Purification and characteristics of trypsins from cold-zone fish,Pacific cod (Gadus macrocephalus) and saffron cod (Eleginus gracilis)

Trypsins from the pyloric ceca of Pacific cod (Gadus macrocephalus) (GM-T) and saffron cod (Eleginus gracilis) (EG-T) were purified by gel filtration on Sephacryl S-200 and Sephadex G-50. The final enzyme preparations were nearly homogeneous on SDS–PAGE and the molecular weights of both enzymes were estimated to be approximately 24 kDa by SDS–PAGE. The specific trypsin inhibitors, soybean trypsin inhibitor and TLCK, strongly inhibited the activities of GM-T and EG-T. The optimum pH and optimum temperature of both trypsins were around pH 8.0 and 50 °C, respectively, using N^α-p-tosyl-l-arginine methyl ester as substrate. The GM-T and EG-T were unstable above 30 °C and below pH 5.0, and they were stabilised by calcium ion. The N-terminal amino acid sequences of GM-T (IVGGYECTRHSQAHQVSLNS) and EG-T (IVGGYECPRHSQAHQVSLNS) were found. The percentage of hydrophobic amino acid in the N-terminal 20 amino acids sequences of these cold-zone fish trypsins was lower (28%) than those of temperate-zone fish trypsins (34%), tropical-zone fish trypsins (37%) and mammalian trypsins (34%). Whereas the content of charged amino acids in the GM-T and EG-T was relatively higher than those of trypsins from temperate-zone fish, tropical-zone fish and mammals. Moreover, the GM-T catalyzed synthesis of N^α-(tert-butoxycarbonyl)-l-alanyl-l-alanine-p-nitroanilide (N^α-Boc-l-Ala-l-Ala-pNA) has been studied by using N^α-(tert-butoxycarbonyl)-l-alanine-p-guanidinophenyl ester [N^α-Boc-l-Ala-OpGu (inverse substrate)] as acyl donor and l-alanine-p-nitroanilide (l-Ala-pNA) as acyl acceptor, respectively.     

Semidefinite programming for uncertain linear equations in static analysis of structures

This paper presents a method for computing a minimal bound that contains the solution set to the uncertain linear equations. Particularly, we aim at finding a bounding ellipsoid for static response of structures, where both external forces and elastic moduli of members are assumed to be imprecisely known and bounded. By using the S-lemma, we formulate a semidefinite programming (SDP) problem which provides an outer approximation of the minimal bounding ellipsoid. Bounding ellipsoids are computed for nodal displacements of uncertain braced frames as the solutions of the presented SDP problems by using the primal-dual interior-point method.     

Electrochemistry of LiMn2O4 epitaxial films deposited on various single crystal substrates

LiMn₂O₄ epitaxial thin films were synthesized on SrTiO₃:Nb(1 1 1) and Al₂O₃(0 0 1) single crystal substrates by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) method and the electrochemical properties were discussed comparing with that of amorphous LiMn₂O₄ film on polycrystalline Au substrate. LiMn₂O₄ epitaxial film showed only a single plateau in charge–discharge curves and a single redox peak at the corresponding voltage of cyclic voltammograms. This phenomenon seems to originate from the effect of the epitaxy: the film is directly connected with the substrate by the chemical bond and this connection would suppress the phase transition of Li_xMn₂O₄ film during lithium (de-)intercalation. The discharge voltage of LiMn₂O₄ epitaxial film on SrTiO₃ was lower than that of LiMn₂O₄ film on Al₂O₃. This lowered discharge voltage may be caused by the electronic interaction between LiMn₂O₄ film and SrTiO₃:Nb n-type semiconductor substrate.     

