Characterization of the elusive disulfide bridge forming human Hb variant: Hb Ta-Li β83 (EF7)Gly → Cys by electrospray mass spectrometry

An electrospray mass spectrometric approach to the identification of a human hemoglobin (Hb) variant involving a Cys residue incorporation is presented. In Hb Ta-Li (beta83Gly --> Cys), Cys83 forms inter-molecular disulfide bridges. Routine analysis of the denatured Hb showed the presence of a minor beta chain variant whose mass apparently was 1 Da less than the expected mass difference of 46 Da for a Gly --> Cys substitution. Reduction of the globin chains with dithiothreitol gave an intense monomer with the expected mass difference for the Gly --> Cys substitution. After reprocessing the original raw data from the denatured Hb and taking into account the possibility of dimer formation, a component was revealed whose mass was consistent with a disulfide linked dimer of Ta-Li beta globins. The mutation was localized to peptide betaT10 by analysis of a tryptic digest. Tandem mass spectrometry and DNA sequencing confirmed the Gly --> Cys substitution occurred at residue 83 of the beta chain. Problems encountered in identifying the components in mixtures of monomers and dimers are discussed.     

About Tracing Problems in Dynamic Geometry

Dynamic Geometry is the field of interactively performing geometric construction on a computer. In addition to simulating ruler-and-compass constructions we allow a drag mode. This drag mode allows to move geometric objects that have at least one degree of freedom. The remaining part of the construction should adjust automatically. Thus, during the motion, we have to trace the resulting paths of all geometric objects. This path tracking problem is known as the Tracing Problem from Dynamic Geometry. It combines the step-by-step procedure of doing geometric constructions with the continuous concept of motions. This study is based on the model for Dynamic Geometry used in the interactive geometry software Cinderella. We give a numerical solution to the Tracing Problem based on continuation methods and a reliable algorithm based on real and complex interval arithmetic. Degenerate situations like the intersection of two identical lines lead to critical points in the configuration space and are treated separately.     

On extremal hypergraphs for Hamiltonian cycles

We study sufficient conditions for Hamiltonian cycles in hypergraphs, and obtain both Turán- and Dirac-type results. While the Turán-type result gives an exact threshold for the appearance of a Hamiltonian cycle in a hypergraph depending only on the extremal number of a certain path, the Dirac-type result yields a sufficient condition relying solely on the minimum vertex degree.     

Highly connected coloured subgraphs via the regularity lemma

For integers , n≥k and r≥s, let m(n,r,s,k) be the largest (in order) k-connected component with at most s colours one can find in any r-colouring of the edges of the complete graph K_n on n vertices. Bollobás asked for the determination of m(n,r,s,k).Here, bounds are obtained in the cases s=1,2 and k=o(n), which extend results of Liu, Morris and Prince. Our techniques use Szemerédi’s Regularity Lemma for many colours.We shall also study a similar question for bipartite graphs.     

Stereochemistry of the Conversion of 2‐Phenoxyethanol into Phenol and Acetaldehyde by Acetobacterium sp.

The conversion of 2‐phenoxyethanol to phenol and acetate by the anaerobic bacterium Acetobacterium sp. strain LuPhet1 proceeds through acetaldehyde with concomitant migration of a H‐atom from C(1) to C(2) of the glycolic moiety. Separate feeding experiments with (R)‐ and (S)‐2‐phenoxy(1‐²H)ethanol, prepared via chemoenzymatic syntheses, indicate that the H‐atom involved in the 1,2‐shift is the pro‐S one of the enantiotopic couple of the alcohol function.