Magnesium is an abundant element in the environment. Magnesium ion sensing by fluorescence spectral method is of importance due to the need for the detection of the metal in the human body and the environment. In this paper, we report the Mg2+ ion sensing behavior of the phenylhydrazone derivative of a difluorenylpiperidin-4-one. The preparation method of this compound is simple. The compound s...

BK channels are activated by physiological concentrations of intracellular Ca2+ and Mg2+ in a variety of cells. Previous studies have identified two sites important for high-affinity Ca2+ sensing between [Ca2+]i of 0.1-100 microM and a site important for Mg2+ sensing between [Mg2+]i of 0.1-10 mM. BK channels can be also activated by Ca2+ and Mg2+ at concentrations>10 mM so that the steady-state...

Divalent cations are important in the folding and stabilization of complex RNA structures. The adenine-sensing riboswitch controls the expression of mRNAs for proteins involved in purine metabolism by directly sensing intracellular adenine levels. Adenine binds with high affinity and specificity to the ligand binding or aptamer domain of the adenine-sensing riboswitch. The X-ray structure of th...

Voltage-gated EAG K+ channels switch between fast and slow gating modes in a Mg2+-dependent manner by an unknown mechanism. We analyzed molecular motions in and around the voltage-sensing S4 in bEAG1. Using accessibility and perturbation analyses, we found that activation increases both the charge occupancy and volume of S4 side chains in the gating canal. Fluorescence measurements suggest that...

Ions are not traditionally thought to act as first messengers in signal transduction cascades. However, while searching for genes regulated by the PhoP/PhoQ virulence regulatory system of Salmonella typhimurium, we recovered two loci whose expression is controlled by the concentration of Mg2+. To determine whether Mg2+ is the signal modulating the whole PhoP/PhoQ system, we evaluated the gene e...

In the present work, we report the library preparation on solid supports of 20 derivatives of 1,4,10,13-tetraoxa-7,15-diaza-cycloctadecane 1(a-e)(w,x,y,z) carrying a fluorescent dansyl group. The sensing fluorescence behavior of these materials toward alkali and alkali earth metal ions was studied by packing the beads into a conventional flow-through cell in a FIA (flow injection analysis) appr...