Experiments were carried out to examine redox transformations of copper and chromium by acidophilic bacteria (Acidithiobacillus, Leptospirillum, and Acidiphilium), and also of iron (III) reduction by Acidithiobacillus spp. under aerobic conditions. Reduction of iron (III) was found with all five species of Acidithiobacillus tested, grown aerobically on elemental sulfur. Cultures maintained at p...

Laccases are useful biocatalysts for many diverse biotechnological applications. In this study we have established efficient and reliable expression systems and high-throughput screenings for the recombinant CotA-laccase from Bacillus subtilis. The expression levels of cotA-laccase were compared in five different Escherichia coli host strains growing in 96-well microtiter plates under different...

The 1:1 Cu(II) complexes of bleomycin (BLM) A2, BLM B2, epi-BLM B2, iso-BLM B2, depyruvamide-BLM A2, deglyco-BLM B2 and the structurally related peptides (P-5m, P-3A and P-3) have been comprehensively investigated by ESR and electrochemical methods. ESR spectra for Cu(II) complexes of BLM A2, epi-BLM B2, depyruvamide-BLM A2 and P-3 revealed the axially symmetric g-anisotropies. In contrast, ESR...

The redox properties of a monolayer of alkanethiolate-protected gold nanoclusters (MPCs) constructed on a gold slide electrode was studied in 1,2-dichloroethane (DCE) electrolyte solutions. The influence of the electrostatic interaction between attached MPCs and the substrate electrode on the absolute standard redox potential of MPCs was theoretically considered and studied experimentally.

Lasers are commonly used in several fields of medicine as a complementary therapy for internal medicine, surgery and also diagnostics. The efficacy of ultra-low level laser therapy (ULLLT) at power levels around 0.15 mW/cm(2) has been demonstrated both in in vitro experiments and in the clinical environment. This work used an ULLLT laser source to analyze its efficacy on Staphylococcus aureus a...

This report describes a novel redox potential (oxidoreduction potential [ORP])-based screening strategy for the isolation of mutants of Klebsiella pneumoniae which have an increased ability to produce 1,3-propanediol (1,3-PD). This method can be described as follows: first, to determine an ORP range which is preferred for the wild-type strain to grow and to produce 1,3-PD; second, to subject a ...

It has been hypothesized that radiation-induced oxidative stress is the mechanism for a wide range of negative impacts on biota living in radioactively contaminated areas around Chernobyl. The present study tests this hypothesis mechanistically, for the first time, by modelling the impacts of radiolysis products within the cell resulting from radiations (low linear energy transfer β and γ), and...

In this paper, we described a glucose biosensor based on the co-electrodeposition of a poly(vinylimidazole) complex of [Os(bpy)2Cl](+/2+) (PVI-Os) and glucose oxidase (GOX) on a gold electrode surface. The one-step co-electrodeposition method provided a better control on the sensor construction, especially when it was applied to microsensor construction. The modified electrode exhibited the cla...

We developed a double-quantum mechanical/molecular mechanical (d-QM/MM) method for investigation of full outer-sphere electron transfer (ET) processes between a donor and an acceptor (DA) in condensed matter. In the d-QM/MM method, which employs the novel concept of multiple QM regions, one can easily specify the number of electrons, spin states and appropriate exchange-correlation treatment in...

Hydrogen bonding (H-bonding) is generally thought to play an important role in tuning the electronic structure and reactivity of metal-sulfur sites in proteins. To develop a quantitative understanding of this effect, S K-edge X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) has been employed to directly probe ligand-metal bond covalency, where it has been found that protein active sites are significantly le...