Euphorbia macrostegia or Persian wood spurge is one of the seventeen endemic plants of this genus in Iran. Three triterpenoids, 24-methylenecycloartan-3β-ol (1), butyrospermol (2) and cycloartenol (3) and three diglycerides, 1,2-di-O-α-linolenoyl-sn-glycerol (4), 1-O-linoleoyl-3-O-palmitoyl-sn-glycerol (5) and 1-O-α-linolenoyl-2-O-palmitoyl-sn-glycerol (6) were isolated from the hexane soluble ...

The spin-labeled cardiolipin 1-(3-sn-phosphatidyl)-3-[1-acyl-2-(16-doxylstearoyl)glycero(3)phosphol]-sn-glycerol has been prepared. The stereoselective synthesis makes use of the monolysocardiolipin 1-(3-sn-phosphatidyl)-3-[1-acyl-2-lyso-sn-glycero(3)phospho]-sn-glycerol, available from the stereospecific hydrolysis of cardiolipin by phospholipase A2 (phosphatide 2-acylhydrolase, EC 3.1.1.4) of...

Geand Sn-containing -Metallaarene–Cr(CO)3 complexes showed unique reactivity leading to the formation of unexpected products. The formation mechanism of the new complexes was discussed together with their molecular structures.

Maintaining the intrinsic features of mesophases is critically important when employing phospholipid self-assemblies to mimic biomembranes. Inorganic solid surfaces provide platforms to support, guide, and analyze organic self-assemblies but impose upon them a tendency to form well-ordered phases not often found in biomembranes. To address this, we measured mesophase formation in a thiolate sel...

The reactions leading to triacylglycerol (TAG) synthesis in oilseeds have been well characterized. However, quantitative analyses of acyl group and glycerol backbone fluxes that comprise extraplastidic phospholipid and TAG synthesis, including acyl editing and phosphatidylcholine-diacylglycerol interconversion, are lacking. To investigate these fluxes, we rapidly labeled developing soybean (Gly...

1. The specific activities for palmitoyl-CoA synthetase and for sn-glycerol 3-phosphate esterification, with palmitoyl-CoA generated either by the endogenous synthetase or from palmitoyl-(-)-carnitine, CoA and excess of carnitine palmitoyltransferase, were measured with rat liver mitochondria. 2. The mean specific activity of palmitoyl-CoA synthetase was approximately five- and seven-fold the r...

Bacterial populations produce dormant persister cells that are resistant to killing by all antibiotics currently in use, a phenomenon known as multidrug tolerance (MDT). Persisters are phenotypic variants of the wild type and are largely responsible for MDT of biofilms and stationary populations. We recently showed that a hipBA toxin/antitoxin locus is part of the MDT mechanism in Escherichia c...

The membrane localization and properties of the Rhodopseudomonas sphaeroides sn-glycerol-3-phosphate acyltransferase have been examined utilizing enzymatically prepared acyl-acyl carrier protein (acyl-ACP) substrates as acyl donors for sn-glycerol-3-phosphate acylation. Studies conducted with membranes prepared from chemotrophically and phototrophically grown cells show that sn-glycerol-3-phosp...

Fragile X syndrome, the most commonly known genetic cause of autism, is due to loss of the fragile X mental retardation protein, which regulates signal transduction at metabotropic glutamate receptor-5 in the brain. Fragile X mental retardation protein deletion in mice enhances metabotropic glutamate receptor-5-dependent long-term depression in the hippocampus and cerebellum. Here we show that ...

In plants, polyenoic fatty acids are synthesized by desaturase enzymes which use acyl groups of membrane lipids as substrates. To provide direct 'in vitro' evidence for this reaction, we solubilized envelope membranes from spinach (Spinacia oleracea) chloroplasts with Triton X-100 to release a membrane-bound n-6 desaturase. In the presence of oxygen and reduced ferredoxin, the solubilized enzym...