微生物混菌发酵应用研究进展

在长期的生产实践中,人们发现很多重要的生化反应过程仅靠单株微生物是不能完成的,必须依靠2种或多种微生物共同培养来完成,即混菌培养或称为混菌发酵。文中综述了混菌发酵的优点,并简单介绍了微生物混菌发酵在食品、代谢物转化、资源、能源和环境保护等不同领域的研究情况。     

Contribution of Na+/Ca2+ exchanger in maintaining [Ca2+]c at a stable state in rat pancreatic islets

The effects of lowering extracellular Na+ concentration [Na+]o, on cytosolic Ca2+ concentration, [Ca2+]c were examined by a microfluorimetric method using fura-2 in perifused preparations of isolated rat pancreatic islets. The total replacement of extracellular Na+ (Na+o) by equimolar N-methyl-D-(--)-glucamine caused a rapid rise in [Ca2+]c, and partial replacement of Na+o resulted in correlative rises in [Ca2+]c in accordance with the magnitude of reduced [Na+]o. The rise in [Ca2+]c induced by Na+o removal was strongly inhibited in the Ca2+o-deficient environment or by Ni2+. The [Ca2+]c rise, however, remained almost unchanged in the presence of nifedipine or SK&F 96365, and was enhanced by the addition of ouabain. The electrochemical gradients for Ca2+ (delta mu Ca2+) and Na+ (delta mu Na+) were calculated to be 39.08 and 12.8 kJ/mol, respectively, in this study, indicating a stoichiometry of 3Na+: 1 Ca2+. These results indicate that, in rat pancreatic islets, the rise in [Ca2+]c induced by lowering [Na+]o is mainly due to Ca2+ entry medicated by the Na+/Ca2+ exchanger operating with the stoichiometry of 3Na+:1 Ca2+, and that the Na+/Ca2+ exchanger plays an important role in maintaining stable-state [Ca2+]c.     

TWO REACTION PATH KINETICS IN CO OXIDATION ON ZINC OXIDE

The mode of transient response curves in CO oxidation on ZnO is drastically changed to a false start, an overshoot or an instantaneous mode, depending on the concentration region of CO. These characteristic modes and the anomalous steady state rate data which show maximum and minimum are consistently explained by the two reaction pathways model.     

Molecular analysis of glucose phosphate isomerase deficiency associated with hereditary hemolytic anemia

We report here two new cases of glucose phosphate isomerase (GPI) deficiency associated with hemolytic anemia and present the results of molecular analysis of the five Japanese GPI variants. A Japanese girl (GPI Fukuoka) had an episode of prolonged neonatal jaundice and at 3 years of age was admitted due to acute hemolytic crisis occurring with upper respiratory tract infection. Red blood cell (RBC) GPI activity was decreased to 11.8% of normal and the reduced glutathione (GSH) level of RBCs was slightly decreased. A 54-year-old Japanese man (GPI Iwate) was hospitalized due to chronic active hepatitis, and compensated hemolysis was noted. RBC GPI activity of the proband was decreased to 18.8%, and the GSH content was about half of the normal mean value. Sequencing of the reticulocyte GPIcDNA showed homozygous missense mutations 1028CAG-->CGG (343Gln-->Arg), 14ACC-->A7C (5Thr-->lle), 671ACG-->A7G (224Thr-->Met), and 1615GAC-->AAC (539Asp-->Asn) in GPI Narita, GPI Matsumoto, GPI Iwate, and GPI Fukuoka, respectively. We also identified GPI Kinki as a compound heterozygote of 1124ACA-->AGA(375Thr-->Arg)/ 1615GAC-->AAC(539Asp-->Asn). Our findings, together with the previous results of other investigators, showed that the GPI gene mutations so far identified were heterogeneous, although most GPI variants had common biochemical characteristics such as heat instability and normal kinetics. Several amino acid substitutions were identified in the proximity of the catalytically important amino acid residues such as Ser/Asp 159/160, Asp341, and Lys518, which have been identified in the structural analysis of the pig GPI. The molecular characterization of human GPI variants, therefore, may provide new insights into the genotype-phenotype correlation of GPI deficiency as well as the structure-function relationship of this enzyme.