Theoretical prediction of the protein–protein interaction between Arabidopsis thaliana COP1 and UVR8

In plants, ultraviolet-B radiation (280–315 nm) regulates gene expression and plant morphology through the UV RESPONSE LOCUS 8 (UVR8) photoreceptor. The first signaling event after quantal absorbance is the interaction of the UVR8 C-terminus with the E3 ubiquitin ligase CONSTITUTIVELY PHOTOMORPHOGENIC 1 (COP1). The nature of the interaction between these two proteins is hitherto unknown. A protein homology model of the Arabidopsis thaliana COP1 seven-bladed propeller WD40 repeat domain and de novo folds of the C-terminal 27 amino acid (amino acids 397–423) peptide of Arabidopsis UVR8 (UVR8^397?423) is herein reported. Using a theoretical computational docking protocol, the interaction between COP1 and UVR8 was predicted. A core motif was identified in UVR8^397?423 comprising adjacent hydrophobic residues V410 and P411 together with a charged residue D412, homologous to corresponding motifs in other COP1-binding proteins, such as ELONGATED HYPOCOTYL 5 (HY5), cryptochrome 1 (CRY1), and salt tolerance proteins STO/STH. The protein–protein interaction between the COP1 WD40 repeat domain and UVR8^397?423 reveals binding within a region of COP1 overlapping with the binding site for HY5 and the other COP1-interacting proteins. This study provides a framework for understanding docking between UVR8 and COP1, which in turn gives clues for experimental testing of UVR8/COP1 interaction.     

Cone motion viscosity and optical second harmonic generation of ferroelectric liquid crystalline dendrimers

We report second harmonic generation in a ferroelectric liquid crystalline trimer and ferroelectric liquid crystalline dendrimers of first, second and third generation. Thin cells were filled with the compounds by capillary forces at elevated temperature, and cooled from the surface stabilized ferroelectric state to below the glass transition temperature, while kept in an electric field. The cone motion viscosity and the threshold electric field for unwinding of the helix axis of the chiral tilted smectic mesophases were studied separately at elevated temperature, and these data were used to optimize the preparation of the films. The measured response time was between 0.3 and 3ms, which corresponds to a cone motion viscosity between 0.5 and 50 Pa s. Second harmonic generation was studied both at elevated temperature with an electric field and at room temperature with and without electric field. The first generation dendrimer exhibited a strong increase in the second order non-linear optical response with time at room temperature. The d ₂₃-coefficient of this dendrimer was approximately four times larger than for the other macromolecules and was 0.045 pm V^-1. The relatively large d-coefficient of the first generation dendrimer is ascribed to crystallization, which improved the orientation of the molecular dipoles.     

Asymmetric Organocatalytic Homologation: Access to Diverse Chiral Trifluoromethyl Organoboron Species

A broad range of aliphatic, aromatic, and heterocyclic boronic acids were successfully homologated using trifluorodiazoethane in the presence of BINOL derivatives to provide the corresponding chiral trifluoromethyl containing boronic acid derivatives in high yields and excellent enantioselectivity. The in situ conversion of the chiral transient boronic acids to the corresponding alcohols or β-CF3 carboxylates are also demonstrated.     

Stability Enhancement of a Dimeric HER2-Specific Affibody Molecule through Sortase A-Catalyzed Head-to-Tail Cyclization

