The chemical nature of the sulfur in bacterial sulfur globules has been the subject of controversy for a number of years. Sulfur K-edge X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) is a powerful technique for probing the chemical forms of sulfur in situ, but two groups have used it with very different conclusions. The root of the controversy lies with the different detection strategies used by the two g...

Sulfur is an essential macronutrient required for plant growth. To identify key transcription factors regulating the sulfur assimilatory pathway, we screened Arabidopsis thaliana mutants using a fluorescent reporter gene construct consisting of the sulfur limitation-responsive promoter of the SULTR1;2 sulfate transporter and green fluorescent protein as a background indicator for monitoring pla...

Measurements of surface resistivity as a function of coverage for oxygen adsorbed on sulfur-predosed Cu(100) films reveal two types of interactions between sulfur and oxygen: S-O repulsion and short-range suppression of the surface resistivity change induced by oxygen adsorption. The repulsive interaction causes oxygen atoms to first occupy adsorption sites far from the sulfur atoms, beyond sec...

Because the role of elemental sulfur in human nutrition has not been studied extensively, it is the purpose of this article to emphasize the importance of this element in humans and discuss the therapeutic applications of sulfur compounds in medicine. Sulfur is the sixth most abundant macromineral in breast milk and the third most abundant mineral based on percentage of total body weight. The s...

Production of sulfur globules during sulfide or thiosulfate oxidation is a characteristic feature of some sulfur bacteria. Although their generation has been reported in Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans, its mechanism of formation and deposition, as well as the physiological significance of these globules during sulfur compounds oxidation, are currently unknown. Under oxygen-sufficient conditions...

i Work was performed to determine the possible effectiveness of sulfur-containing fuel additives as contrail suppressents. Such suppression would require production of significant levels of sulfur trioxide, a known suppressent, in the exhaust. A model combustor capable of simulating turbojet operation at 40,000 feet was designed and built, and a gas sampling and analysis procedure developed for...

This paper aims to enhance the credibility of applying the sulfur K-edge XANES spectroscopy as an innovative "fingerprint" for characterizing environmental samples. The sensitivities of sulfur K-edge XANES spectra of ten sulfur compound standards detected by two different detectors, namely, Lytle detector (LyD) and Germanium detector (GeD), were studied and compared. Further investigation on "s...

Sulfur is a bright yellow crystalline solid at room temperature. The aim of the present study was to investigate the inhibitory effect of sulfur on prostate cancer (PCa) in vivo. Prostate tumors were developed by injecting 22Rv1 or DU-145 PCa cells into sulfur-treated or untreated nude mice. The weight and volume of the tumors were measured. The cancer cells were separated from the tumors, and ...

Dibenzothiophenes (DBTs) bearing alkyl substitutions adjacent to the sulfur atom, such as 4,6-diethyldibenzothiophene (4,6-DEDBT), are referred to as sterically hindered with regard to access to the sulfur moiety. By using enrichment cultures with 4,6-DEDBT as the sole sulfur source, bacterial isolates which selectively remove sulfur from sterically hindered DBTs were obtained. The isolates wer...

Polysulfides formed through the breakdown of elemental sulfur or other sulfur compounds were found to be reduced to H(2)S by the hyperthermophilic archaebacterium Pyrococcus furiosus during growth. Metabolism of polysulfides by the organism was dissimilatory, as no incorporation of S-labeled elemental sulfur was detected. However, [S]cysteine and [S]methionine were incorporated into cellular pr...