Publications by authors named "Nanditha Vaidyanathan"
Based on in silico docking methods, five amino acids in glutamate synthase (Gln-467, His-1144, Asn-1147, Arg-1162, and Trp-676) likely constitute key binding residues in the interface of a glutamate synthase:ferredoxin complex. Although all interfacial mutants studied showed the ability to form a complex under low ionic strength, these docking mutations showed significantly less ferredoxin-dependent activities, while still retaining enzymatic activity. Furthermore, isothermal titration calorimetry showed a possible 1:2 molar ratio between the wild-type glutamate synthase and ferredoxin.
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- Scientists studied a special part of a protein called a loop that is found in certain enzymes in plants, which helps them use energy from another molecule called ferredoxin.
- They made a version of this enzyme without the loop and found that it worked even better than the normal one when using reduced ferredoxin.
- The results show that the loop might not be needed for the enzyme to work well with ferredoxin, as computer models suggest it doesn’t interact directly with the loop.
Sphingolipids, a family of membrane lipids, are bioactive molecules that participate in diverse functions controlling fundamental cellular processes such as cell division, differentiation, and cell death. Given that most of these cellular processes form the basis for several pathologies, it is not surprising that sphingolipids are key players in several pathological processes. This review discusses the role of the sphingolipid metabolic pathway in diabetes, Alzheimer's disease, and hepatocellular carcinoma, with a special emphasis on the changes in gene expression pattern in these disease conditions.
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