Search results for "conformation"

Polymorphisms of β-defensin genes in Valle del Belice dairy sheep

2011

The aim of this work was to study β-defensin 1 (SBD1) and β-defensin 2 (SBD2) genes in Valle del Belice dairy sheep in order to identify polymorphisms that can be utilized as markers of the analyzed genes, and search for the functional effects and roles of the identified polymorphisms (variation of the amino acid sequence of the protein and stability of mRNA molecule). The study was conducted on 300 randomly selected animals belonging to four flocks. A total of seven SNPs were identified, two in SBD1 and five in SBD2. The two SNPs identified in SBD2 coding region, at position 1659 and position 1667, were non-synonymous, leading to amino acid changes in the protein product. Nevertheless, the…

Synthetic vaccines consisting of tumor-associated MUC1 glycopeptide antigens and bovine serum albumin.

2005

Theoretical study on the effect of backbone conformation on the electronic structure of poly(di-n-butylsilane)

1993

Abstract We present the results of valence effective Hamiltonian (VEH) calculations on the electronic structure of poly(di-n-butylsilane) in its all-trans and 7/3 conformations. The band structure of all-trans conformation is analyzed in detail and the effects of the backbone conformation on the electronic and optical properties are studied. The VEH results for the 2/1 and 7/3 conformations are in excellent quantitative agreement with photoemission and UV-absorption data and show the reliability of the VEH method to deal with organopolysilanes.

A new series of π-extended tetrathiafulvalene derivatives incorporating fused furanodithiino and thienodithiino units: a joint experimental and theor…

2004

A new family of tetrathiafulvalenes has been prepared. The materials exhibit complex redox behaviour related to the electronic influence of the 1,4-dithiin moieties embedded within the framework of the molecules. The X-ray crystal structure of compound 4 reveals an unusual non-planar conformation of the heterocyclic compound, with the TTF fragment adopting a boat conformation. Theoretical calculations, performed at the DFT level (B3P86/6-31G*), confirm the boatlike structure (C2v symmetry) as the most stable conformation for this family of tetrathiafulvalenes. Upon oxidation, electrons are extracted from the whole molecule and the radical cations and dications remain highly distorted from p…

Electronic Excitation in a Saturated Chain:  An MS-CASPT2 Treatment of the Anti Conformer of n-Tetrasilane

2000

The singlet−singlet electronic spectrum of the anti conformer of n-tetrasilane has been studied using multiconfigurational wave functions (CASSCF), second-order perturbation theory (CASPT2), and its multi-state extension (MS-CASPT2), in conjunction with large ANO-type basis sets including Rydberg functions. The calculations include the 4s, 4p, and 3d members of the Rydberg series converging on the first ionization. Mixing of valence and Rydberg states observed in the CASSCF wave functions is not fully rectified by single-reference CASPT2 theory, whereas the MS-CASPT2 method separates the valence and Rydberg states effectively. At the MS-CASPT2 level, six valence excited states have been fou…

Calcium-dependent conformational changes of membrane-bound Ebola fusion peptide drive vesicle fusion

2003

AbstractThe fusogenic subdomain of the Ebola virus envelope glycoprotein is an internal sequence located ca. 20 residues downstream the N-terminus of the glycoprotein transmembrane subunit. Partitioning of the Ebola fusion peptide into membranes containing phosphatidylinositol in the absence of Ca2+ stabilizes an α-helical conformation, and gives rise to vesicle efflux but not vesicle fusion. In the presence of millimolar Ca2+ the membrane-bound peptide adopts an extended β-structure, and induces inter-vesicle mixing of lipids. The peptide conformational polymorphism may be related to the flexibility of the virus–cell intermembrane fusogenic complex.

Molecular analysis suggests that recent Citrus tristeza virus outbreaks in Italy were originated by at least two independent introductions

2005

Citrus tristeza virus (CTV) is the causal agent of the most important virus disease of citrus. Numerous CTV isolates differing in biological and molecular characteristics have been reported worldwide. Recently, CTV was detected in Italy in several citrus crops from three separate areas: (1) Cassibile, province of Syracuse; (2) Massafra, province of Taranto; and (3) Belpasso, province of Catania. CTV isolates from Massafra and Cassibile were mild, whereas isolates from Belpasso induced severe symptoms. To study the genetic variation of CTV populations of these areas, 150 samples per area were examined by single strand conformation polymorphism (SSCP) and nucleotide sequence analysis of CTV g…

2019

Negative image-based (NIB) screening is a rigid molecular docking methodology that can also be employed in docking rescoring. During the NIB screening, a negative image is generated based on the target protein’s ligand-binding cavity by inverting its shape and electrostatics. The resulting NIB model is a drug-like entity or pseudo-ligand that is compared directly against ligand 3D conformers, as is done with a template compound in the ligand-based screening. This cavity-based rigid docking has been demonstrated to work with genuine drug targets in both benchmark testing and drug candidate/lead discovery. Firstly, the study explores in-depth the applicability of different ligand 3D conformer…

Purification and structural characterisation of lipid transfer protein from red wine and grapes

2012

Lipid transfer proteins (LTP) play a major role in plant defence and are of particular interest due to their known ability to cause allergic reactions. These proteins are expressed in grapes and also remain detectable after vinification, especially in red wine. However, it remains unknown whether the protein undergoes any changes during the vinification process. Here, we present a purification method for LTPs from Dornfelder grapes and wine. By liquid-chromatography-mass spectroscopy (LC-MS/MS) we identified LTPs from two different species (Vitis vinifera and Vitis aestivalis). Additionally, the purified LTPs were characterised using spectrometric methods, confirming their high purity and s…

Protein dynamics: conformational disorder, vibrational coupling and anharmonicity in deoxy-hemoglobin and myoglobin.

1993

In this work we study the temperature dependence of the Soret band lineshape of deoxymyoglobin and deoxyhemoglobin, in the range 300-20 K. To fit the measured spectra we use an approach originally proposed by Champion and coworkers (Srajer et al. 1986; Srajer and Champion 1991). The band profile is modelled as a Voigt function that accounts for the coupling with low frequency vibrational modes, whereas the coupling with high frequency modes is responsible for the vibronic structure of the spectra. Moreover, owing to the position of the iron atom out of the mean heme plane, inhomogeneous broadening brings about a non-Gaussian distribution of 0-0 electronic transition frequencies. The reporte…