Experimental Study on the Effect of Ammonia on Combustion and Emission Characteristics of a Spark Ignition Engine Fueled with Hydrogen.

Using hydrogen and its compounds as fuel is one of the key ways to achieve zero carbon emissions in internal combustion engines. Due to the difference in fuel properties of hydrogen and ammonia, mixing the two can make up for each other's shortcomings in combustion performance. Therefore, this paper studies the effects of ammonia addition on the combustion and emission characteristics of a SI commercial hydrogen engine, and studies the differences in these effects under different excess air ratios.

Functional analysis of PI-like gene in relation to flower development from bamboo (Bambusa oldhamii).

Bamboo flowering owns many unique characteristics and remains a mystery. To investigate the molecular mechanisms underlying flower development in bamboo, a petal-identity gene was identified as a PISTILLATA homologue named BoPI from Bambusa oldhamii (bamboo family). Expression analysis showed that BoPI was highly expressed in flower organs and gradually increased during flower development stage, suggesting that BoPI played an important role in flower development.

A long downstream probe-based platform for multiplex target capture.

A simple and rapid detection platform was established for multiplex target capture through generating single-strand long downstream probe (ssLDP), which was integrated with the ligase detection reaction (LDR) method for the purpose of multiplicity and high specificity. To increase sensitivity, the ladder-like polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplicons were generated by using universal primers that complement ligated products. Each of the amplicons contained a stuffer sequence with a defined yet variable length.

Purification and characterization of the plastid-localized NAD-dependent malate dehydrogenase from Arabidopsis thaliana.

Malate dehydrogenase (MDH) ubiquitously exists in living organisms and has many isoforms in a single species. MDHs from some classes have been characterized for their catalytic properties, which show significant variations despite that they share high sequence identity for the active sites. One class MDH, the plastid-localized NAD-dependent MDH (plNAD-MDH) is known to be important for plant survival in a dark environment, but its biochemical and enzymatic properties have not been well characterized.

Purification and characterization of Cyclin-H1 from Arabidopsis thaliana.

Cyclin H (CycH), a member of the large cyclin family, participates in every process of cell division. Its biological functions and importance have received wide attention in mammalians, but not in higher plants. This work reports a protein purification protocol for obtaining Arabidopsis CycH;1 (AtCycH;1) from prokaryotic expression system, followed by characterization of its biophysical properties.

SVP-like MADS-box protein from Carya cathayensis forms higher-order complexes.

To properly regulate plant flowering time and construct floral pattern, MADS-domain containing transcription factors must form multimers including homo- and hetero-dimers. They are also active in forming hetero-higher-order complexes with three to five different molecules. However, it is not well known if a MADS-box protein can also form homo-higher-order complex.

Structural insight into the conformational change of alcohol dehydrogenase from Arabidopsis thaliana L. during coenzyme binding.

Alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH, EC 1.1.1.

Molecular characterization and expression analysis of the critical floral genes in hickory (Carya cathayensis Sarg.).

The full ORFs of three floral genes in hickory (Carya cathayensis Sarg.), CcAGL24 (the AGAMOUS-LIKE24 homolog), CcSOC1 (the SUPPRESSOR OF OVEREXPRESSION OF CONSTANS1 homolog) and CcAP1 (the APETALA1 homolog) are derived using a 5' RACE PCR protocol. Through sequence alignment and phylogenetic analysis, it is demonstrated that the three genes belong to the MADS-Box family.

Heterologous expression, purification, crystallization and preliminary X-ray diffraction analysis of KDO8P synthase from Arabidopsis thaliana.

3-Deoxy-d-manno-octulosonate 8-phosphate synthase (KDO8PS) [EC 4.1.2.

[Cloning and functional analysis of Phyllostachys edulis MYB transcription factor PeMYB2].

MYB-type transcription factor is one of the largest families in plants, which plays important roles in accepting stress signals from environment and regulating the expression of stress-tolerant genes. In this paper, using homologous cloning and RACE technology, a MYB-type transcription factor, designated PeMYB2, was cloned from Phyllostachys edulis. The results of bioinformatics showed that PeMYB2 is a typical R2R3-MYB.

