The proton-dependent oligopeptide transporter (POT/PTR) family shares a highly conserved E1X1X2E2RFXYY (E1X1X2E2R) motif across all kingdoms of life. This motif is suggested to have a role in proton coupling and active transport in bacterial homologs. For the plant POT/PTR family, also known as the NRT1/PTR family (NPF), little is known about the role of the E1X1X2E2R motif. Moreover, nothing i...

Telomeres are composed of simple tandem DNA repeats that protect the ends of linear chromosomes from replicative erosion or inappropriate DNA damage response mechanisms. The mammalian Protection Of Telomeres (POT1) protein interacts with single-stranded telomeric DNA and can exert positive and negative effects on telomere length. Of four distinct POT1 homologs in the roundworm Caenorhabditis el...

p-Dodecylbenzenesulfonic acid (DBSA) was used as a catalyst for a simple and efficient one-pot synthesis of aryl substititued tetrahydrobenzo[b]pyrans and dihydropyrano[c]chromens via initial Knoevenagel, subsequent Micheal and final heterocyclization reactions of aryl aldehyde, malononitrile and 4-hydroxycoumarin/dimedone in moderate to excellent yields. The present method was operationally si...

Dihydropyrimidine and amidoalkyl naphthol derivatives have been prepared efficiently in a one-pot synthesis using ZnCl2/urea and ZnCl2/acetamide deep eutectic systems as reaction medium and homogeneous catalyst. This method offers some advantages such as simple procedure, inexpensive solvent and catalyst and good yields of the final products in short reaction times. The use of non-toxic and env...

South Africa has been described as a melting pot of different cultures, adding to the rich South African heritage, boasting eleven official languages. This cultural diversity, however, poses quite a unique challenge for designers of software, especially in the design of e-commerce websites. This paper describes an experiment with the net-generation and the effects of culture on users’ perceptio...

Zinc (Zn) is one of the essential micronutrients required for optimum plant growth. Substantial quantity of applied inorganic zinc in soil is converted into unavailable form. Zinc solubilising bacteria are potential alternates for zinc supplement. Among 10 strains screened for Zn solubilisation, P29, P33, and B40 produced 22.0 mm clear haloes on solid medium amended with ZnCO3. Similarly, P17 a...

Conducting poly(o-toluidine) (POT) and poly(m-toluidine) (PMT) blends containing 10, 30, 50, 70, and 90 % wt/wt of polystyrene (PSt) were prepared by employing a two-step emulsion pathway. The bands characteristic of both polystyrene and POT/PMT are present in the IR spectra of POT–PSt and PMT–PSt blends. The UV-visible spectra of POT–PSt and PMT–PSt blends exhibit two bands around 313 and 610 ...