Abstract Background Chitin, a long-chain polymer of N -acetylglucosamine, is major structural component the insect exoskeleton and peritrophic membrane (PM). Chitinases are able to effectively break down glycosidic bonds chitin thus can be used in agriculture control plant pathogen insects. These enzymes synthesized by higher plants, animals, protista, bacteria, viruses. Results In this study, ...

From the Lead by Col Randy Wilson Our next regular Wing meeting is next Thursday and due to the expected heat, will again be held upstairs in O’Brien Hall in the Commemorative Center. We do have a speaker and hope you will bring a covered dish or favorite deli item and join us starting at 6:00 p.m. for the social hour. I am very happy to report that the North American L-17A is now flying and th...

Objective(s): A newly-introduced protein toxin from a sea anemone, namely fragaceatoxin C is a protein with molecular weight of 20 kDa and pore-forming capability against cell membranes has recently grasped great attentions for its function. In this study, its coding sequence cloned as a fusion protein with His-tag for simple production and rapid purification. Materials and Methods: After PCR a...

Cytochrome P450 2A6 (CYP2A6) is a human enzyme best known for metabolizing tobacco-related compounds, such as nicotine, cotinine (COT), and nitrosamine procarcinogens. CYP2A6 genetic variants have been associated with smoking status, cigarette consumption, and tobacco-related cancers. Our objective was to functionally characterize four nonsynonymous CYP2A6 sequence variants with respect to thei...

BACKGROUND The tdk gene (encoding deoxythymidine kinase) of the gamma-proteobacterium Xenorhabdus nematophila has two potential translation start sites. The promoter-distal start site was predicted to be functional based on amino acid sequence alignment with closely related Tdk proteins. However, to experimentally determine if either of the two possible start codons allows production of a funct...