NMR analysis and triad sequence distributions of poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate)

Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) are considered promising “green” alternatives to synthetic polymers because they are bio-derived, biodegradable and biocompatible. The properties of bacterial PHA copolymers depend on their microstructures, which can be modified with the use of different fermentation processes and feed materials. Thus, it is desirable to have an improved testing method for the determination of PHA microstructures. In this work, a detailed NMR analysis of poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate) microstructure was made. Previously only two of the hydroxyvalerate ¹³C NMR peaks have been assigned at the triad level. In this work, three of the ¹³C hydroxyvalerate peaks and two of the hydroxybutyrate peaks were found to be split into four peaks each due to comonomer sequence effects. Using eight copolymer samples with a wide compositional range, we were able to assign all these peaks to B-centered and V-centered triad sequences. Through curve deconvolution, the triad intensities were determined. These triad sequence intensities can then be analyzed via both the first-order Markovian and two-component Bernoullian models to obtain more in-depth information on copolymer composition and comonomer reactivities.     

Existential monadic second order logic of undirected graphs: The Le Bars conjecture is false

In 2001, J.-M. Le Bars disproved the zero-one law (that says that every sentence from a certain logic is either true asymptotically almost surely (a.a.s.), or false a.a.s.) for existential monadic second order sentences (EMSO) on undirected graphs. He proved that there exists an EMSO sentence ? such that $\mathsf{P}(G_n??)$ does not converge as $n\to \infty$ (here, the probability distribution is uniform over the set of all graphs on the labeled set of vertices $\{1,\dots ,n\}$). In the same paper, he conjectured that, for EMSO sentences with 2 first order variables, the zero-one law holds. In this paper, we disprove this conjecture.     

Systematic investigation of sequence and structural motifs that recognize ATP

Interaction between ATP, a multifunctional and ubiquitous nucleotide, and proteins initializes phosphorylation, polypeptide synthesis and ATP hydrolysis which supplies energy for metabolism. However, current knowledge concerning the mechanisms through which ATP is recognized by proteins is incomplete, scattered, and inaccurate. We systemically investigate sequence and structural motifs of proteins that recognize ATP. We identified three novel motifs and refined the known p-loop and class II aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase motifs. The five motifs define five distinct ATP–protein interaction modes which concern over 5% of known protein structures. We demonstrate that although these motifs share a common GXG tripeptide they recognize ATP through different functional groups. The p-loop motif recognizes ATP through phosphates, class II aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase motif targets adenosine and the other three motifs recognize both phosphates and adenosine. We show that some motifs are shared by different enzyme types. Statistical tests demonstrate that the five sequence motifs are significantly associated with the nucleotide binding proteins. Large-scale test on PDB reveals that about 98% of proteins that include one of the structural motifs are confirmed to bind ATP.     

An Arbitrarily Regulated Monomer Sequence in Multi-Block Copolymer Synthesis by Frustrated Lewis Pairs

Rapid access to sequence-controlled multi-block copolymers (multi-BCPs) remains as a challenging task in the polymer synthesis. Here we employ a Lewis pair (LP) composed of organophosphorus superbase and bulky organoaluminum to effectively copolymerize the mixture of methacrylate, cyclic acrylate, and two acrylates, into well-defined di-, tri-, tetra- and even a hepta-BCP in one-pot one-step manner. The combined livingness, dual-initiation and CSC feature of Lewis pair polymerization enable us to achieve not only a trihexaconta-BCP with the highest record in 8 steps by using four-component monomer mixture as building blocks, but also the arbitrarily-regulated monomer sequence in multi-BCP, simply by changing the composition and adding order of the monomer mixtures, thus demonstrating the powerful capability of our strategy in improving the efficiency and enriching the composition of multi-BCP synthesis.     

电喷雾质谱在寡糖序列分析中的应用

选取具有不同结构特征的N-糖链、硫酸软骨素寡糖、人乳寡糖以及海洋来源的壳寡糖、褐藻胶寡糖、卡拉胶寡糖和硫酸岩藻寡糖等,对电喷雾质谱在寡糖的主链序列、分支位点、硫酸基取代位置确定、单糖组成和聚合度分析等方面的应用技术及碎片离子的断裂规律进行了总结.根据相邻同类碎片离子之间的质荷比差值可初步判断寡糖的单糖组成类型;通过与色谱分离技术联用或衍生化方法可提高寡糖的分辨率和离子化效率,并测得寡糖的分子量及聚合度;借助串联质谱及对寡糖还原端的特异性标记,可获得寡糖的还原端残基和部分序列信息;根据寡糖产生的特征碎片离子及其丰度大小可判断残基的特定位置和类型.另外,寡糖的分支通常作为一个整体发生糖苷键断裂或产生D离子,据此可判断分支点的位置;根据硫酸寡糖产生的特异性跨环断裂碎片,可以确定硫酸基的连接位置.这些规律和方法的总结为未知寡糖的结构和序列的分析提供了启发和指导.     

含N-乙酰化肝素寡糖的制备及序列分析

建立了含N-乙酰化肝素寡糖的分离提纯及其序列结构分析方法.首先应用肝素酶Ⅰ深度酶解低分子量肝素来富集含N-乙酰化结构寡糖,通过Bio-Gel P10凝胶色谱法分离制备了包括二糖至十四糖的系列肝素寡糖粗样品,ProPac PA-1强阴离子高效液相色谱(SAX-HPLC)等方法对粗样品进一步分离,提纯得到4种六糖和3种八糖片段.其次应用肝素酶Ⅰ,Ⅱ和Ⅲ复合酶解与HPLC法分析各纯化寡糖的二糖组分,并结合肝素酶Ⅰ底物特异性,初步推断4种六糖和3种八糖的序列结构.在寡糖的糖链两端均含有N-硫酸化二糖,而N-乙酰化二糖分布在糖链当中.应用电喷雾离子阱-飞行时间质谱(ESI-IT-TOF-MS)在负离子模式下进一步表征寡糖并分析其裂解规律.结果表明,各寡糖中均出现大量因SO32-丢失形成的碎片离子峰,六糖中主要有双电荷和三电荷碎片离子峰;在八糖中出现了一系列从双电荷至五电荷的离子峰.各寡糖的双电荷离子峰质荷比进一步确定了上述寡糖的序列结构.六糖的裂解规律表明,裂解主要存在于糖苷键,N-乙酰葡糖胺和糖醛酸上的裂解方式分别为0,2X和0,2Z.本研究提供了切实有效的分离、分析未知结构肝素寡糖序列的新方法.     

Generalizations of a Theorem of Datko and Pazy

This note gives necessary and sufficient conditions for exponential stability of semigroups of linear operators in Banach spaces. Generalizations of a well-known result due to Datko, Pazy and Neerven are obtained for the case of semigroups of operators that are not strongly continuous.