Natural backbone-cyclized proteins have an increased thermostability and resistance towards proteases, characteristics that have sparked interest in head-to-tail cyclization as a method to stability-enhance proteins used in diagnostics and therapeutic applications, for example. In this proof-of principle study, we have produced and investigated a head-to-tail cyclized and HER2-specific Z_HER2:342 Affibody dimer. The sortase A-mediated cyclization reaction is highly efficient (>95%) under optimized conditions, and renders a cyclic Z_HER3:342-dimer with an apparent melting temperature, T_m, of 68 °C, which is 3 °C higher than that of its linear counterpart. Circular dichroism spectra of the linear and cyclic dimers looked very similar in the far-UV range, both before and after thermal unfolding to 90 °C, which suggests that cyclization does not negatively impact the helicity or folding of the cyclic protein. The cyclic dimer had an apparent sub-nanomolar affinity (K_d ~750 pM) to the HER2-receptor, which is a ~150-fold reduction in affinity relative to the linear dimer (K_d ~5 pM), but the anti-HER2 Affibody dimer remained a high-affinity binder even after cyclization. No apparent difference in proteolytic stability was detected in an endopeptidase degradation assay for the cyclic and linear dimers. In contrast, in an exopeptidase degradation assay, the linear dimer was shown to be completely degraded after 5 min, while the cyclic dimer showed no detectable degradation even after 60 min. We further demonstrate that a site-specifically DyLight 594-labeled cyclic dimer shows specific binding to HER2-overexpressing cells. Taken together, the results presented here demonstrate that head-to-tail cyclization can be an effective strategy to increase the stability of an Affibody dimer.     

Many-body approach to spin-dependent transport in quantum dot systems

By means of a diagram technique for Hubbard operators, we show the existence of a spin-dependent renormalization of the localized levels in an interacting region, e.g., quantum dot, modeled by the Anderson Hamiltonian with two conduction bands. It is shown that the renormalization of the levels with a given spin direction is due to kinematic interactions with the conduction subbands of the opposite spin. The consequence of this dressing of the localized levels is a drastically decreased tunneling current for ferromagnetically ordered leads compared to that of paramagnetically ordered leads. Furthermore, the studied system shows a spin-dependent resonant tunneling behavior for ferromagnetically ordered leads.     

Discharges in the JET tokamak where the safety factor profile is identified as the critical factor for triggering internal transport barriers

Joint European Torus discharges which demonstrate the critical role the safety factor profile, q, can play in the formation of internal transport barriers (ITB) are examined. In these discharges, the target parameters, including the E x B flows, were kept virtually the same, except for the q profile. In a discharge with a nonmonotonic q, an ITB was triggered whereas a discharge with monotone q made no such transition. Thus, there is strong evidence that the q profile was the critical factor for the triggering of an ITB. Possible interpretations of this finding are discussed.     

Effects of feedback from collimating, focusing, and spot-array generating outcoupler gratings in surface-emitting semiconductor lasers

We experimentally demonstrate that a grating outcoupler used for complex beam shaping (spot-array generation) can produce unintentional optical feedback that severely disturbs the integrated in-plane laser that illuminates the coupler. Simulations show that these outcouplers, in contrast to conventional collimating or focusing outcouplers, tend to produce high levels of feedback in spite of the detuning used to suppress feedback. Further, this feedback is focused to high intensity in the laser gain medium. This focused light acts as a seed for the nonlinear self-focusing that causes wave-front distortion and filamentation, which degrades the beam quality.     

On smoothing of pulp quality characteristics in a flow system

In this paper the mixing effect of a new flow system of large pulp reservoirs is investigated. The analogy of the reservoir and an information channel is pointed out. Especially, the transfer function of the channel is derived and the calculation of this function by high-speed computers is given.The cases where the quality of the stream changes discontinuously (chemical pulp) or continuously (mechanical pulp) are investigated separately. In the former case a quantity for the mixing effect is defined.     

Cross sections and isomeric ratios in the photoproduction of 44Sc from heavier nuclei

The yields and isomeric yield ratios in the photoproduction of⁴⁴Sc from ⁴⁵Sc, ⁵⁵Mn, Fe, ⁵⁹Co and ⁷⁵As have been measured by activation methods in the energy region 100–800 MeV. Mean cross sections and isomeric cross-section ratios in the energy region 250–800 MeV have been deduced and the number of valence neutrons available for the (γ, n) reaction estimated. The experimental cross sections are compared both to cascade-evaporation calculations based upon the free-nucleon photopion cross sections and to cross sections calculated with a semi-empirical formula. The isomeric cross-section ratios are compared to calculations based on the statistical formalism by Huizenga and Vandenbosch together with cascade-evaporation theory.