Debranching enzymes, which hydrolyze α-1 and 6-glucosidic linkages in α-polyglucans, play a dual role in the synthesis and degradation of starch in plants. A transposon-inserted rice mutant of isoamylase3 (isa3) contained an increased amount of starch in the leaf blade at the end of the night, indicating that ISA3 plays a role in the degradation of transitory starch during the night. An epitope...

Starch serves functions that range over a timescale of minutes to years, according to the cell type from which it is derived. In guard cells, starch is rapidly mobilized by the synergistic action of β-AMYLASE1 (BAM1) and α-AMYLASE3 (AMY3) to promote stomatal opening. In the leaves, starch typically accumulates gradually during the day and is degraded at night by BAM3 to support heterotrophic me...

Starch degradation in barley endosperm provides carbon for early seedling growth, but the control of this process is poorly understood. We investigated whether endosperm cell wall degradation is an important determinant of the rate of starch degradation. We identified iminosugar inhibitors of enzymes that degrade the cell wall component arabinoxylan. The iminosugar 1,4-dideoxy-1, 4-imino-l-arab...

Currently, many nutritionists consider only the total nonfiber carbohydrate (NFC) fraction when formulating rations for lactating dairy cows. Increasingly, we need to measure the components that comprise NFC (starch, sugars, soluble fiber, and β-glucans) and formulate rations that optimize the concentration of each component in the diet. Starch is the major NFC fraction in dairy cattle diets, a...

25 Sexually dimorphic behaviors develop under the influence of sex steroids, which induce 26 reversible changes in the underlying neural network of the brain. However, little is known about 27 the proteins that mediate these activational effects of sex steroids. Here, we used a proteomics 28 approach for large-scale identification of proteins involved in the development of a sexually 29 dimorph...

Adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) is a complex three-dimensional deformity of the spine. The cause and pathogenesis of scoliosis and the accompanying generalized osteopenia remain unclear despite decades of extensive research. In this study, we utilized two-dimensional fluorescence difference gel electrophoresis (2D-DIGE) coupled with mass spectrometry (MS) to analyze the differential prote...

The aim of this study was to investigate the role of the plant food matrix in influencing the extent of starch gelatinisation during hydrothermal processing, and its implications for starch digestibility. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) was used to provide a detailed examination of the gelatinisation behaviour of five distinct size fractions (diameters <0.21 to 2.58 mm) of milled chickp...

There are major issues regarding the proposed pathway for starch degradation in germinating cereal grain. Given the commercial importance but genetic intractability of the problem, we have embarked on a program of chemical genetics studies to identify and dissect the pathway and regulation of starch degradation in germinating barley grains. As a precursor to in vivo studies, here we report syst...

BACKGROUND The obligate intracellular protozoan Trypanosoma cruzi is the causative agent of Chagas disease, a neglected illness affecting millions of people in Latin America that recently entered non-endemic countries through immigration, as a consequence of globalization. The chemotherapy for this disease is based mainly on benznidazole and nifurtimox, which are very efficient nitroderivatives...

Running title: α-glucoside-processing enzymes in Pyrococcus furiosus 20 ABSTRACT Bioinformatics analysis and transcriptional response information for Pyroccoccus furiosus grown on α-glucans led to identification of a novel isomaltase (PF0132) representing a new GH family, a novel GH57 β-amylase (PF0870), and an extracellular starch-binding protein (1,141 amino 5 acids) (PF1109-1110), in additio...