Structural journey of an insecticidal protein against western corn rootworm.

The broad adoption of transgenic crops has revolutionized agriculture. However, resistance to insecticidal proteins by agricultural pests poses a continuous challenge to maintaining crop productivity and new proteins are urgently needed to replace those utilized for existing transgenic traits. We identified an insecticidal membrane attack complex/perforin (MACPF) protein, Mpf2Ba1, with strong activity against the devastating coleopteran pest western corn rootworm (WCR) and a novel site of action.

Efficient interfacial charge transfer through plasmon sensitized Ag@BiO hierarchical photoanodes for photoelectrocatalytic degradation of chlorinated phenols.

The present work demonstrates an extremely proficient and robust study of efficient interfacial charge transfer through plasmonic Ag decorated BiO hierarchical photoanodes for the photoelectrochemical treatment of chlorinated phenols. Unique 2D flake-like BiO hierarchical nanostructures were grown onto a fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) substrate by a simple chemical bath deposition method using triethanolamine as complexing agent. The formation of BiO on FTO was governed by the decomposition of a nucleated bismuth-hydroxyl complex (BiO(OH)) and modification to the electrode was carried out by the deposition of Ag via a chemical reduction method using hydrazine hydrate.

Enhanced sunlight photocatalytic activity of Ag3PO4 decorated novel combustion synthesis derived TiO2 nanobelts for dye and bacterial degradation.

This study demonstrates the synthesis of TiO2 nanobelts using solution combustion derived TiO2 with enhanced photocatalytic activity for dye degradation and bacterial inactivation. Hydrothermal treatment of combustion synthesized TiO2 resulted in unique partially etched TiO2 nanobelts and Ag3PO4 was decorated using the co-precipitation method. The catalyst particles were characterized using X-ray diffraction analysis, BET surface area analysis, diffuse reflectance and electron microscopy.

Biochemical characterization and structural modeling of human cathepsin E variant 2 in comparison to the wild-type protein.

Cathepsin E splice variant 2 appears in a number of gastric carcinomas. Here we report detecting this variant in HeLa cells using polyclonal antibodies and biotinylated inhibitor pepstatin A. An overexpression of GFP fusion proteins of cathepsin E and its splice variant within HEK-293T cells was performed to show their localization.