We have studied D-amino-acid oxidase from Rhodotorula gracilis by site-directed mutagenesis for the purpose of determining the presence or absence of residues having a possible role in acid/base catalysis. Tyr-223, one of the very few conserved residues among D-aminoacid oxidases, has been mutated to phenylalanine and to serine. Both mutants are active catalysts in turnover with D-alanine, and ...

Because snake venoms are complex mixtures of bioactive molecules, snake bites produce a large panel of symptoms which cannot be totally prevented by current antivenoms. Thus investigating plant extracts for antivenomics therapy approaches seemed relevant. Here, we evaluated the potency of the aqueous Buds extract of Eucalyptus (ABEE) to counteract the main enzymatic activities of Montivipera bo...

Structure predictions of helical membrane proteins have been designed to take advantage of the structural autonomy of secondary structure elements, as postulated by the two-stage model of Engelman and Popot. In this context, we investigate structure calculation strategies for two membrane proteins with different functions, sizes, aminoacid compositions, and topologies: the glycophorin A homodim...

The purpose of this study was to test the reliability of various standards that assess the quality of proteins via the “aminoacid score” and serve as a nutritional guideline for both children and adults. The height of young men in 42 European countries, Australia, New Zealand and USA was compared with the average consumption of food (after FAOSTAT, 2009) and a subsequent statistical analysis id...

Supplementary Figure 1. Proteorhodopsin amino acid sequence alignment. Multiple alignment of the predicted aminoacid sequences of PR in Dokdonia sp. MED134 and Polaribacter sp. MED152 compared to tentative Bacteroidetes orthologs and SAR86 and P. ubique sequences. Predicted transmembrane regions are marked by boxes with solid lines. Gray shading indicates conserved amino acid positions. Key ami...

Phenylketonuria is the most prevalent disorder caused by an inborn error in aminoacid metabolism. It results from mutations in the phenylalanine hydroxylase gene. Phenotypes can vary from a very mild increase in blood phenylalanine concentrations to a severe classic phenotype with pronounced hyperphenylalaninaemia, which, if untreated, results in profound and irreversible mental disability. Neo...

Sm14 was the first fatty acid-binding protein homologue identified in helminths. Thereafter, members of the same family were identified in several helminth species, with high aminoacid sequence homology between them. In addition, immune crossprotection was also reported against Fasciola hepatica infection, in animals previously immunized with the Schistosoma mansoni vaccine candidate, r-Sm14. I...

Two methods of purification of the plantaricin ST31, a bacteriocin produced by Lactobacillus plantarum ST31 are used in this study – the method of ammonium sulfate precipitation, Sep-pack C18 cartridge and reverse-phase HPLC chromatography on C18 Nucleosil column, and the method of direct purification by cation exchange SP Sepharose Fast Flow column Amersham (Pharmacia Biotech). The purity of t...

A resin-modified glass-ionomer cement (RMGIC) was studied from a computational point of view. We suggest terpolymer formation by reaction of fixation through a combination of acrylic acid (AA), itaconic acid (IA) and an aminoacid derivative (AAD) in different positions. We found that AAD-AA-IA is thermodynamically more stable, but AA-IA-AAD is the combination which can react with glycidyl metha...

Coeliac disease is a T-cell-mediated autoimmune disease of the small intestine that is induced by ingestion of gluten proteins from wheat, barley, or rye. We postulate that Candida albicans is a trigger in the onset of coeliac disease. The virulence factor of C albicans-hyphal wall protein 1 (HWP1)-contains aminoacid sequences that are identical or highly homologous to known coeliac disease-rel...