Thin films of nitromethane (CH3NO2) along with its isotopically labeled counterpart D3-nitromethane (CD3NO2) were photolyzed at discrete wavelength between 266 nm (4.7 eV) and 121 nm (10.2 eV) to explore the underlying mechanisms involved in the decomposition of model compounds of energetic materials in the condensed phase at 5 K. The chemical modifications of the ices were traced in situ via e...

In this study, we cultured Chlorella vulgaris cells with a range of lipid contents, induced via nitrogen starvation, and characterized them via flow cytometry, with BODIPY 505/515 as a fluorescent lipid label, and liquid-state 1H NMR spectroscopy. In doing so, we demonstrate the utility of calibrating flow cytometric measurements of algal lipid content using triacylglyceride (TAG, also known as...

Nitrogen is one of the most abundant elements and plays a key role in the chemistry of biological systems. Despite its widespread distribution, the study of the naturally occurring isotope of nitrogen, (14)N (99.6%), has been relatively limited as it is a spin-1 nucleus that typically exhibits a large quadrupolar interaction. Accordingly, most studies of nitrogen sites in biomolecules have been...

A pilot study was performed to examine the potential of stable isotope techniques for monitoring the impact of a harmful substance on the cellular nitrogen metabolism in the ciliate species Tetrahymena pyriformis. After identical cultivation periods of control cells and toluene-exposed cells in a defined culture medium enriched with [guanidino-15N2]l-arginine, a number of nitrogen-containing po...

Secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) is used to probe the movement of macromolecules in heterogeneous organic systems. Using 13C tracer labeling and two model systems, polystyrene/poly(2-vinylpyridine) (PS/P2VP) and polystyrene/poly(4-bromostyrene) (PS/P4BrS), the diffusion of 13C-labeled PS has been investigated near the respective heterogeneous interfaces using a CAMECA-IMS-6F magnetic sect...

A wide spectrum of soil heterocyclic nitrogen compounds are potential nutrients for plants. Here, it is shown that Arabidopsis plants are able to use allantoin as sole nitrogen source. By functional complementation of a yeast mutant defective in allantoin uptake, an Arabidopsis transporter, AtUPS1 (Arabidopsis thaliana ureide permease 1), was identified. AtUPS1 belongs to a novel superfamily of...

In this issue of Neuron, Iurilli and Datta (2017) conduct a comprehensive analysis of odor responses in the posterolateral cortical amygdala, a brain region implicated in innate processing of olfactory cues. Unexpectedly, neuronal responses in this region do not reveal preferred representations of stimulus valence.

Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is known to be crucial for the development of peripheral vestibular neurons. However, the maturation profile of the BDNF signal transducing receptor, tyrosine kinase B (TrkB) in functionally activated otolith-related vestibular nuclear neurons of postnatal rats remains unexplored. In the present study, conscious Sprague-Dawley rats (P4 to adult) were sub...