Thermodynamics of phase equilibrium for systems containing N-isopropyl acrylamide hydrogels

Hydrogels are crosslinked polymers of hydrophilic monomers. Hydrogels can swell and shrink in aqueous solutions. The swelling behavior of hydrogels and the encountered phase behavior are of interest in many areas, e.g., in biotechnology, membrane science and controlled drug release. This contribution presents the criteria for such phase equilibria and a previously developed thermodynamic model for correlating/predicting the swelling and shrinking of hydrogels. The application of the method is demonstrated by describing the swelling equilibrium of some synthetic, non-ionic N-isopropyl acrylamide (N-IPAAm) hydrogels in aqueous solutions of sodium chloride at 298 K. Furthermore, new experimental results are presented for the degree of swelling of synthetic hydrogels that contain – besides the non-ionic monomer N-IPAAm – either a combination of a cationic comonomer (here, N-[3-(dimethylamino)propyl]methacrylamide (DMAPMA)) and an anionic comonomer (here, 2-acrylamido-2-methyl-1-propanesulfonic acid (AMPS)) or a zwitterionic comonomer (here, [3-(methacryloylamino)propyl]dimethyl(3-sulfopropyl)ammonium hydroxide inner salt (MPSA)). These gels were equilibrated with aqueous solutions of sodium chloride at 298 K.     

Ultrastructural architecture of colonies of different morphologies produced by phenotypic switching of a clinical strain of Candida tropicalis and biofilm formation by variant phenotypes

Candida tropicalis has been identified as one of the most prevalent pathogenic yeast species of the Candida-non-albicans (CNA) group. Study of switching in C. tropicalis has not been the subject of extensive research. Therefore, we investigated switching event and characterized the ultrastructural architecture of different phenotypes and biofilm produced in a C. tropicalis clinical strain. Cells switched heritably, reversibly, and at a high frequency between four phenotypes readily distinguishable by the shape of colonies formed on agar at 25°C. SEM analysis was used to verify the architecture of whole Candida colonies at ultrastructural level. The smooth phenotype (parental phenotype) colony showed a hemispherical shape character, while the semi-smooth was characterized by the presence of shallow marginal depressions. The ring and rough phenotypes exhibited more complex architecture and were characterized by the presence of deep central and peripheral depressions areas. The biofilm-forming ability varied among the switch phenotypes. After 12h incubation, the smooth phenotype formed less biofilm compared to the other phenotypes (P<0.05). The electron microscopy analysis revealed that filamentation (pseudohyphae) was associated with ring and rough colonies. The ultrastructural analysis allowed the observation of the arrangement of individual cells within the colonies. At the deep central and peripheral depressions areas of the ring and rough colonies extracellular material was seen in different arrangements. The data presented here open new avenues to study a possible role for extracellular material in the formation and maintenance of the architecture of switch phenotypes in C. tropicalis. It is therefore essential that more strains be investigated to determine the biological significance of extracellular material in C. tropicalis phenotypic switching phenomenon.     

On the Dirichlet and Neumann Evolution Operators in ℝ d +

We prove some uniform and pointwise gradient estimates for the Dirichlet and the Neumann evolution operators \(G_{\mathcal {D}}(t,s)\) and \(G_{\mathcal {N}}(t,s)\) associated with a class of nonautonomous elliptic operators (t) with unbounded coefficients defined in I× \(\mathbb{R}_{+}\) (where I is a right-halfline or I=?). We also prove the existence and the uniqueness of a tight evolution system of measures \(\left \{\mu _{t}^{\mathcal {N}}\right \}_{t \in I}\) associated with \(G_{\mathcal {N}}(t,s)\) , which turns out to be sub-invariant for \(G_{\mathcal {D}}(t,s)\) , and we study the asymptotic behaviour of the evolution operators \(G_{\mathcal {D}}(t,s)\) and \(G_{\mathcal {N}}(t,s)\) in the L ^p -spaces related to the system \(\left \{\mu _{t}^{\mathcal {N}}\right \}_{t \in I}\) .     

A (1→4)-β-D-Glucuronan Excreted by a Mutant of the Rhizobium Meliloti M5N1 Strain

Abstract

A mutant of the R. meliloti M5N1 strain has been selected. This strain, R. meliloti M5N1 CS (NCIMB 40472), excretes an extracellular material composed of 2-O-Ac-β-GlcpA, 3-O-Ac-β-GlcpA, 2,3-di-O-Ac-β-GlcpA and three species of β-GlcpA residues 1→4 linked. For the culture conditions used, the weight average molecular weight of the polymer varied in the range of 6 × 10⁴ < Mw < 4 × 10⁵. High molecular weight glucuronate forms thermoreversible gels at 5 g L^?l. In the presence of divalent cation such as Ca²⁺ or trivalent cations such as Cr³⁺ or Fe^{3 +}, cross linking of the polymer occurs. This polysaccharide is the first exocellular (1→4)-β-D-glucuronan produced by a R. meliloti strain.     

Enzymology of Pyran Ring A Formation in Salinomycin Biosynthesis

Tetrahydropyran rings are a common feature of complex polyketide natural products, but much remains to be learned about the enzymology of their formation. The enzyme SalBIII from the salinomycin biosynthetic pathway resembles other polyether epoxide hydrolases/cyclases of the MonB family, but SalBIII plays no role in the conventional cascade of ring opening/closing. Mutation in the salBIII gene gave a metabolite in which ring A is not formed. Using this metabolite in vitro as a substrate analogue, SalBIII has been shown to form pyran ring A. We have determined the X‐ray crystal structure of SalBIII, and structure‐guided mutagenesis of putative active‐site residues has identified Asp38 and Asp104 as an essential catalytic dyad. The demonstrated pyran synthase activity of SalBIII further extends the impressive catalytic versatility of α+β barrel fold proteins.