Zinc is a potent regulator of programmed cell death (PCD) in animals. While certain, cell-type-specific concentrations of intracellular free zinc are required to protect cells from death, zinc depletion commits cells to death in diverse systems. As in animals, PCD has a fundamental role in plant biology, but its molecular regulation is poorly understood. In particular, the involvement of zinc i...

Effects of pH, D2EHPA, Cyanex® 302 and Cyanex® 272 on extractions of zinc, manganese and cobalt from a Zn-Mn-Co-Cd-Ni containing solution was comprehensively investigated at the room temperature. The addition of Cyanex® 302 indicated a left-shifting-effect on the extraction curve of zinc, a right-shifting-effect on the extraction curve of manganese and no effect on the extraction of cobalt. The...

Because trace minerals are important not only for human nutrition but for plant nutrition as well, plant breeding holds great promise for making a significant, sustainable, low-cost contribution to the reduction of micronutrient deficiencies in humans. It may also have important spinoff effects for increasing farm productivity in developing countries in an environmentally beneficial way. This a...

Zinc finger domains are structures that mediate sequence recognition for a large number of DNA-binding proteins. These domains consist of sequences of amino acids containing cysteine and histidine residues tetrahedrally coordinated to a zinc ion. In this report, we present a means to selectively inhibit a zinc finger transcription factor with cobalt(III) Schiff-base complexes. 1H NMR spectrosco...

Zinc-binding proteins are the most abundant metalloproteins in the Protein Data Bank where the zinc ions usually have catalytic, regulatory or structural roles critical for the function of the protein. Accurate prediction of zinc-binding sites is not only useful for the inference of protein function but also important for the prediction of 3D structure. Here, we present a new integrative framew...

BACKGROUND The virion infectivity factor (Vif) is an accessory protein, which is essential for HIV replication in host cells. Vif neutralizes the antiviral host protein APOBEC3 through recruitment of the E3 ubiquitin ligase complex. METHODOLOGY Fifty thousand Vif models were generated using the ab initio relax protocol of the Rosetta algorithm from sets of three- and nine-residue fragments us...

The crystal structure of human endostatin reveals a zinc-binding site. Atomic absorption spectroscopy indicates that zinc is a constituent of both human and murine endostatin in solution. The human endostatin zinc site is formed by three histidines at the N terminus, residues 1, 3, and, 11, and an aspartic acid at residue 76. The N-terminal loop ordered around the zinc makes a dimeric contact i...

mulches often use for weed control, hold soil moisture, decrease soil temperature, soil fertility, soil conservation, soil against rain and soil quality in organic farming. a field experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of different wheat residue and sunflower densities on sunflower growth and yield during 2007 growing season at the research field of birjand university. the experimenta...

Theoretical computations (molecular dynamics and combined quantum chemical and molecular mechanical geometry optimizations) have been performed on horse liver alcohol dehydrogenase. The results provide evidence that Glu-68, a highly conserved residue located 0.47 nm from the catalytic zinc ion, may intermittently coordinate to the zinc ion. Structures with Glu-68 coordinated to the zinc ion are...