Effect of polyelectrolytes on (de)stability of liquid foam films.

The review addresses the influence of polyelectrolytes on the stabilisation of free-standing liquid foam films, which affects the stability of a whole macroscopic foam. Both the composition of the film surface and the stratification of the film bulk drives the drainage and the interfacial forces within a foam film. Beside synthetic polyelectrolytes also natural polyelectrolytes like cellulose, proteins and DNA are considered.

ScCypB is a novel second cytosolic cyclophilin from Streptomyces chrysomallus which is phylogenetically distant from ScCypA.

A novel second streptomycete cyclophilin gene-designated sccypB-was isolated from a cosmid gene library of Streptomyces chrysomallus by using as gene probe a fragment of the previously isolated cyclophilin gene sccypA of the same organism. From its sequence the gene sccypB should encode a protein of M(r) 18868. Expression of sccypB in Escherichia coli as a hexaHis-tagged fusion protein (H6ScCypB) and enzymic characterization of the purified protein showed that, like ScCypA, ScCypB is a peptidyl-prolyl cis-trans isomerase (PPIase).

Peptides.

If we include beta-lactam antibiotics on the grounds that they have the same biosynthetic origin, peptides remain commercially the most important group of pharmaceuticals. However, our increasing knowledge of the genetic and enzymic background to biosynthesis, and of the regulation of metabolite production, will eventually bring a more unified approach to bioactive compounds. Mixing of structural types will become important, and we will be able to use our knowledge of biosynthetic genes and their regulatory networks.