Search results for "Alanine"

Anomalous temperature dependence of the IR spectrum of polyalanine

1997

Abstract We have studied the temperature dependence of the infrared spectra of acetanilide (ACN), tryptophan–(alanine) 15 , and tyrosine–(alanine) 15 . No sidebands of the amide-I vibration were observed in the polypeptides, but two anomalous sidebands of the NH stretch with a similar temperature dependence as that of the anomalous amide-I vibrational mode at 1650 cm −1 of crystalline ACN were detected. Fermi resonance combined with the appearance of a red-shifted sideband of NH stretch through coupling to lattice modes seems to explain this band structure. Observations are indicative of excitons that may occur in polypeptides as well as in single crystals of ACN.

Comparison of EPR response of alanine and Gd2O3-alanine dosimeters exposed to TRIGA Mainz reactor.

2015

In this work we report some preliminary results regarding the analysis of electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) response of alanine pellets and alanine pellets added with gadolinium used for dosimetry at the TRIGA research reactor in Mainz, Germany. Two set-ups were evaluated: irradiation inside PMMA phantom and irradiation inside boric acid phantom. We observed that the presence of Gd2O3 inside alanine pellets increases the EPR signal by a factor of 3.45 and 1.24 in case of PMMA and boric acid phantoms, respectively. We can conclude that in the case of neutron beam with a predominant thermal neutron component the addition of gadolinium oxide can significantly improve neutron sensitivity of…

Aminoacid zwitterions in solution : Geometric, energetic, and vibrational analysis using density functional theory-continuum model calculations

1998

Glycine and alanine aminoacids chemistry in solution is explored using a hybrid three parameters density functional (B3PW91) together with a continuum model. Geometries, energies, and vibrational spectra of glycine and alanine zwitterions are studied at the B3PW91/6-31+G∗∗ level and the results compared with those obtained at the HF and MP2/6-31+G∗∗ levels. Solvents effects are incorporated by means of an ellipsoidal cavity model with a multipolar expansion (up to sixth order) of the solute’s electrostatic potential. Our results confirm the validity of the B3PW91 functional for studying aminoacid chemistry in solution. Taking into account the more favorable scaling behavior of density funct…

Sometimes less is more—the impact of the number of His residues on the stability of Zn(ii)–SmtB and BigR4 α-5 domain complexes

2021

The increasing number of antibiotic-resistant pathogens has become one of the major health problems of modern times, including infections caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis. One of the possible mammalian immune system responses to mycobacterial infection is the increase of the zinc(II) concentration in phagosomes to a toxic level. The mycobacterial SmtB protein belongs to the family of ArsR/SmtB transcription regulators. In the presence of high concentrations of metals, SmtB dissociates from DNA and activates the expression of metal efflux proteins. In this work, we focus on the α5 zinc(II) binding domains of SmtB/BigR4 proteins (the latter being the SmtB homolog from non-pathogenic M. sm…

Relationships between oxygen concentration and patterns of energy metabolism in the rotifer Brachionus plicatilis

1992

Abstract 1. 1. Activities of 10 enzymes and accumulation of two metabolites under experimental hypoxia were investigated in the rotifer Brachionus plicatilis . 2. 2. Pyruvate kinase (PK), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), malic enzyme (ME), phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase (PEPCK), malate dehydrogenase (MDH) and fumarase (FUM) activities showed great increase at low oxygen levels. Alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) activity was not detected. 3. 3. Alanine concentration showed an increase with low oxygen concentrations, while alanine aminotransferase (GTP) showed a slight activity increase with oxygen levels. The high alanine concentration was interpreted as enhanced proteolysis. 4. 4. Our results show…

Adsorption Structures of Amino Acids on Calcite(104)

2015

Elucidating the interaction details of proteins with the most stable cleavage plane of calcite , namely calcite(104), is of great importance for understanding the physicochemical mechanisms behind biomineralisation. In this context, amino acids are generally believed to serve as suitable model molecules, as they constitute the basic building blocks of proteins. In this work, we present a non-contact atomic force microscopy (NC-AFM) investigation of the adsorption of five proteinogenic amino acids on calcite(104) under ultra-high vacuum (UHV) conditions. For studying the structures formed from comparatively large amino acids, enantiopure tryptophan, tyrosine and aspartic acid molecules are d…

Pitfalls to be considered on the metabolomic analysis of biological samples by HR-MAS

2014

HR-MAS (High-Resolution Magic AngleSpinning) is considered a powerfultechnique for metabolomic studies ofbiological samples that provides “intact”tissue spectra (Cheng et al., 1998; Waterset al., 2000; Sitter et al., 2002; Martinez-Bisbal et al., 2004; Payne et al., 2006;Coen et al., 2007; Bathen et al., 2010).The performance of HR-MAS, fol-lowed by quantitative histopathology hasdemonstrated that, despite some changes,HR-MAS can preserve approximately thetissue histopathologic features producingwell-resolved spectra of cellular metabo-lites (Cheng et al., 2000). Nevertheless,therearesomeaspectsarousedintheliter-ature about the possible biochemical andstructural changes that can occur durin…

Stereocontrolled synthesis of D-α-hydroxy carboxylic acid from L-amino acids

1987

Abstract Optically active D-α-hydroxy carboxylic acids are obtained from L-amino acids via L-α-halocarboxylic acids and their stereoselective reaction with cesium p-nitrobenzoate.

Phase selection of calcium carbonate through the chirality of adsorbed amino acids.

2007

Determinants of Substrate Specificity in the NS3 Serine Proteinase of the Hepatitis C Virus

1997

AbstractProcessing of the nonstructural polyprotein of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) requires the serine-type proteinase located in the amino-terminal domain of NS3. To identify residues within NS3 determining substrate specificity, a mutation analysis was performed. Using sequence alignments and three-dimensional structure predictions, amino acids assumed to be important for specificity were replaced and the enzymes were tested in an intracellulartrans-processing assay for their effects on cleavage of an NS4B-5B substrate. For some of the substitutions at positions 133, 134, 135, 136, 138, 152, 155, 157, and 169, slightly reduced processing efficiencies were observed but in no case was the s…