There are no two main-group elements that exhibit more similar physical and chemical properties than sulfur and selenium. Nonetheless, Nature has deemed both essential for life and has found a way to exploit the subtle unique properties of selenium to include it in biochemistry despite its congener sulfur being 10,000 times more abundant. Selenium is more easily oxidized and it is kinetically m...

Under adequate sulfur supply, plants accumulate sulfate in the vacuoles and use sulfur-containing metabolites as storage compounds. Under sulfur-limiting conditions, these pools of stored sulfur-compounds are depleted in order to balance the nitrogen to sulfur ratio for protein synthesis. Stress conditions like sulfur limitation and/or pathogen attack induce changes in the sulfate pool and the ...

Biodesulfurization of coal has been carried out in batch culture of single strain and mixed culture of sulfur oxidizing bacteria. The pure cultures of Thiobacillus thiooxidans and Thiobacillus ferrooxidans utilized inorganic sulfur content of Malaysian coal. The chemolithotroph bacteria were able to grow on coal and metabolize the coal's sulfur content. The batch cultures of coal with 3-5 perce...

A dibenzothiophene (DBT)-desulfurizing bacterial strain was isolated and identified as Gordona strain CYKS1. Strain CYKS1 was found to transform DBT to 2-hydroxybiphenyl via the 4S pathway and to be able to also use organic sulfur compounds other than DBT as a sole sulfur source. Its desulfurization activity was susceptible to sulfate repression. Active resting cells for desulfurization could b...

Amino acid homopolymers were used to determine production of radiolytic volatiles by irradiation. Many new volatiles were generated, and the amounts of volatiles in amino acid homopolymers changed after irradiation. Each amino acid homopolymer group produced different odor characteristics, but the intensities of odor from all amino acid groups were weak, except for sulfur-containing amino acids...

As early as 1550 B.C., Egyptians realized the benefits of garlic as a remedy for a variety of diseases.Many epidemiological studies support the protective role of garlic and related allium foods against the development of certain human cancers. Natural garlic and garlic cultivated with selenium fertilization have been shown in laboratory animals to have protective roles in cancer prevention. Ce...

Two new palladium-catalyzed reactions of aromatic sulfur compounds enabled the conversion of dibenzothiophenes into triphenylenes in four steps. This transformation of one aromatic framework into another consists of 1) 4-chlorobutylation of the dibenzothiophene to form the corresponding sulfonium salt, 2) palladium-catalyzed arylative ring opening of the sulfonium salt with a sodium tetraarylbo...