Microbe-derived enzymes such as xylanases, cellulases and amylases, are efficient at hydrolyzing plant biomass. Efforts to harness the functionalities of these enzymes towards applications in energy and fuel biosciences, and food and nutrition, continue apace in many laboratories. Given that enzymes derived from mesophile proteomes undergo facile denaturation and/or degradation at ambient temperatures, and require frequent replenishment during bioprocessing, it is desirable that they be replaced by structurally-stable enzymes capable of functioning efficiently and resisting denaturation and degradation, immobilized on solid media to further add to stability and facilitate recovery and reuse.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: To examine the potential for applications of TthLAC, a monomeric (~ 53 kDa) laccase encoded by the genome of Thermus thermophilus (strain HB 27) which can be produced at low cost in Escherichia coli.
Result: Functional, thermostable and mildly alkalophilic TthLAC of high purity (> 90%) was produced through simple heating of suspended (TthLAC overexpressing) E.coli cells at 65 °C.
The self-assembly of proteins triggered by a conformational switch into highly ordered β-sheet rich amyloid fibrils has captivated burgeoning interest in recent years due to the involvement of amyloids in a variety of human diseases and a diverse range of biological functions. Here, we have investigated the mechanism of fibrillogenesis of human serum albumin (HSA), an all-α-helical protein, using an array of biophysical tools that include steady-state as well as time-resolved fluorescence, circular dichroism and Raman spectroscopy in conjunction with atomic force microscopy (AFM). Investigations into the temporal evolution of nanoscale morphology using AFM revealed the presence of ring-like intermediates that subsequently transformed into worm-like fibrils presumably by a ring-opening mechanism.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAlkaline protease from brinjal leaf () having milk clotting activity has been purified to 9.44 fold to a final specific activity of 45.71 U/mg.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFStability and unfolding of mammalian and microbial α-amylases have been intensively investigated. However, there is only limited information available on the structural stability of plant α-amylases, namely of the two isoenzymes from barley AMY1 and AMY2, of the α-amylase from mung bean (Vigna radiata), and of the α-amylase from malted sorghum (Sorghum bicolor). We report here the stability of soyabean α-amylase (GMA), against elevated temperatures and chemical denaturants (GndHCl) by employing circular dichroism and fluorescence spectroscopy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFStarch hydrolyzing amylase from germinated soybeans seeds (Glycine max) has been purified 400-fold to electrophoretic homogeneity with a final specific activity of 384 units/mg. SDS-PAGE of the final preparation revealed a single protein band of 100 kDa, whereas molecular mass was determined to be 84 kDa by MALDI-TOF and gel filtration on Superdex-200 (FPLC). The enzyme exhibited maximum activity at pH 5.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFExtreme thermostabilities of proteins can be achieved by binding co-factors to the protein structures. For various alpha-amylases protein stabilization upon calcium binding is a well-known phenomenon. In the present study the mechanism of stabilization of three homologous alpha-amylases was investigated by measuring the unfolding kinetics with CD spectroscopy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: Current methods of classification of astrocytoma based on histopathologic methods are often subjective and less accurate. Although patients with glioblastoma have grave prognosis, significant variability in patient outcome is observed. Therefore, the aim of this study was to identify glioblastoma diagnostic and prognostic markers through microarray analysis.
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