Subcellular fractionation of rat cerebral cortical slices on sucrose density gradients provides evidence for the existence of a unique synaptosomal fraction (enriched in pinched-off nerve endings) that selectively accumulates glutamic and aspartic acids. The particles in this fraction sediment to a less dense portion of sucrose gradients than do particles that accumulate aromatic, basic, and ne...

Bacillus anthracis elaborates a homopolymeric capsule composed of gamma-D-glutamic acid residues. Mice were immunized with formalin-fixed encapsulated B. anthracis bacilli, and the serum antibody response to a gamma-D-glutamyl capsular epitope was measured. Antiglutamyl antibodies were elicited in athymic BALB/c Nu/Nu, BALB/c Nu/+, and CBA/J mice but not in CBA/N xid mice. These response patter...

In previous investigations it was shown that in folic acid deficiency there is a large increase in the urinary excretion of formimino-n-glutamic acid (l-6). This increase has been explained by recent enzymatic studies demonstrating that the first step in the metabolism of formimino+glutamic acid is the transfer of the formimino group to tetrahydrofolic acid (7-9). Formimino-n-glutamic acid is a...

An L- or D-glutamic acid based bolaamphiphile was found to form uniform helical nanotubes in water, which were used as the template to generate silica nanotubes. The formed silica nanotubes have supramolecular chirality in the inner walls, and were further used to load photoactive azobenzene moieties to realize a chiroptical switch.