Rare Glutamic Acid Methyl Ester Peptaibols from Sepedonium ampullosporum Damon KSH 534 Exhibit Promising Antifungal and Anticancer Activity

Fungal species of genus Sepedonium are rich sources of diverse secondary metabolites (e.g., alkaloids, peptaibols), which exhibit variable biological activities. Herein, two new peptaibols, named ampullosporin F (1) and ampullosporin G (2), together with five known compounds, ampullosporin A (3), peptaibolin (4), chrysosporide (5), c(Trp-Ser) (6) and c(Trp-Ala) (7), have been isolated from the culture of Sepedonium ampullosporum Damon strain KSH534. The structures of 1 and 2 were elucidated based on ESI-HRMSⁿ experiments and intense 1D and 2D NMR analyses. The sequence of ampullosporin F (1) was determined to be Ac-Trp¹-Ala²-Aib³-Aib⁴-Leu⁵-Aib⁶-Gln⁷-Aib⁸-Aib⁹-Aib¹⁰-GluOMe¹¹-Leu¹²-Aib¹³-Gln¹⁴-Leuol¹⁵, while ampullosporin G (2) differs from 1 by exchanging the position of Gln⁷ with GluOMe¹¹. Furthermore, the total synthesis of 1 and 2 was carried out on solid-phase to confirm the absolute configuration of all chiral amino acids as L. In addition, ampullosporin F (1) and G (2) showed significant antifungal activity against B. cinerea and P. infestans, but were inactive against S. tritici. Cell viability assays using human prostate (PC-3) and colorectal (HT-29) cancer cells confirmed potent anticancer activities of 1 and 2. Furthermore, a molecular docking study was performed in silico as an attempt to explain the structure-activity correlation of the characteristic ampullosporins (1–3).     

Low temperature brazing of components of radioelectronic equipment with a focused light beam

The objective of this study was an evaluation of the influence of the type of coating on the working life of electrodes when spot welding interstitial free steels with heat immersion coatings of the Zn pure (GI) and Zn–Fe alloy (GA) types. To do so, the electrode life was determined and the behaviour of the Zn of the coating evaluated on the contact plate/electrode surface during its working life, using ESM/EDS. As a result, it was confirmed that the working life of electrodes when welding GA steel was much higher than with GI steel. The electrode life was shown to be dependent on the fusion point of the coating. With the GI steel, part of the zinc layer moves to the edge of the electrode/plate contact at the start of the working life of the electrode. With the GA steel, Zn displacement was not confirmed throughout the whole working life of the electrode, due to the high-fusion point of the coating.     

Vapor growth of CdSe:Cr and CdS:Cr single crystals for mid-infrared lasers

Single crystals of CdSe:Cr and CdS:Cr with the doping level up to 10¹⁹ cm⁻³ were grown by a vapor phase contact-free technique. An efficient room-temperature pulsed and continuous wave (CW) lasing with the CdSe:Cr crystal was achieved. First a pulsed lasing with the CdS:Cr crystal was also demonstrated. The slope efficiency on the absorbed energy was as high as 46.5% for Cr²⁺:CdSe and 39% for Cr²⁺:CdS lasers. Using an intra-cavity prism, the Cr²⁺:CdSe laser wavelength was continuously tuned from 2.26 to 3.61 μm while the Cr²⁺:CdS laser from 2.2 to 3.3 μm. For the laser wavelength, the crystal passive loss coefficient was estimated to be smaller than 0.045 cm⁻¹ for CdSe:Cr crystals and 0.039 cm⁻¹ for CdS:Cr crystals. For the Cr²⁺:CdSe laser, the CW output power up to 1.07 W was achieved.     

Resolution of Binary Coding of Real-Valued Vectors by Hyperrectangular Receiptive Fields

Schemes of binary coding of real-valued vectors are considered. Hyperrectangular receptive fields such as RSC and Prager randomly distributed fields and CMAC regular fields are analyzed. Theoretical and experimental estimations of resolving power (resolution) of codes and the comparative analysis of coding schemes are presented. __________ Translated from Kibernetika i Sistemnyi Analiz, No. 5, pp. 3–15, September–October 2005.     

Surface topography of phytochrome A deduced from specific chemical modification with iodoacetamide

Phytochromes are a photoreversible photochromic light switch for photomorphogenesis in plants. The molecular structure and functional mechanism of phytochromes are not fully understood. On the basis of complete mapping of total tryptic digest of the iodoacetamide-modified oat phytochrome A (phyA), the molecular surface topography of phyA was probed by specific chemical modification of cysteine residues with [14C]iodoacetamide. Under native conditions, only two cysteines (Cys-158 and Cys-311) of eleven half-cystines of the N-terminal chromophore binding domain were modified to a significant extent. In the C-terminal domain, six cysteine residues (Cys-715, Cys-774, Cys-809, Cys-869, Cys-961, Cys-995) were readily accessible to iodoacetamide. Among the reactive cysteine residues, only cysteine-311 displayed reactivity that was dependent on the photochromic form (Pr left arrow over right arrow Pfr) of the photoreceptor. Surprisingly, the modification of Cys-311 in the vicinity of the chromophore attachment site (Cys-321) did not have any detectable effect on spectral properties of phyA. Most of the cysteines of the N-terminal domain (Cys-83, Cys-175, Cys-291, Cys-370, Cys-386, Cys-445, Cys-506) are deeply buried in the core of the chromophore binding domain, as they can be modified only after denaturation of the chromoprotein. In the C-terminal domain, modification of only one cysteine residue (Cys-939) required protein denaturation. Since all 22 half-cystines can be modified with iodoacetamide without reduction of the chromoprotein, it follows that oat phyA does not have any disulfide bonds. We found that Cys-311, Cys-774, Cys-961, and Cys-995 could be easily partially oxidized under the conditions used for phytochrome isolation. The surface topography/conformation of oat phyA and its role in protein-protein recognition in phytochrome-mediated signal transduction are discussed in terms of the relative reactivity of cysteine residues.