Discrimination between 5-hydroxymethylcytosine and 5-methylcytosine by a chemically designed peptide

An artificial phosphopeptide recognized the difference between methylated and hydroxymethylated cytosines in DNA. The Sp1 zinc finger peptide substituted by phosphotyrosine effectively discriminated between 5-methylcytosine, 5-hydroxymethylcytosine ((hm)C) and unmethylated cytosine. The DNA recognition properties of the peptide differ from those of other chemicals that detect (hm)C.     

Nickel-catalyzed reductive cleavage of aryl-oxygen bonds in alkoxy- and pivaloxyarenes using hydrosilanes as a mild reducing agent

A nickel-catalyzed reductive deoxygenation of aryl alkyl ethers and aryl pivalates has been developed. Hydrosilanes serve as a mild reducing agent. The present protocol allows the use of a pivalate group as a robust and traceless steering group in arene functionalization reactions.     

Bivalent ligands of CXCR4 with rigid linkers for elucidation of the dimerization state in cells

To date, challenges in the design of bivalent ligands for G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) have revealed difficulties stemming from lack of knowledge of the state of oligomerization of the GPCR. The synthetic bivalent ligands with rigid linkers that are presented here can predict the dimer form of CXCR4 and be applied to molecular probes in cancerous cells. This "molecular ruler" approach would be useful in elucidating the details of CXCR4 oligomer formation.     

Chromatographic Zinc Isotope Separation by Chelating Exchange Resin

Zinc isotope separations were studied by displacement chromatography using the chelating properties of malate, citrate and lactate exchange resin and EDTA as ligands. After each chromatographic operation, the heavier zinc isotopes were found to preferentially fractionated into the carboxylate complex solution phase. The separation coefficients (ε) for zinc isotope separation had the largest value and were obtained for the isotopic pairs ⁶⁸Zn/⁶⁴Zn (7.16 × 10^?4) and ⁶⁶Zn/⁶⁴Zn (3.08 × 10^?4), respectively, at 298 ± 1 K. The separation coefficient per unit mass differences (ε/ΔM) for the isotopic pair of ⁶⁸Zn/⁶⁴Zn was found to range around 1.55 × 10^?4.     

High-throughput screening of food additives with synergistic effects on high hydrostatic pressure inactivation of budding yeast

ABSTRACT

We focused on food additives that enhance the effect of high hydrostatic pressure (HHP) treatment for microbial inactivation. We previously isolated Saccharomyces cerevisiae ultraviolet (UV) mutant strain a1210H12 that does not cause a growth delay under specific high pressure treatment conditions. We conceived that it is possible to screen effective food additives in a high-throughput manner by combining strain a1210H12 with a viable cell count method based on liquid culture, named high-throughput microbial pressure inactivation kinetics analysis system (HT-PIKAS). Here, we analyzed the synergistic effect between food additives and HHP treatment on inactivation of strain a1210H12 using HT-PIKAS. We calculated the inactivation rate in the condition of additive only, HHP treatment only and HHP treatment with additive. As a result, four compounds, benzoic acid, sorbic acid, adipic acid and caproic acid, showed high synergistic effects with HHP treatment and could be selected from more than 30 compounds as safe food additives.     

Revisit to the photocrosslinking behavior of PVA‐SbQ as a water‐soluble photopolymer with anomalously low contents of quaterized stilbazol side chains

The photocrosslinking behavior of poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) substituted with 0.1, 0.3, 1.3, and 4.0 mol % of styrylpyridinium (SbQ) (PVA‐SbQs) side chains was reinvestigated. Even‐order derivative spectra of films of PVAs loaded with 0.1 and 0.3 mol % of SbQ revealed the presence of subpeaks owing to vibrational transitions, whereas PVA bearing 1.3 and 4.0 mol % of SbQ displayed a new blue‐shifted band (H‐band) at 328 nm due to H‐aggregation. Changes in derivative spectra disclosed the rapid disappearance of the H‐band of PVA‐SbQs under UV irradiation within exposure doses of 10 mJ cm^?2. On the other hand, the films of the PVA‐SbQs were insolubilized upon UV irradiation at exposure doses of 2 and 3 mJ cm^?2, respectively, leading to the conclusion that the high photosensitivity comes from the photodimerization of H‐aggregate as a ground‐state dimer. Fluorescence measurements implied the presence of J‐aggregate at 386 nm, but the involvement of the J‐aggregation in photocrosslinking was excluded because of its negligible fraction. A photosensitive emulsion of poly(vinyl acetate) emulsified with PVA‐SbQ exhibited similar changes in higher‐order derivative spectra in film and applied to fabricate a stencil for screen printing with aid of an LED‐emitting 375 nm light. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem, 2012