T he amalgamation of conformationally restricted, nonprotein amino acids by chemical synthesis has led to triumphant designs of secondary and super secondary structures that mimic proteins. In this regard, the incorporation of a,b-dehydroresidues in peptide sequences comes in useful. Till about two decades back, this field of research received little attention. However, with the isolation of ma...

The life style ‘gluttony and sloth’ has become the central point of morbidity and the biochemical consequences of these are explained in the form of an extended arm of lipotoxicity resulting in hyperinsulinemia (1). It is suggested that certain selective activation of genes like proprotein convertase subtilin/kexin type 9(PCSK9) involved in LDL receptor metabolism could help eliminate gluttonou...

Rice blast caused by Magnaporthe oryzae is a major disease. In the present study, we aimed to identify and evaluate the novel bacterial isolates from rice rhizosphere for biocontrol of M. oryzae pathogen. Sixty bacterial strains from the rice plant's rhizosphere were tested for their biocontrol activity against M. oryzae under in vitro and in vivo. Among them, B. amyloliquefaciens had significa...

The lantibiotic nisin is produced by several strains of Lactococcus lactis. The complete gene cluster for nisin biosynthesis in L. lactis 6F3 comprises 15 kb of DNA. As described previously, the structural gene nisA is followed by the genes nisB, nisT, nisC, nisI, nisP, nisR, and nisK. Further analysis revealed three additional open reading frames, nisF, nisE, and nisG, adjacent to nisK. Approx...

The small antimicrobial peptide nisin, produced by Lactococcus lactis, contains the uncommon amino acid residues dehydroalanine and dehydrobutyrine and five thio ether bridges. Since these structures are posttranslationally formed from Ser, Thr, and Cys residues, it is feasible to study their role in nisin function and biosynthesis by protein engineering. Here we report the development of an ex...

Background and Aims : Proprotein convertase subtilin/kexin type 9 (PCSK9) is a protease that gained importance in cardiovascular biology due to its regulatory action on the low-density-lipoprotein receptor (LDLR). However, PCSK9 can also act independent of LDLR cause vascular pathologies. We hypothesized affects expression chemokine-receptors CXCR4, CCR8, CCR5 CCR2 inflammatory cytokines, all m...