In order to reveal aspects of olfactory coding, the effects of sensory adaptation on the olfactory responses of first-instar Drosophila melanogaster larvae were tested. Larvae were pre-stimulated with a homologous series of acetic esters (C3-C9), and their responses to each of these odours were then measured. The overall patterns suggested that methyl acetate has no specific pathway but was det...

A fast one-pot method has been developed for the direct preparation of 3-aryl-1,2-cyclohexanediones from 2,3-epoxycyclohexanone via a microwave-assisted tandem epoxy ketone isomerization-Heck arylation reaction. The preparative microwave-assisted reactions were performed preferentially in 50% aqueous poly(ethylene glycol) utilizing sodium acetate as the base. Within 5-30 min of directed microwa...

I n the nascent field of synthetic biology (1), the engineering of novel cell–cell communication capabilities will become critical. Synthetic biology involves the creation of artificial gene and metabolic networks to program new cell and organism behaviors. Recent accomplishments have demonstrated that cells can be engineered to carry out novel tasks (refs. 2–10; R.W. and S. Basu, www.hpcaconf....

Peroxisomes are organelles containing a diverse array of enzymes. In fungi they are important for carbon source utilization, pathogenesis, development, and secondary metabolism. We have studied Aspergillus nidulans peroxin (pex) mutants isolated by virtue of their inability to grow on butyrate or by the inactivation of specific pex genes. While all pex mutants are able to form colonies, those u...

Atractylodin is one of the major constituents of the rhizome of Atractylodes lancea, which is widely used in Korean traditional medicine as a remedy for the treatment of gastritis and gastric ulcers. Despite of a major constituent of widely used botanical to treat inflammatory responses little is known about anti-inflammatory effect of atractylodin in the human mast cell (HMC-1). Hence, we eval...

We have recently proposed the existence of a bacteriological pathway for ethanol oxidation, i.e. ethanol is oxidized by alcohol dehydrogenase of intestinal bacteria resulting in high intracolonic levels of reactive and toxic acetaldehyde. This study was aimed to examine aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) activity, acetaldehyde consumption and production of acetate by aerobic bacteria (n = 27), repre...

Studies on the metabolism of the strict aerobe Micrococcus sodonensis revealed that a considerable accumulation of a-ketoglutarate and glutamate occurred. This accumulation was in evidence, both during growth on complex media and during growth on chemically defined media with acetate as the sole carbon source. The major pathway of terminal respiration in aerobically growing microorganisms appea...

Studies on the metabolism of the strict aerobe Micrococcus sodonensis revealed that a considerable accumulation of a-ketoglutarate and glutamate occurred. This accumulation was in evidence, both during growth on complex media and during growth on chemically defined media with acetate as the sole carbon source. The major pathway of terminal respiration in aerobically growing microorganisms appea...

The potential for ferric iron reduction with fermentable substrates, fermentation products, and complex organic matter as electron donors was investigated with sediments from freshwater and brackish water sites in the Potomac River Estuary. In enrichments with glucose and hematite, iron reduction was a minor pathway for electron flow, and fermentation products accumulated. The substitution of a...

Nine analogs of 1'S-1'-acetoxychavicol acetate (ACA) were hemi-synthesized and evaluated for their anticancer activities against seven human cancer cell lines. The aim of this study was to investigate the anti-proliferative, apoptotic, and anti-migration effects of these compounds and to explore the plausible underlying mechanisms of action. We found that ACA and all nine analogs were non toxic...