Effect of linearly polarized microwaves on nanomorphology of calcium carbonate mineralization using peptides.

Microwaves are used for diverse applications such as mobile phones, ovens, and therapy devices. However, there are few reports on the effects of microwaves on diseases other than cancer, and on physiological processes. Here, we focused on CaCO mineralization as a model of biomineralization and attempted to elucidate the effect of microwaves on CaCO mineralization using peptides.

Modification of the N-Terminus of a Calcium Carbonate Precipitating Peptide Affects Calcium Carbonate Mineralization.

Background: A core sequence (the 9 C-terminal residues) of calcification-associated peptide (CAP- 1) isolated from the exoskeleton of the red swamp crayfish was previously shown to control calcium carbonate precipitation with chitin. In addition, a modified core sequence in which the phosphorylated serine at the N terminus is replaced with serine exhibits was also previously shown to alter precipitation characteristics with chitin.

Objectives: We focused on calcium carbonate precipitation and attempted to elucidate aspects of the mechanism underlying mineralization.

pc1 and psc1, zebrafish homologs of Drosophila Polycomb and Posterior sex combs, encode nuclear proteins capable of complex interactions.

Drosophila Polycomb group proteins are thought to form multimeric nuclear complexes that are responsible for stable transmission of repressed states of gene expression during the proliferation of differentiating embryos. In this study, we cloned, sequenced, and characterized two Polycomb group homologs, designated pc1 and psc1, in zebrafish. Amino acid sequence analyses determined that pc1 is a structural homolog of Drosophila Polycomb and that psc1 is a homolog of Drosophila Posterior sex combs.