Purification, biochemical and biophysical characterization of an acidic α-galactosidase from the seeds of Annona squamosa (custard apple).

Alpha galactosidase is an exoglycosidase that cleaves α-D-galactose and has numerous applications in medicine, biotechnology, food and pharma industries. In this study, a low molecular weight acidic α-galactosidase was identified from the seeds of custard apple. The purification of α-galactosidase from the crude extract of defatted seeds was achieved by employing ammonium sulphate fractionation, hydrophobic interaction and gel filtration chromatographic techniques.

Truncated domains of human serum albumin improves the binding efficiency of uremic toxins: A surface plasmon resonance and computational approach.

Albumin binding is the major cause for the toxicity of protein bound uremic toxins (PBUTs) in uremic patients. Albumin binding property is exploited to address this issue, as some of the extracorporeal dialysis systems use albumin as dialysate. In this line, a detailed study about binding of PBUTs to human serum albumin (HSA) and its domains gives valuable information.

Role of Herborn (K240E) and Milano Slow (D375H) human serum albumin variants towards binding of phenylbutazone and ibuprofen.

Human serum albumin (HSA) is the binding cargo in blood plasma. The binding of drugs to HSA determines the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of the drugs. There are 67 natural genetic variants of HSA were reported in literature.

Exploration of binding studies of β-oxalyldiamino propionic acid (β-ODAP), a non-protein amino acid with human serum albumin-biophysical and computational approach.

Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma.

Changes in the photosynthetic apparatus and lipid droplet formation in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii under iron deficiency.

The unicellular photosynthetic alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii was propagated in iron deficiency medium and patterns of growth, photosynthetic efficiency, lipid accumulation, as well as the expression of lipid biosynthetic and photosynthesis-related proteins were analysed and compared with iron-sufficient growth conditions. As expected, the photosynthetic rate was reduced (maximally after 4 days of growth) as a result of increased non-photochemical quenching (NPQ). Surprisingly, the stress-response protein LHCSR3 was expressed in conditions of iron deficiency that cause NPQ induction.

Human Naa50 Protein Displays Broad Substrate Specificity for Amino-terminal Acetylation: DETAILED STRUCTURAL AND BIOCHEMICAL ANALYSIS USING TETRAPEPTIDE LIBRARY.

Amino-terminal acetylation is a critical co-translational modification of the newly synthesized proteins in a eukaryotic cell carried out by six amino-terminal acetyltransferases (NATs). All NATs contain at least one catalytic subunit, and some contain one or two additional auxiliary subunits. For example, NatE is a complex of Naa10, Naa50, and Naa15 (auxiliary).

Investigation of anion-π interactions involving thiophene walls incorporated calix[4]pyrroles.

Thiophene containing "two-wall" aryl extended calix[4]pyrroles were synthesized for the first time, through acid catalyzed condensation of 2-acetylthiophenes with pyrrole. Isomeric "two-walled" calix[4]pyrroles (8a-10a and 8b-10b) were obtained in satisfactory yields and their halide anion binding strengths were investigated in the solution phase by (1)H NMR and in the gas phase by computational methods and mass spectrometry. Change in the chemical shifts of thiophene -CH-protons during the course of NMR titrations entailed participation of the thiophene rings in anion binding; this fact was further substantiated by computational methods.

Evaluating the cation binding strength and selectivity of calix[4]pyrroles: a computational and ESI-MS/MS study.

The cation binding strength of calix[4]pyrroles in the gas phase has been evaluated by computational studies and further substantiated by ESI mass spectrometry experiments. The DFT optimized geometries of [CP + X](+) complexes are found to be stable in a 1,3-alternate conformation through cation-π interactions and interestingly CPs are found to be better cation receptor than calix[4]arenes. The binding energy values of [CP + X](+) complexes computed at B2PLYP/TZVP//M05-2X/TZVP follows the binding order, Li(+) > Na(+) > K(+) > Rb(+) > Cs(+).