Genetic engineering to enhance the selectivity of protein separations

The ability to recover and purify natural and recombinant proteins, and the costs of doing so remain a major task in introducing the potential products of biotechnology. The bases for separation range from specific binding onto tailored reagents to solubility and partitioning behavior governed by a mixed bag of size, charge, and hydrophobicity. In most cases, a combination of methods is used in sequence, and improvements in the selectivity at an early stage can enhance the effectiveness of subsequent (and usually more costly) steps. Genetic engineering provides a means of improving the selectivity within the context of existing separation methods. By this strategy, improvements in selectivity are sought by bestowing a distinctive property on the protein of interest. The primary sequence of amino acids is altered, such that the protein can be selectively removed from other components of the multicomponent mixture in which such products are commonly found. In this article, the range of these “distinctive properties” and their pairing with various separation methods will be reviewed. Specific examples from our work, in which a distinctive charge is provided via a polypeptide “purification” fusion tail, will be discussed. Separation methods we have used with these fusion proteins are precipitation, two-phase aqueous extraction, reversed micellar extraction, and ion exchange using both resins and membranes.     

Electron microscope study of viscoelastic cationic surfactant systems

Some cationic surfactants such as cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) show a very spectacular viscoelasticity in solution, in even very diluted states, with some aromatic substances added, such as salicylic acid. Formerly, the authors established that the remarkable solution behaviour was the result of the entanglement of such enormously elongated giant micelles, based on recognition of the existence of large aggregates, through direct observation of them as substantial images under the electron microscope.In this report, we further confirm the relation between micelle length and solution viscoelasticity after arbitrarily obtaining different size aggregates by altering the media pH, or by admixing shorter chain length surfactants than CTAB, which alone did not induce viscoelasticity.     

激光核聚变中的一种X光解谱方法

本文在SAND迭代法的基础上,采取带有周期性光滑化的限幅迭代方法,求解激光核聚变中的X光能谱取得了较好的结果。这个方法适用于根据亚千X射线谱仪、多道k边滤波谱仪和多道滤波-荧光谱仪的测量结果回推靶等离子体的X射线能谱。计算结果表明,该方法完全抑制了数值不稳定性,消除了非物理的“负能谱”现象和解谱结果中的数值结构。特别是该方法对初始试探谱有很强的适应性,解谱计算结果与初始试探谱无关。     

Rate processes on fractals: Theory,simulations, and experiments

Heterogeneous kinetics are shown to differ drastically from homogeneous kinetics. For the elementary reaction A + A products we show that the diffusion-limited reaction rate is proportional tot ^– h[A]² or to [A]^x, whereh=1- d _s/2, X=1+2/d _s =(h-2)(h-1), andd _s is the effective spectral dimension. We note that ford = d _s =1, h =1/2 andX = 3, for percolating clustersd _s = 4/3,h = 1/3 andX = 5/2, while for dust ds <1, 1 >h > 1/2 and >X > 3. Scaling arguments, supercomputer simulations and experiments give a consistent picture. The interplay of energetic and geometric heterogeneity results in fractal-like kinetics and is relevant to excitation fusion experiments in porous membranes, films, and polymeric glasses. However, in isotopic mixed crystals, the geometric fractal nature (percolation clusters) dominates.     

Characterisation of the Kratos Axis Ultra with spherical mirror analyser for XPS imaging

The imaging performance of an XPS instrument employing a spherical mirror electron energy analyser has been characterised by measuring the peak position, full width at half maximum (FWHM), and lineshape, at every pixel in the image, for different modes of operation. Changes in these parameters have been identified and recommendations made for quantification of, and chemical state determination from, spectrum image data sets. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Exact electronic properties in the classically forbidden region of a metal surface

