Nanometer scale organization of mixed surfactin/phosphatidylcholine monolayers.

Mixed monolayers of the surface-active lipopeptide surfactin-C(15) and of dipalmitoyl phosphatidylcholine (DPPC) were deposited on mica and their nanometer scale organization was investigated using atomic force microscopy (AFM) and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). AFM topographic images revealed phase separation for mixed monolayers prepared at 0.1, 0.

Disruption of six ORFs on Saccharomyces cerevisiae chromosome X: the YJL069c gene of unknown function is essential to cell viability.

The short flanking homology PCR strategy (Wach et al., 1994) was used to disrupt six open reading frames (ORFs) on chromosome X of diploid strains (FY1679 and W303) of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Two of the six ORFs analysed (YJL069c and YJL066c) display no similarity to known sequences.

Recombinant production of the p10CKS1At protein from Arabidopsis thaliana and 13C and 15N double-isotopic enrichment for NMR studies.

The CKS1At gene product, p10CKS1At from Arabidopsis thaliana, is a member of the cyclin-dependent kinase subunit (CKS) family of small proteins. These proteins bind the cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK)/cyclin complexes and play an essential, but still not precisely known role in cell cycle progression. To solve the structure of p10CKS1At, a protocol was needed to produce the quantity of protein large enough for nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy.

Identification of cytosolic Mg2+-dependent soluble inorganic pyrophosphatases in potato and phylogenetic analysis.

Using polyclonal antibodies raised against a previously cloned potato Mg2+-dependent soluble inorganic pyrophosphatase (ppa1 gene) [8], a second gene, called ppa2, could be isolated. A single locus homologous to ppa2 was mapped on potato chromosomes, unlinked to the two loci identified for ppa1. From a phylogenetic and structural point of view, the PPA1 and PPA2 polypeptides are more closely related to prokaryotic than to eukaryotic Mg2+-dependent soluble inorganic pyrophosphatases (soluble PPases).

Identification of YHR019 in Saccharomyces cerevisiae chromosome VIII as the gene for the cytosolic asparaginyl-tRNA synthetase.

Exploiting the asparagine auxotrophy of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae mutant strain 8556a, we have isolated the gene for the cytosolic asparaginyl-tRNA synthetase (AsnRS) of S. cerevisiae, by functional complementation of the mutation affecting this strain. The isolated gene could be identified to the open reading frame YHR019, called DED81, located on chromosome VIII.

IMPALA: a simple restraint field to simulate the biological membrane in molecular structure studies.

The lipid bilayer is crucial for the folding of integral membrane proteins. This article presents an empirical method to account for water-lipid interfaces in the insertion of molecules interacting with bilayers. The interactions between the molecule and the bilayer are described by restraint functions designed to mimic the membrane effect.

Assessment of patch quality by ladybirds: role of larval tracks.

Gravid females of the two-spot ladybird, Adalia bipunctata (L.), were deterred from ovipositing when kept in petri dishes that had previously contained conspecific larvae but not conspecific adults, or the larvae of another two species of ladybird, Adalia decempunctata (L.) and Coccinella septempunctata L.

Mitochondrial asparaginyl-tRNA synthetase is encoded by the yeast nuclear gene YCR24c.

One of the open reading frames located on yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae chromosome III, YCR24c, appeared to code for a protein of unknown function, but the predicted sequence showed similarity with asparaginyl-tRNA synthetase from Escherichia coli, with 38% amino acid identity. There is a putative mitochondrial targeting signal at the N-terminus of the YCR24c product. Northern blot analysis of total RNA from a wild-type strain sigma1278b confirmed that YCR24c was transcribed.

[Prions and the problems they raise].

A prion is an "infectious" protein. Most probably, prions play a major role, direct or indirect, in the propagation of neurodegenerative diseases such as spongiform encephalopathies. By extension, the term prion is also used to explain several cases of dominant cytoplasmic heredity known in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

The sequence of an 11.1 kb DNA fragment between ADH4 and ADE5 on the left arm of chromosome VII reveals the presence of eight open reading frames.

The complete sequence of a 11, 132 bp segment located on the left arm of chromosome VII of Saccharomyces cerevisiae has been determined and analysed. Eight open reading frames (ORFs) of at least 100 amino acids were identified. Five show similarities to known amino acid sequences.

Estimation of genetic parameters for growth, feed consumption, and conformation traits for double-muscled Belgian blue bulls performance-tested in Belgium.

For 1,442 Belgian Blue bulls performance-tested at the Centre de Sélection de la Race Blanc-Bleue Belge, nine traits were observed: height at withers at 7 mo, height at withers at 13 mo, weight at 7 mo, weight at 13 mo, average feed consumption of concentrates, average daily gain, average feed consumption of concentrates per average daily gain, average feed consumption of concentrates per mean metabolic weight, and price per kilogram of live weight. This price is based on muscle conformation and is therefore used as muscle conformation score. Restricted maximum likelihood with a derivative-free algorithm was used to estimate (co)variance components because there were different models and missing values per trait.