DNA polymerases amplify DNA fragments through primer extension reactions. However, polymerization behavior of short primers in the primer extension process has not been systematically explored. In this study, we examined the minimal primer length required for primer extension, and the effect of primer length, mismatches and other conditions on DNA polymerization using a non-radioactive method. ...

Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) NS4B protein induces a specialized membrane structure which may serve as the replication platform for HCV RNA replication. In the present study, we demonstrated that NS4B has lipid modifications (palmitoylation) on two cysteine residues (cysteines 257 and 261) at the C-terminal end. Site-specific mutagenesis of these cysteine residues on individual NS4B proteins and on a...

Tubulin was isolated from cultured cells of rose (Rosa, sp.cv. Paul's scarlet) by DEAE-Sephadex A50 chromatography, and the taxol-induced polymerization of microtubules in vitro was characterized at 24 degrees C by turbidity development, sedimentation analysis, and electron microscopy. Numerous, short microtubules were formed in the presence of taxol, and maximum levels of turbidity and polymer...

Two tubulin variants, isolated from chicken brain and erythrocytes and known to have different peptide maps and electrophoretic properties, are demonstrated to exhibit different assembly properties in vitro: 1) erythrocyte tubulin assembles with greater efficiency (lower critical concentration, greater elongation rate) but exhibits a lower nucleation rate than brain tubulin, and 2) erythrocyte ...

The fraction of polymerized actin in human blood neutrophils increases after exposure to formyl-methionyl-leucyl-phenylalanine (fmlp), is maximal 10 s after peptide addition, and decreases after 300 s. Most of the gelsolin (85 +/- 11%) in resting ficoll-hypaque (FH)-purified neutrophils is in an EGTA resistant, 1:1 gelsolin-actin complex, and, within 5 s after 10(-7) M fmlp activation, the amou...

Developing selective polymerizations from complex monomer mixtures is an important challenge. Here, dinuclear catalysts allow selective polymerization from mixtures of sterically hindered tricyclic anhydrides, carbon dioxide and epoxides to yield well-controlled copoly(ester-carbonates). Surprisingly, two very similar homogeneous catalysts differing only in the central metal, zinc versus magnes...

The cationic nickel(II) complexes [(η-C3H5)Ni(SbPh3)2][B(3,5-(CF3)2C6H3)4] (2) and [(η3C3H5)Ni(SbPh3)2][Al(OC(CF3)3)4] (3) were prepared and their polymerization activities in aqueous systems were compared with [(η-C3H5)Ni(η-BHT)][B(3,5-(CF3)2C6H3)4] (1) (BHT ) 3,5-di-tert-butyl-4-hydroxytoluene). Cispolybutadiene is formed in nonaqueous solution polymerization. The presence of water decreases ...

An amine bis(phenolate) dibenzyl titanium complex having a methoxy donor on a side arm leads, upon activation with tris(pentafluorophenyl)borane, to unique living properties in alpha-olefin polymerization: exceptionally high molecular weight poly(1-hexene) is obtained in a living fashion at room temperature, living polymerization of 1-hexene is obtained above room temperature, and block copolym...