A novel hopanoid, 30-(5'-adenosyl)hopane, was isolated from the purple non-sulphur bacterium Rhodopseudomonas acidophila and identified. The significance of this triterpenoid in terms of bacteriohopanepolyol biosynthesis, membrane reinforcement and possible interactions with nucleic acids is discussed.

Tandemly activated tRNAs, bearing amino acid moieties at both the 2'- and 3'-positions of the 3'-terminal adenosine moiety (A(76)), have been shown to participate efficiently in protein synthesis [B. Wang, J. Zhou, M. Lodder, R. D. Anderson, III and S. M. Hecht, J. Biol. Chem., 2006, 281, 13865]. The mechanism by which such activated tRNAs are able to donate both amino acids to the growing poly...

1. Mevalonate pyrophosphate decarboxylase of rat liver is inhibited by various phenyl and phenolic acids. 2. Some of the phenyl and phenolic acids also inhibited mevalonate phosphate kinase. 3. Compounds with the phenyl-vinyl structure were more effective. 4. Kinetic studies showed that some of the phenolic acids compete with the substrates, mevalonate 5-phosphate and mevalonate 5-pyrophosphate...

Murine interleukin-5 (IL-5) is known to play an essential role in Ig production of B cells and proliferation and differentiation of eosinophils. Here, we have isolated cDNA clones encoding a murine IL-5 receptor by expression screening of a library prepared from a murine IL-5 dependent early B cell line. A cDNA library was expressed in COS7 cells and screened by panning with the use of anti-IL-...

Three aliphatic tricarboxylic acids have been found in rat urine. They have been identified as 6-carboxy-5-undecenedioic acid, 6-carboxy-5-dodecenedoic acid, and 6-carboxy-5-tridecenedioic acid. The carbon skeleton structure was determined by mass spectra of the hydrogenated methyl esters. The double bond position was determined after osmium tetroxide oxidation followed by trifluoroacetylation ...

1. Noradrenaline (1mm) and 5-hydroxytryptamine (1mm) stimulated the production of unesterified palmitate, oleate, stearate and arachidonate in nerve endings (synaptosomes) isolated from combined guinea-pig cerebral cortex and cerebellum. 2. Iproniazid phosphate (0.36mm) increased the concentrations of the same acids in osmotically ruptured synaptosomes. Further addition of 1mm-noradrenaline or ...

Accurate knowledge of the thermodynamic properties of nucleic acids is crucial to predicting their structure and stability. To date most measurements of base-pair free energies in DNA are obtained in thermal denaturation experiments, which depend on several assumptions. Here we report measurements of the DNA base-pair free energies based on a simplified system, the mechanical unzipping of singl...

A series of N-acylated analogues of 1-isopropyl-3-acyl-5-methyl-benzimidazolone were synthesized. Bioassay results indicated that analogues 5-07 and 5-19 exhibited the most potency against Bacillus cereus, Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Analogues 5-02, 5-07, 5-12, 5-15, 5-19, 5-20 and 5-25 could effectively inhibit the spore germination of...

BACKGROUND Leishmania donovani, belonging to a unicellular protozoan parasite, display the differential level of linkage-specific sialic acids on their surface. Sialic acids binding immunoglobulin-like lectins (siglecs) are a class of membrane-bound receptors present in the haematopoetic cell lineages interact with the linkage-specific sialic acids. Here we aimed to explore the utilization of s...

Three corn and 2 broccoli cultivars were steam blanched for various times and evaluated for residual enzyme activity. Lipoxygenase was inactivated in 4 min in supersweet corn, while sweet corn required a 6-min blanch; peroxidase was inactivated in 8 min. Inactivation of broccoli lipoxygenase, peroxidase, and cystine lyase was achieved in 90 s. Blanched samples were stored 9 mo at 18 C, then ana...