary fitness and is a pervasive metaphor used to describe the possible evolutionary trajectories of adaptation. However, little is known about the actual shape of fitness landscapes, including whether valleys of low fitness create local fitness optima, acting as barriers to adaptive change. Here we provide evidence of a rugged molecular fitness landscape arising during an evolution experiment in an asexual population of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. We identify the mutations that arose during the evolution using whole-genome sequencing and use competitive fitness assays to describe the mutations individually responsible for adaptation. In addition, we find that a fitness valley between two adaptive mutations in the genes MTH1 and HXT6/HXT7 is caused by reciprocal sign epistasis, where the fitness cost of the double mutant prohibits the two mutations from being selected in the same genetic background. The constraint enforced by reciprocal sign epistasis causes the mutations to remain mutually exclusive during the experiment, even though adaptive mutations in these two genes occur several times in independent lineages during the experiment. Our results show that epistasis plays a key role during adaptation and that inter-genic interactions can act as barriers between adaptive solutions. These results also provide a new interpretation on the classic Dobzhansky-Muller model of reproductive isolation and display some surprising parallels with mutations in genes often associated with tumors
Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Imaging with 90 nm Resolution
Magnetic resonance imaging, based on the manipulation and detection of
nuclear spins, is a powerful imaging technique that typically operates on the
scale of millimeters to microns. Using magnetic resonance force microscopy, we
have demonstrated that magnetic resonance imaging of nuclear spins can be
extended to a spatial resolution better than 100 nm. The two-dimensional
imaging of 19F nuclei was done on a patterned CaF2 test object, and was enabled
by a detection sensitivity of roughly 1200 nuclear spins. To achieve this
sensitivity, we developed high-moment magnetic tips that produced field
gradients up to 1.4x10^6 T/m, and implemented a measurement protocol based on
force-gradient detection of naturally occurring spin fluctuations. The
resulting detection volume of less than 650 zl represents 60,000x smaller
volume than previous NMR microscopy and demonstrates the feasibility of pushing
magnetic resonance imaging into the nanoscale regime.Comment: 24 pages, 5 figure
Phenoloxidase activity acts as a mosquito innate immune response against infection with semliki forest virus
Several components of the mosquito immune system including the RNA interference (RNAi), JAK/STAT, Toll and IMD pathways have previously been implicated in controlling arbovirus infections. In contrast, the role of the phenoloxidase (PO) cascade in mosquito antiviral immunity is unknown. Here we show that conditioned medium from the Aedes albopictus-derived U4.4 cell line contains a functional PO cascade, which is activated by the bacterium Escherichia coli and the arbovirus Semliki Forest virus (SFV) (Togaviridae; Alphavirus). Production of recombinant SFV expressing the PO cascade inhibitor Egf1.0 blocked PO activity in U4.4 cell- conditioned medium, which resulted in enhanced spread of SFV. Infection of adult female Aedes aegypti by feeding mosquitoes a bloodmeal containing Egf1.0-expressing SFV increased virus replication and mosquito mortality. Collectively, these results suggest the PO cascade of mosquitoes plays an important role in immune defence against arboviruses
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