Role of aromatic side chains in the folding and thermodynamic stability of integral membrane proteins

Aromatic residues are frequently found in helical and beta-barrel integral membrane proteins enriched at the membrane-water interface. Although the importance of these residues in membrane protein folding has been rationalized by thermodynamic partition measurements using peptide model systems, their contribution to the stability of bona fide membrane proteins has never been demonstrated. Here, we have investigated the contribution of interfacial aromatic residues to the thermodynamic stability of the beta-barrel outer membrane protein OmpA from Escherichia coli in lipid bilayers by performing extensive mutagenesis and equilibrium folding experiments. Isolated interfacial tryptophanes contribute -2.0 kcal/mol, isolated interfacial tyrosines contribute -2.6 kcal/mol, and isolated interfacial phenylalanines contribute -1.0 kcal/mol to the stability of this protein. These values agree well with the prediction from the Wimley-White interfacial hydrophobicity scale, except for tyrosine residues, which contribute more than has been expected from the peptide models. Double mutant cycle analysis reveals that interactions between aromatic side chains become significant when their centroids are separated by less than 6 A but are nearly insignificant above 7 A. Aromatic-aromatic side chain interactions are on the order of -1.0 to -1.4 kcal/mol and do not appear to depend on the type of aromatic residue. These results suggest that the clustering of aromatic side chains at membrane interfaces provides an additional heretofore not yet recognized driving force for the folding and stability of integral membrane proteins.     

Synthesis,spectroscopic and structural characterisation of vanadium(IV) and oxovanadium(IV) complexes with arsenic donor ligands

The reaction of o-C₆H₄(AsMe₂)₂ with VCl₄ in anhydrous CCl₄ produces orange eight-coordinate [VCl₄{o-C₆H₄(AsMe₂)₂}₂], whilst in CH₂Cl₂ the product is the brown, six-coordinate [VCl₄{o-C₆H₄(AsMe₂)₂}]. In dilute CH₂Cl₂ solution slow decomposition occurs to form the V^III complex [V₂Cl₆{o-C₆H₄(AsMe₂)₂}₂]. Six-coordination is also found in [VCl₄{MeC(CH₂AsMe₂)₃}] and [VCl₄{Et₃As)₂]. Hydrolysis of these complexes occurs readily to form vanadyl (VO²⁺) species, pure samples of which are obtained by reaction of [VOCl₂(thf)₂(H₂O)] with the arsines to form green [VOCl₂{o-C₆H₄(AsMe₂)₂}], [VOCl₂{MeC(CH₂AsMe₂)₃}(H₂O)] and [VOCl₂(Et₃As)₂]. Green [VOCl₂(o-C₆H₄(PMe₂)₂}] is formed from [VOCl₂(thf)₂(H₂O)] and the ligand. The [VOCl₂{o-C₆H₄(PMe₂)₂}] decomposes in thf solution open to air to form the diphosphine dioxide complex [VO{o-C₆H₄(P(O)Me₂)₂}₂(H₂O)]Cl₂, but in contrast, the products formed from similar treatment of [VCl₄{o-C₆H₄(AsMe₂)₂}_x] or [VOCl₂{o-C₆H₄(AsMe₂)₂}] contain the novel arsenic(V) cation [o-C₆H₄(AsMe₂Cl)(μ-O)(AsMe₂)]⁺. X-ray crystal structures are reported for [V₂Cl₆{o-C₆H₄(AsMe₂)₂}₂], [VO(H₂O){o-C₆H₄(P(O)Me₂)₂}₂]Cl₂, [o-C₆H₄(AsMe₂Cl)(μ-O)(AsMe₂)]Cl·[VO(H₂O)₃Cl₂] and powder neutron diffraction data for [VCl₄{o-C₆H₄(AsMe₂)₂}₂].     

Adsorptive stripping voltammetry of bovine serum albumin

The behaviour of bovine serum albumin in cyclic voltammetry and differential-pulse adsorptive stripping voltammetry is described. Under the optimized conditions, with an accumulation potential of +0.15 V (vs. Ag/AgCl) and accumulation times of 50 s or 120 s, linear calibration graphs were obtained for 1.0–4.0×10^?8 M BSA and 0.2–1.5×10^?8 M BSA, respectively.     

Adsorptive stripping voltammetry of Tartrazine at the hanging mercury drop electrode in soft drinks

Adsorptive stripping voltammetry was used for the determination of trace amounts of the dye Tartrazine (E-102) by square-wave (SWS) and differential pulse techniques (DPS). Its adsorptive voltammetric behaviour was investigated at different pH media. NH₄Cl/NH₃ buffer solution was chosen as the most suitable, taking into account the sensitivity and definition of the reduction peaks obtained. The effects of the experimental parameters on the determination are discussed. Standard deviations of 3.3% and 2.6% were obtained by SWS and DPS for 100 and 50 μg/L Tartrazine solutions, respectively (n = 10). Both methods were applied to determine the dye in several commercial soft drinks, containing very small amounts of it. Measurements were made directly in the commercial samples. A comparison of the results obtained by the proposed voltammetric methods with those of an HPLC method was also made. Good correlations between the voltammetric results and the values supplied by the manufacturer were found, whereas recoveries of the same order of magnitude were obtained by the HPLC method. Received: 23 May 1996 / Revised: 5 July 1996 / Accepted: 10 July 1996     

A hydrogen-1, nitrogen-15, and chlorine-35 NMR coordination study of Lu(ClO4)3 and Lu(NO3)3 in aqueous solvent mixtures

