Vanillyl-alcohol oxidase is a flavoprotein containing a covalent flavin that catalyzes the oxidation of 4-(methoxymethyl)phenol to 4-hydroxybenzaldehyde. The reaction proceeds through the formation of a p-quinone methide intermediate, after which, water addition takes place. Asp-170, located near the N5-atom of the flavin, has been proposed to act as an active site base. To test this hypothesis...

The "/-ray decay of the giant dipole resonance ( G D R ) buil t on highly excited states has not only become a very impor tan t tool for the study o f nuclear shape effects as a function o f tempera ture and angular m o m e n t u m [ 1 ], but is also sensit ive to react ion dynamical effects [2 ]. For example, a reduct ion of the fission probabi l i ty at the early stages of the decay of a high...

Rho GTPases regulate microtubule capture near the cell cortex to polarize cells. What is surprising is the repertoire of interactions between proteins at the ends of microtubules and their cortical targets. The microtubule tip protein CLIP-170 has now been found to interact with the Cdc42/Rac effector IQGAP and mediate transient capture of microtubules.