The effect of amino acid deletions and substitutions in the longest loop of GFP

Background  

The effect of single and multiple amino acid substitutions in the green fluorescent protein (GFP) from Aequorea victoria has been extensively explored, yielding several proteins of diverse spectral properties. However, the role of amino acid deletions in this protein -as with most proteins- is still unknown, due to the technical difficulties involved in generating combinatorial in-phase amino acid deletions on a target region.     

Stabilization of a high energy molecular conformation by specific intermolecular forces, a novel planar benzylideneaniline system

The system containing six benzylideneanilines (BA) has been studied: Group 1:

Lattice systems with a continuous symmetry

We consider perturbations of a massless Gaussian lattice field on ? ^d ,d≧3, which preserves the continuous symmetry of the Hamiltonian, e.g., $$ - H = \sum\limits_{< x,y > } {(\phi _x - \phi _y )^2 + T(\phi _x - \phi _y )^4 ,\phi _x \in \mathbb{R}.} $$ It is known that for allT>0 the correlation functions in this model do not decay exponentially. We derive a power law upper bound for all (truncated) correlation functions. Our method is based on a combination of the log concavity inequalities of Brascamp and Lieb, reflection positivity and the Fortuin, Kasteleyn and Ginibre (F.K.G.) inequalities.     

The preparation of dimolybdenum(V,V) complexes from molybdenum quadruply bonded metal-metal dimers

Oxidation of quadruply bonded metal-metal dimers in the presence of good π-accepting ligands results in the formation of Mo^V---Mo^V compounds of the type [MO₂(μ-X)₂(Y)(Y′)]²⁺ (X = O or S; Y,Y′ = O,O; S,S; O,S). Reaction of MO₂(O₂CCH₃)₄ with oxygen in the presence of Na₂mnt (mnt = 1,2-dicyanoethylene-2,2-dithiolate) gives [MO₂(μ-S)₂(O)(S)(mnt)₂]²⁻ (1). The compound crystallizes in the monoclinic space group P2₁/c, with cell dimensions a = 19.547(4), b = 15.210(4), c = 18.754(6) Å, β = 101.69(2)°, V= 5460(2) ų, and Z = 4. Similarly, oxidation of o-dichlorobenzene solutions of Mo₂Cl₄(CH₃CN)₄ and 4,4′-dimethyl-2,2′-dipyridyl (dmpby) or, more directly, the reaction of Mo₂Cl₄(dmbpy)₂ with oxygen leads to the formation of a red solid, which was characterized by X-ray crystallography to be Mo₂(μ-O)₂(O)₂(Cl)₂(dmbpy)₂ (2). Red diamond crystals, prepared by slow evaporation of CH₃CN solutions of 2, are trigonal and in the space group P3₁21 with cell dimensions a = 16.135(4), b = 16.135(4), c = 10.709(3) Å, V = 2414.4(13) ų and Z = 3. In both structures, the geometry about each of the molybdenum atoms is a distorted square pyramid with terminal oxygen or sulphur atoms at the apices and in a syn conformation. The molybdenum-molybdenum bond distances of 2.858(1) Å and 2.562(2) Å in structures of 1 and 2, respectively, are typical of other Mo^V---Mo^V dimers and indicative of a single Mo---Mo bond.     

Pushing and pulling electrons: the effect on the heat of formation of trifluoromethyl compounds

The effect on heats of formation, of conjoined or proximate functional groups which can interact via polar or resonance effects, is examined using the –CF₃ group as a standard. Two metrics are applied: the difference in heat of formation of G–CF₃ and G–CH₃, where –G is a wide range of functional groups, and also the deviation of the heat of formation of G–CF₃ from the average of the heats of formation of G–G and CF₃–CF₃. This latter metric reveals both stabilizing and destabilizing effects on the heat of formation, of up to 60 kcal/mol, depending on the polar and resonance nature of the –G structure. The possibility of using such metrics as a correction the group additivity values is examined.     

Interplay of thermochemistry and structural chemistry, the journal (volume 24, 2013, issues 1–2) and the discipline

The contents of issues 1 and 2 for the calendar year 2013 are summarized in the current review of the journal Structural Chemistry. In addition, a brief thermochemical commentary is added to the summary of each paper.     

Introduction: María Victoria Roux, colleague, calorimetrist, and friend

This essay is the introductory paper for a special issue of Structural Chemistry explicitly dedicated to the premier Spanish calorimetrist and thermochemist, our colleague and friend, María Victoria Roux. The studies in this issue were written on the occasion of her recent retirement from the CSIC Institute of Physical Chemistry “Rocasolano,” Madrid.     

A Simple Method for Producing Pure (+) trans-1,2-Epoxylimonene

In this paper we report a simple methodology for obtaining (+) trans - 1,2 - epoxylimonene (1b) in high purity (>99% HRGC) and reasonable quantity. The mixture of 1a and 1b in CH₂Cl₂ is stirred with 1M NaHSO₃ in water. Under these conditions 1a is completely destroyed, while 1b is only partially destroyed.     

A comparison principle for functions of a uniformly random subspace

This note demonstrates that it is possible to bound the expectation of an arbitrary norm of a random matrix drawn from the Stiefel manifold in terms of the expected norm of a standard Gaussian matrix with the same dimensions. A related comparison holds for any convex function of a random matrix drawn from the Stiefel manifold. For certain norms, a reversed inequality is also valid.