The tertiary structures of functional RNA molecules remain difficult to decipher. A new generation of automated RNA structure prediction methods may help address these challenges but have not yet been experimentally validated. Here we apply four prediction tools to a class of double glycine riboswitches that can bind two ligands cooperatively. A novel method (BPPalign), RMdetect, JAR3D, and Ros...

Regulation of cell membrane excitability can be achieved either by modulating the functional properties of cell membrane-expressed single channels or by varying the number of expressed channels. Whereas the structural basis underlying single channel properties has been intensively studied, the structural basis contributing to surface expression is less well characterized. Here we demonstrate th...

Recombinant antibodies can be engineered to improve their binding or other characteristics. A chicken single chain variable fragment (scFv) phage display library was panned against the mycobacterial 16 kDa antigen. Three fusion phages which bound specifically to the antigen were selected, each of which produced low signals in ELISA when secreted as a soluble scFv. One scFv was therefore chosen ...

Stabilized plasmid-lipid particles (SPLPs) have been developed to overcome the low stability issue of cationic liposomes, however, SPLPs that are too stable result in unsatisfactory transfection efficiency. In this article, we prepared enzyme-responsive SPLPs (eSPLPs) composed of 1,2-dioleoyl-3-trimethylammonium-propane (DOTAP), 1,2-dioleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphoethanolamine (DOPE), and mPEG-GLF...

Polypyrimidine tract-binding (PTB) proteins are RNA-binding proteins that generally contain four RNA recognition motifs (RRMs). In potato, six cDNAs encoding full-length PTB proteins have been identified. In the present study Nova1-like protein, designated StNova1, was identified as a potential interacting partner of the StPTB proteins via yeast two-hybrid screening. Nova protein is a RNA-bindi...

The fusion of different protein domains via peptide linkers is a powerful, modular approach to obtain proteins with new functions. A detailed understanding of the conformational behavior of peptide linkers is important for applications such as fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET)-based sensor proteins and multidomain proteins involved in multivalent interactions. To investigate the con...

An IgM monoclonal antibody (AGP3) against polyethylene glycol (PEG) was used to assay PEG-modified proteins by ELISA. PEG-modified beta-glucuronidase could be measured at concentrations as low as 15 ng/mL, corresponding to 750 pg (1.8 fmol) of conjugate. This ELISA should be generally applicable to all PEG-modified proteins because AGP3 binds the backbone of the PEG chain independent of the lin...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Poly-l-glutamic acid (PG) has been used widely as a carrier to deliver anticancer chemotherapeutics. This study evaluates PG as a selective renal drug carrier. EXPERIMENTAL APPROACH 3H-deoxycytidine-labeled PGs (17 or 41 kDa) and 3H-deoxycytidine were administered intravenously to normal rats and streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats. The biodistribution of these compoun...

Collagen is one of the most important proteins containing mostly proline hydroxyproline and glycine. In collagen, approximately 33 percent of the amino acid residues are glycine and they occur at every third position, whereas remaining percentage is constituted by mainly proline or hydroxyproline and some part by alanine etc. having no definite positional placement in the chain. Thus, a study o...

Point-of-care diagnostics show promise in removing reliance on centralized lab testing facilities and may help increase both the survival rate for infectious diseases as well as monitoring of chronic illnesses. CMOS compatible diagnostic platforms are currently being considered as possible solutions as they can be easily miniaturized and can be cost-effective. Top-down fabricated silicon nanowi...