Sugarcane proteomics: Establishment of a protein extraction method for 2‐DE in stalk tissues and initiation of sugarcane proteome reference map

Sugarcane is an important commercial crop cultivated for its stalks and sugar is a prized commodity essential in human nutrition. Proteomics of sugarcane is in its infancy, especially when dealing with the stalk tissues, where there is no study to date. A systematic proteome analysis of stalk tissue yet remains to be investigated in sugarcane, wherein the stalk tissue is well known for its rigidity, fibrous nature, and the presence of oxidative enzymes, phenolic compounds and extreme levels of carbohydrates, thus making the protein extraction complicated. Here, we evaluated five different protein extraction methods in sugarcane stalk tissues. These methods are as follows: direct extraction using lysis buffer (LB), TCA/acetone precipitation followed by solubilization in LB, LB containing thiourea (LBT), and LBT containing tris, and phenol extraction. Both quantitative and qualitative protein analyses were performed for each method. 2‐DE analysis of extracted total proteins revealed distinct differences in protein patterns among the methods, which might be due to their physicochemical limitations. Based on the 2‐D gel protein profiles, TCA/acetone precipitation‐LBT and phenol extraction methods showed good results. The phenol method showed a shift in pI values of proteins on 2‐D gel, which was mostly overcome by the use of 2‐D cleanup kit after protein extraction. Among all the methods tested, 2‐D cleanup‐phenol method was found to be the most suitable for producing high number of good‐quality spots and reproducibility. In total, 30 and 12 protein spots commonly present in LB, LBT and phenol methods, and LBT method were selected and subjected to eLD‐IT‐TOF‐MS/MS and nESI‐LC‐MS/MS analyses, respectively, and a reference map has been established for sugarcane stalk tissue proteome. A total of 36 nonredundant proteins were identified. This is a very first basic study on sugarcane stalk proteome analysis and will promote the unexplored areas of sugarcane proteome research.     

Ferrocene-bis(thymine/uracil) conjugates: base pairing directed, spacer dependent self-assembly and supramolecular packing

X-ray crystallographic studies of methylene linked Ferrocene-bis(thymine/uracil) conjugates Fc(T:T)(M) and Fc(U:U)(M) reveal base dependent 2-D supramolecular assemblies generated via wobble self-pairing for bis-thymine and reverse wobble self-pairing for bis-uracil conjugates, differing in architecture from the corresponding butylene spacer linked conjugates.     

Comparative study on BIS thiourea cadmium acetate crystals using HRXRD, etching, microhardness, UV-visible and dielectric characterizations

〈1 1 1〉 oriented bis thiourea cadmium acetate (BTCA) crystal of diameter 15 mm and length 45 mm was grown for the first time by the unidirectional Sankaranarayanan-Ramasamy (SR) method. The conventional and SR method grown BTCA crystals were characterized by using high-resolution X-ray diffraction (HRXRD), chemical etching, Vickers microhardness, UV-vis, dielectric studies and differential scanning calorimetry. The HRXRD analysis indicates that the crystalline perfection of SR method grown crystal is good without having any low angle internal structural grain boundaries. The transmittance of SR method grown BTCA is 14% higher than that of conventional grown crystal. The dielectric constant was higher and the dielectric loss was less in SR method grown crystal. The crystals grown by SR method possess less dislocation density and higher microhardness.     

Sample Treatment Approaches for Trace Level Determination of Cesium in Hepatitis B Vaccine by Suppressed Ion Chromatography

The hepatitis B surface antigen manufactured by recombinant DNA technology is extracted from the culture media by density gradient centrifugation using cesium salts. Cesium is considered to be toxic, because it affects active ion transport by blocking potassium channels. The residual trace levels of cesium in hepatitis B vaccine samples are determined by suppressed ion chromatography. Hepatitis B vaccines contain various buffer salts, aluminum-containing adjuvants, proteins and traces of iron. The polyvalent cations (Al³⁺, Fe³⁺) and proteins degrade the chromatographic performance in terms of decreased retention time and poor reproducibility. Different sample preparation approaches were evaluated with the aim of eliminating these foulants: (1) filtration, (2) digestion and (3) digestion-protein precipitation. Quantitative elimination of these foulants was achieved in the digestion-protein precipitation sample clean-up approach. Cesium was separated on the IonPac CS17 column with suppressed conductivity detection. The results of the ion chromatography (IC) method were compared with ICP-MS analysis. The precision of determination was better than 6.5% (relative standard deviation) with a method detection limit of 45 ng mL⁻¹. The expanded uncertainty in the measurement at 95% confidence level (coverage factor 2) is better than 16.3%.

     

2,4-Toluene diamines--their carcinogenicity, biodegradation, analytical techniques and an approach towards development of biosensors.

