World wide crop losses without the use of pesticides and other non-chemical control strategies is estimated to be about 70% of crop production, amounting to U.S. $ 400 billion. Many insect pest families are known which cause serious damage to agriculture crops. Insect pest menace is one of the major factors that destabilize crop productivity in agricultural ecosystems. They are responsible for ...

Proteases, enzymes catalyzing the hydrolysis of peptide bonds, are present at high concentrations in the gastrointestinal tract. Besides their well-known role in the digestive process, they also function as signaling molecules through the activation of protease-activated receptors (PARs). Based on their chemical mechanism for catalysis, proteases can be classified into several classes: serine, ...

Lysosomes can trigger the mitochondrial apoptotic pathway by releasing proteases. Here we report that a 25-kDa protein purified from rat liver lysosomes possesses a long standing potent Bid cleavage activity at neutral pH, and the truncated Bid can in turn induce rapid mitochondrial release of cytochrome c. This protease was revealed as chymotrypsin B by biochemical and mass spectrometric analy...

the protease enzyme breaks down protein into amino acids as its constructors. protease immobilization onto appropriate support materials plays an essential role in various fields of technology including the food and detergent industries. accordingly, improvement of protease immobilization has been highly regarded due to its applications in bio catalysis. alginate and chitosan are natural polysa...

Premature birth rates and premature infant morbidity remain discouragingly high. Improving nourishment for these infants is the key for accelerating their development and decreasing disease risk. Dietary protein is essential for growth and development of infants. Studies on protein nourishment for premature infants have focused on protein requirements for catch-up growth, nitrogen balance, and ...

Nutritional performance and activity of some digestive enzymes (protease and α-amylase) of Helicoverpa armigera Hübner (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) in response to feeding on bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L. (Fabales: Fabaceae)) cultivars (Shokufa, Akhtar, Sayyad, Naz, Pak, Daneshkadeh, and Talash) were evaluated under laboratory conditions (25 ± 1°C, 65 ± 5% RH, and a 16:8 L:D photoperiod). The highest ...

Designing HIV-1 protease inhibitors that overcome drug-resistance is still a challenging task. In this study, four clinical isolates of multi-drug resistant HIV-1 proteases that exhibit resistance to all the US FDA-approved HIV-1 protease inhibitors and also reduce the substrate recognition ability were examined. A multi-drug resistant HIV-1 protease isolate, MDR 769, was co-crystallized with t...

The tarnished plant bug, Lygus hesperus Knight, is a pest that causes considerable economic losses to vegetables, cotton, canola, and alfalfa. Detailed knowledge of its digestive physiology will provide new opportunities for a sustainable pest management approach to control this insect. Little is known about the different protease class contributions to the overall digestion of a specific prote...

To reveal differentiation potency of yolk-sac endoderm, this tissue from quail embryos was cultured alone or in association with digestive-tract mesenchymes of chick embryos. When yolk-sac endoderm was cultured alone in vitro, the endoderm of the area vitellina differentiated into the yolk-sac parenchyma, but the endoderm of the extraembryonic area pellucida (EEAP) failed to differentiate into ...