We derive exact properties of the inhomogeneous electron gas in the asymptotic classically forbidden region at a metal–vacuum interface within the framework of local effective potential energy theory. We derive a new expression for the asymptotic structure of the Kohn–Sham density functional theory (KS‐DFT) exchange‐correlation potential energy v_xc(r) in terms of the irreducible electron self‐energy. We also derive the exact asymptotic structure of the orbitals, density, the Dirac density matrix, the kinetic energy density, and KS exchange energy density. We further obtain the exact expression for the Fermi hole and demonstrate its structure in this asymptotic limit. The exchange‐correlation potential energy is derived to be v_xc(z → ∞) = ?α_KS,xc/z, and its exchange and correlation components to be v_x(z → ∞) = ?α_KS,x/z and v_c(z → ∞) = ?α_KS,c/z, respectively. The analytical expressions for the coefficients α_KS,xc and α_KS,x show them to be dependent on the bulk‐metal Wigner–Seitz radius and the barrier height at the surface. The coefficient α_KS,c = 1/4 is determined in the plasmon‐pole approximation and is independent of these metal parameters. Thus, the asymptotic structure of v_xc(z) in the vacuum region is image‐potential‐like but not the commonly accepted one of ?1/4z. Furthermore, this structure depends on the properties of the metal. Additionally, an analysis of these results via quantal density functional theory (Q‐DFT) shows that both the Pauli W_x(z → ∞) and lowest‐order correlation‐kinetic W(z → ∞) components of the exchange potential energy v_x(z → ∞), and the Coulomb W_c(z → ∞) and higher‐order correlation‐kinetic components of the correlation potential energy v_c(z → ∞), all contribute terms of O(1/z) to the structure. Hence correlations attributable to the Pauli exclusion principle, Coulomb repulsion, and correlation‐kinetic effects all contribute to the asymptotic structure of the effective potential energy at a metal surface. The relevance of the results derived to the theory of image states and to KS‐DFT is also discussed. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Quantum Chem, 2005     

Sampling and local models for multivariate image analysis

Local models are a very important concept for microscopic and macroscopic imaging. Different methods of sub-sampling a multivariate image are described both in general and for three examples. The need for sub-sampling and its influence on multivariate image analysis and visualization are studied. Examples from MRI (256 × 256), satellite imaging (7 × 512 × 512) and biofuel studies (6 × 512 × 512) are used to illustrate some of the principles involved.     

Expression and Purification of ZNF191（243-368） in Three Expression Systems

ZNF191 （243-368）, a new human zinc finger protein, probably relates to some hereditary diseases and cancers, To obtain adequate amount of ZNF191（243-368） for the study of its property, structure and function, three different expression systems of inclusion-body, glutathione S-transferase （GST）, and hexahistidine （6 × His） were used and compared. Among these systems, the expression level of ZNFI91（243-368） was increased in inclusion body system under a higher isopropylthio-β-D-galactoside （IPTG） concentration, but the non-target proteins were also increased more, which made its purification more difficult and the yield lower. The expression of His-tag fusion protein was almost not affected by IPTG concentration, temperature and inducing time. At a high IPTG concentration the highest expression yield for GST fusion protein was obtained. And the fusion proteins can be partially purified by a single affinity chromatography step. The fusion protein systems show advantages for expression of these proteins.     

High-level expression of soluble human β-defensin-2 fused with green fluorescent protein in Escherichia coli cell-free system

Human β-defensin-2 (hBD2), a small cationic peptide, exhibits a broad range of antimicrobial activity and does not acquire any microbial resistance. To produce this uneasily detectable, degradable, and toxic polypeptide efficiently, an alternative approach based on the Escherichia coli cell-free biosynthesis system was proposed. The approach implies that a polypeptide of interest is synthesized as a fusion protein linked to a green fluorescent protein (GFP) through a cleavable spacer. With batch-mode operation, a significant amount of hBD2 fused with GFP (0.25 mg/mL) can be expressed in this cell-free system. The productivity of the fusion protein can be improved up to 1.2 mg/mL by employing a continuous-exchange cell-free system. Furthermore, the GFP moiety provides directly visible and quantitative monitoring of the polypeptide synthesis, and the product is soluble and stable. This work will be helpful in allowing the rapid and visible expression of other similar defensins using an in vitro cell-free system.