[Carbon accumulation in soils of forest and bog ecosystems of southern Valdai in the Holocene].

Carbon stocks and accumulation rates in humus and peat horizons of the contiguous soil series of forest and bog ecosystems have been studied in the Central Forest State Biosphere Reserve (CFSBR, Tver region). Upland soil types (soddy podzolic, brown, and white podzolic) have been compared to waterlogged (peaty gley podzolic and peaty gley) and bog soils differing in trophic status, including those of raised, transitional, and lowland bogs. The results show that carbon stocks in mineral soils are many times smaller than in waterlogged soils and an order of magnitude smaller than in bog soils.

[A new bromine-containing reagent for cysteine modification].

5-Bromo-2[(2-iodoacetyl)amino]benzenesulfonic acid (AIBSA), a reagent for modification of free of cysteine thiol groups in proteins and peptides, was synthesized. Rate constants of its interaction with thiol groups were determined. The presence of a bromine atom allows an easy identification of the AIBSA-labeled peptides in mass spectra due to the characteristic isotope distribution.

[Conservative motif CMLD in silicic acid transport proteins of diatom algae].

Sequencing of fragments of genes coding for silicic acid transport (SIT) proteins of diatoms of evolutionary distant classes (centric Chaetoceros muelleri Lemmermann, pennate araphid Synedra acus Kützing, pennate raphid Phaeodactylum tricornutum Bohlin, and pennate with keeled raphe system Cylindrotheca fusiformis Reimann et Lewin), revealed the presence in these proteins of a conservative amino acid motif CMLD. Hydropathy profiles suggest that CMLD occupies a position between two transmembrane strands which do not contain lysine and arginine residues. The two strands are good candidates for the role of the channel along which transport of silicic acid occurs.