SR proteins promote spliceosome formation by recognizing exonic splicing enhancers (ESEs) during pre-mRNA splicing. Each SR protein binds diverse ESEs using strategies that are yet to be elucidated. Here, we show that the RNA-binding domain (RBD) of SRSF1 optimally binds to decameric purine rich ESE sequences although locations of purines are not stringently specified. The presence of uracils e...

Proteoglycans (PGs) are glycosylated proteins of biological importance at cell surfaces, in the extracellular matrix, and in the circulation. PGs are produced and modified by glycosaminoglycan (GAG) chains in the secretory pathway of animal cells. The most common GAG attachment site is a serine residue followed by a glycine (-ser-gly-), from which a linker tetrasaccharide extends and may contin...

The regulatory spine is a set of conserved residues that are assembled and disassembled upon activation and inactivation of kinases. We recently identified the regulatory spine within the immunologically important Tec family kinases and have shown that in addition to the core spine residues within the kinase domain itself, contributions from the SH2-kinase linker region result in an extended sp...

Climate change has increased the severity of drought episodes by further reducing precipitation in vulnerable zones. Drought induces a substantial decrease agricultural water, crop yields. Consequently, addressing water consumption can increase farmers’ profits. This work describes lab-to-field research Zea mays, using two biostimulants: glycine betaine (GB) and L-pyroglutamic acid (PG). The bi...

A greenhouse experiment and a 2-yr field trial were conducted to compare various S sources for soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] grown on an acid Oxisol in Brazil. In the greenhouse, included ammonium sulfate (AMS), monoammonium phosphate with ratio = 50:50 of AMS/elemental (ES) – (AMS + ES), ES bentonite containing 90% ES. All surface-applied at 0, 5, 10, 20, 40 mg kg–1. Separately, all incorpo...

Shotgun metagenomics is a low biased technology for assessing environmental microbial diversity and function. However, the requirement for a sufficient amount of DNA and the contamination of inhibitors in environmental DNA leads to difficulties in constructing a shotgun metagenomic library. We herein examined metagenomic library construction from subnanogram amounts of input environmental DNA f...

Metagenomics generates and tests hypotheses about dynamics and mechanistic drivers in wild populations, yet commonly suffers from insufficient (< 1 ng) starting genomic material for sequencing. Current solutions for amplifying sufficient DNA for metagenomics analyses include linear amplification for deep sequencing (LADS), which requires more DNA than is normally available, linker-amplified sho...

Extraction of stage 22-23 chick embryo limb buds that had been metabolically labeled with [35S]sulfate yielded heparan sulfate proteoglycan, small chondroitin sulfate proteoglycan, and large chondroitin sulfate proteoglycan (designated PG-M). PG-M constituted over 60% of the total macromolecular [35S]sulfates. It was larger in hydrodynamic size, richer in protein, and contained fewer chondroiti...

The effects of glucagon deficiency and excess on plasma concentrations of 21 amino acids were studied in six normal human subjects for 8 h. During glucagon deficiency, produced by intravenous infusion of somatostatin (0.5 mg/h) and insulin (5 mU/kg per h), amino acid concentration (sum of 21 amino acids) rose from 2,607 +/- 76 to 2,922 +/- 133 microM after 4 h (P less than 0.025). The largest i...