关于一类二次哈密尔顿系统在二次扰动下的极限环个数问题

本文研究了一类具有两个鞍点和一个中心的通用二次哈密尔顿向量场在二次扰动下的三参数开折，证明极限环的最小上界为２。     

原子力显微镜在生物物理领域的新应用

介绍了原子力显微镜在生物物理领域的最新应用:蛋白质去折叠、DNA拉伸、生物膜受力,通过分析实验得到的力谱,可以获取关于蛋白质、DNA、生物膜结构信息.原子力显微镜不仅能反映测量体系的力学性质,由于其具有独特的时间、空间分辨及实时成像,因而能提供更多信息.     

多个相异性矩阵的数据分析

本文给出了分析多个相异性矩阵的三种方法.首先找到了一种图表示,使我们对所有相异性矩阵有一个总体的了解;其次定义了一个新的相异性矩阵,它可以看作是对所有原始相异性矩阵的一个折衷处理;最后提出了一种MIMU方法.在文中我们还对由上述方法得到的坐标图进行了比较.     

铜离子对烟草多酚氧化酶变性和复性影响的热力学研究(英)

在有无5 mmol·L^-1 CuSO₄存在的两种情况下，运用荧光光谱研究了烟草多酚氧化酶在盐酸胍诱导下的变性和复性平衡。烟草多酚氧化酶在6.0 mol·L^-1盐酸胍变性30 min(25 ℃)即完全失活。荧光光谱结果表明：铜离子能够提高烟草多酚氧化酶的结构稳定性和抗盐酸胍变性的能力，进而影响烟草多酚氧化酶在盐酸胍诱导下的变性和复性过程。没有外源铜存在的情况下，盐酸胍诱导的烟草多酚氧化酶变性和复性是一个可逆的二态过程；在5 mmol·L^-1 CuSO₄存在的条件下，由于结合了Cu²⁺的酶的中间态稳定性增加，显示特征荧光，结果显示，外源铜存在时，盐酸胍诱导的烟草多酚氧化酶变性和复性是一个可逆的三态过程。根据相应模型，进行了热力学计算。上述实验结果得到酶活性测定的进一步证实，在6 mol·L^-1盐酸胍中放置5，10，15，20，25，30 min，烟草多酚氧化酶的剩余活性分别为18.7%，11.7%，8.9%，6.6%，3.6%，0.06%，但在5 mmol·L^-1 CuSO₄存在的条件下，剩余活性则分别为60.3%，44.6%，42.5%，40.2%，25.6%，25.3%。     

Monitoring folding transitions of synthetic,branched-chain polypeptides by capillary zone electrophoresis

The coil/helix transition of a synthetic, branched-chain polymeric polypeptide (poly (Lys(Glu(1)-DL-Ala(3))EAK), 50-Lys residues long in the backbone, as a function of increasing molarities of methanol in solution, is here studied by both, circular dichroism (CD) and capillary zone electrophoresis. CD spectra showed that, at 75% v/v methanol, the transition from random coil to fully helical structure was obtained, in a pH 1.1 HCI solution in the presence of 20 mM NaCI. CZE studies, run in parallel, exhibited the classical unfolding to folding sigmoidal transition, with mid-point at 60% v/v methanol concentration, plateauing at ca. 80% v/v organic solvent. Surprisingly, though, such unfolding to folding transition was accompanied by an expansion, rather than a contraction, of the resulting ordered polypeptide. As the charge of the polypeptide (a pure polycation at a pH of 2.1 in CZE) was kept rigorously constant, a plot of the radius of the polymer along the sigmoidal transition clearly showed that the radius of gyration of the helical, structured polypeptide was in fact larger than that of the random coil. Such results were confirmed by molecular dynamics simulations, which indicated that the dimensions of such polypeptide, in alpha-helix configuration, were 8.5 nm (in length) and 3.2 nm (in diameter), whereas those of the corresponding random coil were 7.2 nm (in length) and 5.1 nm (length of shorter axis). It would thus appear that the randomized structure assumes the shape of a more compact object, roughly resembling a "rugby ball".     

Combined Chemical Modification and Collision Induced Unfolding Using Native Ion Mobility-Mass Spectrometry Provides Insights into Protein Gas-Phase Structure

Native mass spectrometry is now an important tool in structural biology. Thus, the nature of higher protein structure in the vacuum of the mass spectrometer is an area of significant interest. One of the major goals in the study of gas-phase protein structure is to elucidate the stabilising role of interactions at the level of individual amino acid residues. A strategy combining protein chemical modification together with collision induced unfolding (CIU) was developed and employed to probe the structure of compact protein ions produced by native electrospray ionisation. Tractable chemical modification was used to alter the properties of amino acid residues, and ion mobility-mass spectrometry (IM-MS) utilised to monitor the extent of unfolding as a function of modification. From these data the importance of specific intramolecular interactions for the stability of compact gas-phase protein structure can be inferred. Using this approach, and aided by molecular dynamics simulations, an important stabilising interaction between K6 and H68 in the protein ubiquitin was identified, as was a contact between the N-terminus and E22 in a ubiquitin binding protein UBA2.     