A coordination study of Lu(III) has been carried out for the nitrate and perchlorate salts in aqueous mixtures of acetone-d₆ and Freon-12 by¹H,¹⁵N and³⁵Cl NMR spectroscopy. At temperatures lower than –90°C, proton and ligand exchange are slow enough to permit the direct observation of¹H resonance signals for coordinated and free water molecules, leading to an accurate measure of the Lu(III) hydration number. In perchlorate solution, in the absence of inner-shell ion-pairing, Lu(III) exhibits a maximum coordination number of six over the allowable concentration range of study, contrasting markedly with the report of values of six to nine or greater as determined by a similar NMR method. The absence of contact ion-pairing was confirmed by³⁵Cl NMR chemical shift and linewidth measurements. Extensive ion-pairing was observed in the nitrate solutions as reflected by the lower Lu(III) hydration numbers of two to three in these systems, the observation of two coordinated water signals, and¹⁵N NMR signals for two complexes. The¹H and¹⁵N NMR spectra and the hydration number could be accounted for by the presence of (H₂O)₄Lu(NO₃)²⁺ and (H₂O)₂Lu(NO₃) ₂ ¹⁺ .     

Self-aggregation of the SDS surfactant at a solid-liquid interface

Molecular dynamics simulations of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) molecules on a graphite surface are presented. The simulations were conducted at low and high surface coverage to study aggregation at the water/graphite interface. Results showed that at low surface coverage, the SDS molecules form hemicylindrical aggregates, in agreement with AFM experiments, whereas at high surface coverage, the surfactants form full cylinders. The latter aggregates have not been reported in systems of SDS on hydrophobic substrates, such as graphite. The unexpected results are explained in terms of a water layer adsorbed at the solid surface which was the responsible for the formation of these aggregates. Moreover, the SDS tails in the full cylindrical configuration became straighter than those of the hemicylindrical aggregate. Hydrogen bond formation between water and surfactant head groups was also studied, and it was found that they did not depend on the surfactant concentration.     

Environmental UV‐A and UV‐B Threshold Doses for Apoptosis and Necrosis in Humans Fibroblasts¶

Apoptosis involves a highly organized and programmed series of events aimed at maintaining genomic stability by eliminating defective host cells. The purpose of this study was to determine the threshold doses and environmental UV‐A and UV‐B exposure times necessary to produce apoptosis and necrosis in the normal cells of a human fibroblast cell line. Enviromental UV‐A and UV‐B doses were measured over a 6 year period with a four‐channel UV radiometer. The fibroblasts were irradiated once using an Oriel UV Solar Simulator with six doses of environmentally‐based UV. Doses corresponded to 0,11,19,23 and 45 min of average environmental UV‐A and UV‐B radiation at solar noon in Puerto Rico. The Annexin‐V binding method was used to differentiate between normal fibroblasts and apoptotic or necrotic fibroblasts. The threshold dose from apoptosis to necrosis was found between 24–28 kJ/m², which corresponded to 19 and 23 min of environmental UV‐A and UV‐B exposure. This study provides the first data that specify the environmental threshold doses of UV‐A and UV‐B at which human fibroblasts undergo apoptosis and necrosis. These results may provide valuable dose‐response thresholds for apoptosis and necrosis for future mechanistic studies and baseline data for skin cancer prevention programs.     

Model identification and FE simulations: Effect of different yield loci and hardening laws in sheet forming

The bi-axial experimental equipment [Flores, P., Rondia, E., Habraken, A.M., 2005a. Development of an experimental equipment for the identification of constitutive laws (Special Issue). International Journal of Forming Processes] developed by Flores enables to perform Bauschinger shear tests and successive or simultaneous simple shear tests and plane strain tests. Flores investigates the material behavior with the help of classical tensile tests and the ones performed in his bi-axial machine in order to identify the yield locus and the hardening model. With tests performed on one steel grade, the methods applied to identify classical yield surfaces such as [Hill, R., 1948. A theory of the yielding and plastic flow of anisotropic materials. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London A 193, 281–297; Hosford, W.F., 1979. On yield loci of anisotropic cubic metals. In: Proceedings of the 7th North American Metalworking Conf. (NMRC), SME, Dearborn, MI, pp. 191–197] ones as well as isotropic Swift type hardening, kinematic Armstrong–Frederick or Teodosiu and Hu hardening models are explained. Comparison with the Taylor–Bishop–Hill yield locus is also provided. The effect of both yield locus and hardening model choices is presented for two applications: plane strain tensile test and Single Point Incremental Forming (SPIF).     

Global hyperbolicity and Palais-Smale condition for action functionals in stationary spacetimes

In order to apply variational methods to the action functional for geodesics of a stationary spacetime, some hypotheses, useful to obtain classical Palais-Smale condition, are commonly used: pseudo-coercivity, bounds on certain coefficients of the metric, etc. We prove that these technical assumptions admit a natural interpretation for the conformal structure (causality) of the manifold. As a consequence, any stationary spacetime with a complete timelike Killing vector field and a complete Cauchy hypersurface (thus, globally hyperbolic), is proved to be geodesically connected.     

Polarographic behaviour of orotic acid (vitamin B13). Cathodic processes

The electroanalytical behaviour of orotic acid in cathodic processes has been studied in HClO₄, at several pH values in Britton-Robinson buffers, using DPP and CV techniques. Orotic acid undergoes three cathodic waves over the entire pH range considered. Optimum conditions for determination of orotic acid using the DPP technique are also studied.