The histone chaperone Vps75 presents the remarkable property of stimulating the Rtt109-dependent acetylation of several histone H3 lysine residues within (H3-H4)(2) tetramers. To investigate this activation mechanism, we determined x-ray structures of full-length Vps75 in complex with full-length Rtt109 in two crystal forms. Both structures show similar asymmetric assemblies of a Vps75 dimer bo...

Acylated xylan-based magnetic Fe₃O₄ nanocomposite hydrogels (ACX-MNP-gels) were prepared by fabricating Fe₃O₄ nanoctahedra in situ within a hydrogel matrix which was synthesized by the copolymerization of acylated xylan (ACX) with acrylamide and N-isopropylacrylamide under ultraviolet irradiation. The size of the Fe₃O₄ fabricated within the hydrogel matrix could be adjusted through controlling ...

Despite the strong immune responses elicited after natural infection with Trypanosoma cruzi or vaccination against it, parasite survival suggests that these responses are insufficient or inherently inadequate. T. cruzi contains a major cystein proteinase, cruzipain, which has a catalytic N-terminal domain and a C-terminal extension. Immunizations that employed recombinant cruzipain or its N- an...

The insect nodavirus Flock house virus (FHV) has a small genome divided between two segments of positive-sense RNA, RNA1 and RNA2. RNA1 encodes the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) catalytic subunit and templates the synthesis of a subgenomic RNA (RNA3) that encodes two small nonstructural proteins. Replication of RNA2, which encodes a precursor to the viral capsid proteins, suppresses RNA3 ...

Insect chitinases belong to family 18 of the glycoside hydrolase superfamily (GH18) and comprise endo-splitting enzymes that retain the anomeric β-(1,4) configuration of the cleavage products. However, some of them have lost their catalytic activity but retained the chitin binding activity and/or possess imaginal disc growth factor activity. In all sequenced insect genomes, multiple genes encod...

A facile and efficient hard-templating strategy is reported for the preparation of porous nickel microspheres with excellent uniformity and strong magnetism. The strategy involves impregnation of porous polymer microspheres with nickel precursors, calcination to remove the template, followed by thermal reduction. The morphology, structure, and the property of the Ni microspheres were characteri...

Autocatalytic self-construction in macromolecular systems requires the existence of a reflexive relationship between structural components and the functional operations they perform to synthesise themselves. The possibility of reflexivity depends on formal, semiotic features of the catalytic structure-function relationship, that is, the embedding of catalytic functions in the space of polymeric...

The synergetic combination of two metals in bimetallic (BM) nanoparticle (NP) significantly changes the optical, catalytic, electronic and magnetic properties. The possible reason for synergetic effects is the heterometallic bond between two metals, dilution of active site, the combination of two kinds of metals and their fine structures. The enhanced catalytic properties of BM nanoparticles ar...

Forming gas annealing causes changes in the remanent polarization (Pr), coercive field (Ec), and leakage current ~I! in both PZT @Pb~Zr,Ti!O3# and SBT (SrBi2Ta2O9) samples with a variety of top electrode materials ~Pt, Au, Ag, Cu, Ni, and In2O3!, and the degree of degradation depends strongly on the top electrode material. These results may be explained by a model that is based on the catalytic...

Calcium oxide (CaO) nanoparticles are known to exhibit unique property due to their high adsorption capacity and good catalytic activity. In this work the CaO nanocatalysts were prepared by hydrothermal method using anionic surfactant, sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS), as a templating agent. The as-synthesized nanocatalysts were further used as substrate for the synthesis of alumina doped calcium ...