2,4-Toluene diamine (TDA), a class A carcinogen, is a major raw material for the production of toluene diisocyanate (TDI), which is one of the precursors for the production of polyurethane foams (PU). This review deals with 2,4-toluene diamine's (TDA) carcinogenicity, analytical techniques, biodegradation and use as a biosensor for biogenic and synthetic amines, emphasizing various carcinogenicity studies by 2,4-TDA on animals and humans. This review reports some publications of the analysis of body fluid samples of workers from a PU producing factory for presence of TDA and TDI, since TDI gets absorbed into the worker's body, getting metabolized into TDA. Biodegradations of 2,4-TDA by various researchers are reported and also our own research experience with biodegradation of 2,4-TDA using Aspergillus nidulans isolated from soil site at a polyurethane foam dumping site have been discussed in this review. Biosensors for various biogenic and synthetic amines are discussed.     

Asymmetric cyanosilylation of ketones catalyzed by recyclable polymer-supported copper(II) salen complexes

Various ketones have undergone asymmetric trimethylsilylcyanation at room temperature with (CH₃)₃SiCN (TMSCN) in the presence of a chiral-supported Cu(salen) complex and Ph₃PO as the catalyst. Aromatic, aliphatic, and heterocyclic ketones have been converted into the corresponding cyanohydrin trimethylsilyl ethers in 83?96% yields with 52?84% ee. Several factors concerning the reactivity and enantioselectivity have been discussed. A double activation where Cu(salen) plays the role of Lewis acid and Ph₃PO acts as a Lewis base is reported. Poly(ethylene glycol) monomethyl ether (MeO-PEG) has been used as a soluble support while JandaJel (JJ) and Merrifield (MF) resins served as insoluble supports. Each polymer is linked to the salen catalyst through a glutarate spacer. The soluble catalysts were recovered by precipitation with a suitable solvent while the insoluble catalysts were simply filtered from the reaction mixture. The JandaJel-attached Cu(salen) catalyst could be used for five cycles with the retention of efficiency and the Merrifield-bound Cu(salen) catalyst was found to loose activity with each use.     

Orthogonal collocation for a nonlinear integro-differential equation

This paper is concerned with the numerical solution using orthogonalcollocation of a nonlinear integro-differential equation whichexhibits certain features arising in the modelling of catalyticcombustion in a cylindrical reactor taking account of radiation.These features imply that the available convergence theory oforthogonal collocation cannot be applied directly. Optimal convergenceresults of the orthogonal collocation approximation are provedfor our equation, and these are illustrated by numerical experiments.In addition superconvergence results for the iterated collocationsolution are obtained.     

Methanol electrochemical oxidation at nanometer-scale PtRu materials

The electrochemical oxidation of CH₃OH at nanometer-scale PtRu catalyst materials is reported. Comparisons are made between the properties of a Johnson Matthey (JM) PtRu black sample (50 at.% Ru (X_Ru ≈ 0.5)) and PtRu particles (2-6 nm, nominally X_Ru ≈ 0.5) prepared by sonication under anhydrous conditions. Cyclic voltammetry and in situ infrared spectroscopy measurements show the catalysts are active for the oxidation of 0.5 M CH₃OH in 0.1 M HClO₄ at temperatures between ambient and 70 °C. The sonochemically prepared PtRu sample displayed properties characteristic of bulk PtRu alloys with X_Ru ≈ 0.5. Evidence for phase separation of Pt and Ru was observed in CO stripping voltammetry from the JM catalyst adsorbed at low metal loadings (20 μg/cm²) on bulk Au electrodes. Per gram of catalyst, the JM material was more active toward CO₂ formation and displayed greater resistance to poisoning by adsorbed CO than the sonochemically prepared material during ambient temperature oxidation of 0.5 M CH₃OH in 0.1 M HClO₄.     

Synthesis of novel 3,4‐dihydropyrimidinones on water soluble solid support catalyzed by indium triflate

Syntheses of several new 3,4‐dihydropyrimidinones (DHPMs) on sodium sulfate solid support have been reported. The microwave enhanced rapid synthesis of the title compounds yielded a good percentage of the DHPMs. The catalytic activity of indium triflate enables to prepare a wide range of DHPMs. Syntheses of 2‐hydroxyphenyl, 2‐hydroxy‐4‐methoxyphenyl pendant groups on DHPMs scaffold are advantages of the present method, which are rather prone towards cyclization and the presence of free hydroxyl groups on the phenyl ring is confirmed via D₂O exchange study. The mechanism of the reaction is expected to proceed via absorption of substrates on the solid support followed by promotion of the reaction by In(OTf)₃ coupled with microwave irradiation.