Overexpression, crystallization and preliminary X-ray crystallographic analysis of release factor eRF1-1 from Arabidopsis thaliana.

Peptide release factor 1 (RF1) regulates the termination of translation in protein synthesis by recognizing the stop codons. The eukaryotic RF1s (eRF1s) from Arabidopsis thaliana and human have different stop-codon preferences even though they share high sequence similarity. Based on known RF1 structures, it has been suggested that the specificity depends on both the local structure and the domain arrangement, but the lack of a structure of Arabidopsis eRF1 hinders a detailed comparison.

Purification and enzymatic characterization of alcohol dehydrogenase from Arabidopsis thaliana.

Alcohol dehydrogenases (ADH) catalyze the interconversion between alcohols and aldehydes with the reduction of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD(+)) to NADH. In this study, for the first time we report an over-expression and purification strategy for the Arabidosis thaliana ADH (AtADH), and characterize its enzymatic properties. AtADH was expressed in an Escherichia coli system, the polyhistidine-tag was removed after the recombinant AtADH protein was purified by metal chelating affinity chromatography.

Crystal structure of HsEg5 in complex with clinical candidate CK0238273 provides insight into inhibitory mechanism, potency, and specificity.

HsEg5 is an important mitotic kinesin responsible for bipolar spindle formation at early mitosis. A rich body of evidence shows that inhibition of HsEg5 can result in mitotic arrest followed by cellular apoptosis. Recently identified HsEg5 inhibitor, CK0238273, exhibits potent antitumor activity and is currently in clinical trial.

Crystal structures of a Formin Homology-2 domain reveal a tethered dimer architecture.

Formin proteins participate in a wide range of cytoskeletal processes in all eukaryotes. The defining feature of formins is a highly conserved approximately 400 residue region, the Formin Homology-2 (FH2) domain, which has recently been found to nucleate actin filaments. Here we report crystal structures of the S.

A conserved mechanism for Bni1- and mDia1-induced actin assembly and dual regulation of Bni1 by Bud6 and profilin.

Formins have conserved roles in cell polarity and cytokinesis and directly nucleate actin filament assembly through their FH2 domain. Here, we define the active region of the yeast formin Bni1 FH2 domain and show that it dimerizes. Mutations that disrupt dimerization abolish actin assembly activity, suggesting that dimers are the active state of FH2 domains.

Homotetrameric structure of the SNAP-23 N-terminal coiled-coil domain.

SNARE proteins mediate intracellular membrane fusion by forming a coiled-coil complex to merge opposing membranes. A "fusion-active" neuronal SNARE complex is a parallel four-helix bundle containing two coiled-coil domains from SNAP-25 and one coiled-coil domain each from syntaxin-1a and VAMP-2. "Prefusion" assembly intermediate complexes can also form from these SNAREs.

An extensively associated dimer in the structure of the C713S mutant of the TIR domain of human TLR2.

The Toll/interleukin-1 receptor (TIR) domains are conserved modules in the intracellular regions of the Toll-like receptors (TLRs) and interleukin-1 receptors (IL-1Rs). The domains are crucial for the signal transduction by these receptors, through homotypic interactions among the receptor and the downstream adapter TIR domains. Previous studies showed that the BB loop in the structure of the TIR domain forms a prominent conserved feature on the surface and is important for receptor signaling.

Structure-based mutational and functional analysis identify human NM23-H2 as a multifunctional enzyme.

The human NM23-H2 protein is a transcriptional regulator (PuF) that binds and cleaves DNA via covalent bond formation, and also catalyzes phosphoryl transfer (NDP kinase). Our previous work has identified two separate DNA-binding regions on NM23-H2/PuF: a sequence-dependent DNA-binding surface involving residues Arg34, Asn69, and Lys134 on the equator of the hexameric protein and a covalent DNA-binding site involving Lys12 located in the nucleotide-binding site, the site of the NDP kinase reaction. To understand the role of the nucleotide-binding site in the DNA cleavage reaction and to establish a connection between the nuclease and the NDP kinase activities, we used the known crystal structure of NM23-H2 complexed with GDP as the basis for site-directed mutagenesis.