Structural Transformation of Bovine Serum Albumin Induced by Dimethyl Sulfoxide and Probed by Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy and Additional Methods

Determining the structure of a protein and its transformation under different conditions is key to understanding its activity. The structural stability and activity of proteins in aqueous–organic solvent mixtures, which is an intriguing topic of research in biochemistry, is dependent on the nature of the protein and the properties of the medium. Herein, the effect of a commonly used cosolvent, dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), on the structure and conformational dynamics of bovine serum albumin (BSA) protein is studied by fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS) measurements on fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC)‐labeled BSA. The FCS study reveals a change of the hydrodynamic radius of BSA from 3.7 nm in the native state to 7.0 nm in the presence of 40 % DMSO, which suggests complete unfolding of the protein under these conditions. Fluorescence self‐quenching of FITC has been exploited to understand the conformational dynamics of BSA. The time constant of the conformational dynamics of BSA is found to change from 35 μs in its native state to 50 μs as the protein unfolds with increasing DMSO concentration. The FCS results are corroborated by the near‐UV circular dichroism spectra of the protein, which suggest a loss of its tertiary structure with increasing concentration of DMSO. The intrinsic fluorescence of BSA and the fluorescence response of 1‐anilinonaphthalene‐8‐sulfonic acid, used as a probe molecule, provide information that is consistent with the FCS measurements, except that aggregation of BSA is observed in the presence of 40 % DMSO in the ensemble measurements.     

Unfolding Features of Bovine Testicular Hyaluronidase Studied by Fluorescence Spectroscopy and Fourier Transformed Infrared Spectroscopy

Chemical unfolding of bovine testicular hyaluronidase (HAase) has been studied by fluorescence spectroscopy and Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). Thermodynamic parameters were determined for unfolding HAase from changes in the intrinsic fluorescence emission intensity and the formations of several possible unfolding intermediates have been identified. This was further confirmed by representation of fluorescence data in terms of ‘phase diagram’. The secondary structures of HAase have been assigned and semiquantitatively estimated from the FTIR. The occurrence of conformational change during chemical unfolding as judged by fluorescence and FTIR spectroscopy indicated that the unfolding of HAase may not follow the typical two-state model.     

Homoclinic Bifurcations in Symmetric Unfoldings of a Singularity with Three-fold Zero Eigenvalue

In this paper we study the singularity at the origin with three-fold zero eigenvalue forsymmetric vector fields with nilpotent linear part and 3-jet C^∞-equivalent to y δ/δx zδ/δy ax^2yδ/δz with a≠0. We first obtain several subfamilies of the symmetric versal unfoldings of this singularityby using the normal form and blow-up methods under some conditions, and derive the local and global bifurcation behavior, then prove analytically the existence of the Sil‘nikov homoclinic bifurcation for some subfamilies of the symmetric versal unfoldings of this singularity, by using the generalized Mel‘nikov methods of a homoclinic orbit to a hyperbolic or non-hyperbolic equilibrium in a highdimensional space.     

Probing the Conformational Stability of Two Different Copper Proteins: A Dynamic Fluorescence Study on Azurin and Ascorbate Oxidase

Tryptophan fluorescence is extremely useful to monitor structural conformational transitions in proteins. Denaturant-induced unfolding of azurin and ascorbate oxidase has been studied by dynamic fluorescence measurements in the frequency domain and the results have been interpreted in terms of continuous distribution of lifetimes. The data add new information on the unfolding mechanism that was previously analyzed by steady-state emission spectroscopy. In particular, the existence of multiple, parallel unfolding pathways may be envisaged and correlated, in both cases, to the two protein structures. The effect of metal depletion has been also characterized by fluorescence lifetime measurements. In the case of azurin, a monomeric protein, the data demonstrate that copper removal yields a totally different unfolding pathways with respect to the holo protein, indicating that metal ion plays a fundamental structural role in the wild type, native protein. In the case of ascorbate oxidase a dimer of 140 kDa, only minor effects have been detected by copper removal. However, the analysis of the fluorescence decay in presence of different amounts of guanidinium hydrochloride gives new important insights on the unfolding intermediates. In particular the data support the hypothesis of a partial exposure of an outer layer of dimer at intermediate denaturant concentration. This ability of dynamic fluorescence to pinpoint the presence of structural micro-heterogeneity in the unfolding pathways of proteins demonstrates the greater power of this technique compared to the most commonly used steady-state measurements.