WAFs lead molting retardation of naupliar stages with down-regulated expression profiles of chitin metabolic pathway and related genes in the copepod Tigriopus japonicus.

Oil pollution is considered being disastrous to marine organisms and ecosystems. As molting is critical in the developmental process of arthropods in general and copepods, in particular, the impact will be adverse if the target of spilled oil is on molting. Thus, we investigated the harmful effects of water accommodated fractions (WAFs) of crude oil with an emphasis on inhibition of chitin metabolic pathways related genes and developmental retardation in the copepod Tigriopus japonicus.

Genome-wide identification of nuclear receptor (NR) superfamily genes in the copepod Tigriopus japonicus.

Background: Nuclear receptors (NRs) are a large superfamily of proteins defined by a DNA-binding domain (DBD) and a ligand-binding domain (LBD). They function as transcriptional regulators to control expression of genes involved in development, homeostasis, and metabolism. The number of NRs differs from species to species, because of gene duplications and/or lineage-specific gene losses during metazoan evolution.

Necessary and sufficient conditions for the asymmetric synthesis of chiral amines using ω-aminotransferases.

The half reactions of ω-aminotransferase (ω-AT) from Vibrio fluvialis JS17 (ω-ATVf) were carried out using purified pyridoxal 5'-phosphate-enzyme (PLP-Enz) and pyridoxamine 5'-phosphate-enzyme (PMP-Enz) complexes to investigate the relative activities of substrates. In the reaction generating PMP-Enz from PLP-Enz using L-alanine as an amine donor, L-alanine showed about 70% of the initial reaction rate of (S)-α-methylbenzylamine ((S)-α-MBA). However, in the subsequent half reaction recycling PLP-Enz from PMP-Enz using acetophenone as an amine acceptor, acetophenone showed nearly negligible reactivity compared to pyruvate.

Bacterial surface display of GFP(uv) on bacillus subtilis spores.

To analyze a cotG-based Bacillus subtilis spore display system directly, GFP(uv) was expressed on the surface of Bacillus subtilis spores. When GFP(uv) was fused to the C-terminal of the cotG structural gene and expressed, the existence of a CotG-GFP(uv) fusion protein on the B. subtilis spore was confirmed by flow cytometry confocal microscopic analysis.

Cloning and characterization of a novel beta-transaminase from Mesorhizobium sp. strain LUK: a new biocatalyst for the synthesis of enantiomerically pure beta-amino acids.

A novel beta-transaminase gene was cloned from Mesorhizobium sp. strain LUK. By using N-terminal sequence and an internal protein sequence, a digoxigenin-labeled probe was made for nonradioactive hybridization, and a 2.