Minor aberrant pathways of cholesterol biosynthesis normally produce only trace levels of abnormal sterol metabolites but may assume major importance when an essential biosynthetic step is blocked. Cholesta-5,8-dien-3beta-ol, its Delta(5,7) isomer, and other noncholesterol sterols accumulate in subjects with the Smith-Lemli-Opitz syndrome (SLOS), a severe developmental disorder caused by a defe...

The protein sequence of a representative of the zeins, the major storage proteins of maize, has been derived from the nucleotide sequence of a zein cDNA clone. This cDNA was sequence both by the Maxam and Gilbert and the M13-dideoxy techniques. The nucleotide sequence encompasses the non-translated 3' terminus of the mRNA, the entire coding sequence specifying both the mature zein protein and a...

The nucleotide sequence of the operon of the ATPase complex of an acidothermophilic archaebacterium, Sulfolobus acidocaldarius, has been determined. In addition to the three previously reported genes for the alpha, beta, and c (proteolipid) subunits of the ATPase complex (Denda, K., Konishi, J., Oshima, T., Date, T., and Yoshida, M. (1989) J. Biol. Chem. 264, 7119-7121), the operon contained th...

This paper presents an experimental study on the static and dynamic mechanical properties of nonwoven based flax fibre reinforced polypropylene composites. The effect of zein modification on flax fibres is also reported. Flax nonwovens were treated with zein coupling agent, which is a protein extracted from corn. Composites were prepared using nonwovens treated with zein solution. The tensile, ...

Cereal storage proteins are major nitrogen sources for humans and livestock. Prolamins are the most abundant storage protein in most cereals. They are deposited into protein bodies (PBs) in seed endosperm. The inner structure and the storage mechanism for prolamin PBs is poorly understood. Maize opaque10 (o10) is a classic opaque endosperm mutant with misshapen PBs. Through positional cloning, ...

This study investigates the prevalence of CG and CNG suppression in single- vs. multicopy DNA regions of the maize genome. The analysis includes the single- and multicopy seed storage proteins (zeins), the miniature inverted-repeat transposable elements (MITEs), and long terminal repeat (LTR) retrotransposons. Zein genes are clustered on specific chromosomal regions, whereas MITEs and LTRs are ...

Lysine is the most limiting essential amino acid for animal nutrition in maize grains. Expression of naturally lysine-rich protein genes can increase the lysine and protein contents in maize seeds. AtMAP18 from Arabidopsis thaliana encoding a microtubule-associated protein with high-lysine content was introduced into the maize genome with the seed-specific promoter F128. The protein and lysine ...

Kafirin, the sorghum prolamin protein, like its maize homologue zein, can be made into microparticles and films and potentially used as a biomaterial. Zein has good bio- and cyto-compatibility. Kafirin could be advantageous as it is more hydrophobic, more crosslinked, more slowly digested by mammalian proteases than zein and is non-allergenic. The safety and biocompatibility of kafirin implants...

The opaque-2 locus (o2) in maize regulates the expression of many members of the zein multigene family of storage proteins. cDNA clones for a wild-type allele of the (o2) locus (O2) were isolated from a maize endosperm cDNA library and sequenced. We found a 258-nucleotide 5' leader sequence containing three short open reading frames followed by a sequence specifying a protein of 437 amino acids...

By utilizing a homologous transient expression system, we have demonstrated that the Opaque-2 (O2) gene product O2 confers positive trans-regulation on a 22-kD zein promoter. This trans-acting function of the O2 protein is mediated by its sequence-specific binding to a cis element (the O2 target site) present in the 22-kD zein promoter. A multimer of a 32-bp promoter fragment containing this O2...