Dynamics of Bacteriorhodopsin in the Dark-Adapted State from Solution Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy

To achieve efficient proton pumping in the light-driven proton pump bacteriorhodopsin (bR), the protein must be tightly coupled to the retinal to rapidly convert retinal isomerization into protein structural rearrangements. Methyl group dynamics of bR embedded in lipid nanodiscs were determined in the dark-adapted state, and were found to be mostly well ordered at the cytosolic side. Methyl groups in the M145A mutant of bR, which displays only 10 % residual proton pumping activity, are less well ordered, suggesting a link between side-chain dynamics on the cytosolic side of the bR cavity and proton pumping activity. In addition, slow conformational exchange, attributed to low frequency motions of aromatic rings, was indirectly observed for residues on the extracellular side of the bR cavity. This may be related to reorganization of the water network. These observations provide a detailed picture of previously undescribed equilibrium dynamics on different time scales for ground-state bR.     

原子力显微镜在生物物理领域的新应用

介绍了原子力显微镜在生物物理领域的最新应用:蛋白质去折叠、DNA拉伸、生物膜受力,通过分析实验得到的力谱,可以获取关于蛋白质、DNA、生物膜结构信息.原子力显微镜不仅能反映测量体系的力学性质,由于其具有独特的时间、空间分辨及实时成像,因而能提供更多信息.     

与HBV X蛋白相互作用的细胞蛋白的筛选及其鉴定

参考GenBank核苷酸序列库中的HBV的核苷酸序列设计合成了一对对应于HBx基因的引物，从原发性肝癌(hepatocellular carcinoma，HCC)患者的血清中提取HBV基因组DNA作为模板，扩增HBx编码区并测定了核苷酸序列．将该编码区克隆到酵母双杂交系统的诱饵蛋白表达载体pGBKT7中，转入酵母细胞AH109，进行表型鉴定．然后通过Mating实验从已制备好用于酵母双杂交系统的肝cDNA表达文库中筛选与HBx相互作用的细胞蛋白，并用体外免疫共沉淀实验进一步验证．研究表明，分离得到的与HBx基因编码的蛋白相互作用的4种新的细胞蛋白，分别是醛缩酶B、C8α亚基、一种丝氨酸蛋白酶Hepsin和一种未知蛋白．     

Crystal and Molecular Structure of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Bis</Emphasis>(2,3-pentamethylene-3,4-dihydro-4-oxoquinazolinium) Tetrachlorocuprate(II) Sesquihydrate

The structure of bis-(2,3-pentamethylene-3,4-dihydro-4-oxoquinazolinium) tetrachlorocuprate (II) sesquihydrate, (C₁₃H₁₅N₂O)₂[CuCl₄]·1.5H₂O, was determined by single crystal X-ray diffraction. In contrast to the previously studied analogs, the compound contains crystallization water molecules.Original Russian Text Copyright © 2004 by K. K. Turgunov, B. Tashkhodzhaev, L. V. Molchanov, and Kh. M. Shakhidoyatov__________Translated from Zhurnal Strukturnoi Khimii, Vol. 45, No. 5, pp. 955–959, September–October, 2004.     

一维无序体系电子跳跃导电研究

建立了电子隧穿电导模型,推导了一维无序体系新的直流电导公式.通过计算20000格点无序体系的直流电导率,分析了直流电导率和温度及外场电压的关系,讨论了无序度对直流电导的影响.计算结果表明,无序体系的直流电导率随无序度的增加而减小;外加电场较小时,电导率相对较大,且出现一系列峰值,电压较大时,电导率反而较小;无序体系在低温区出现了负微分电阻特性,电导率随温度的升高而增大,在高温区电导率随温度的升高而减小.计算结果和实验符合很好 关键词： 无序体系 电子隧穿 直流电导率     

Intrinsic Fluorescence of Actin

In this work actin is used to illustrate connection of protein fluorescence characteristics with its structure. On one hand, it has been demonstrated what kind of information about the contribution of each tryptophan residues to the bulk fluorescence spectrum can be obtained from the special analysis of protein three-dimensional structure. On the other hand, potentials of intrinsic fluorescence for elucidation of proteins structure, dynamics and processes of folding-unfolding are shown. In particular, using this method a new essentially unfolded kinetic intermediate state of actin was detected and characterized, and the place of inactivated actin and its kinetic predecessor in the process of folding-unfolding was determined. It has been revealed that inactivated actin is not intermediate state between the native and completely unfolded states, as it has been accepted before, but a result of protein misfolding. On the basis of the obtained data a new model of actin folding-unfolding pathway has been proposed.     

A microspectroscopic study of the electronic homogeneity of ordered and disordered Sr2FeMoO6

Disordered Sr₂FeMoO₆ shows a drastic reduction in saturation magnetization compared to highly ordered samples, moreover magnetization as a function of the temperature for different disordered samples shows qualitatively different behaviours. We investigate the origin of such diversity by performing spatially resolved photoemission spectroscopy on various disordered samples. Our results establish that e_xtensive electronic inhomogeneity, arising most probably from an underlying chemical inhomogeneity in disordered samples, is responsible for the observed magnetic inhomogeneity. It is further pointed out that these inhomogeneities are connected with composition fluctuations of the type Sr₂Fe_1+x Mo_1-x O₆ with Fe-rich (x > 0) and Mo-rich (x < 0) regions. Dedicated to Prof J Gopalakrishnan on his 62nd birthday.     

Anderson transition in dilute systems with pure exponential interactions

Summary Assuming a completely disordered lattice it is shown that all the states are localized when the disorder parameterx=a ₀/0 reachesthe value 0.31, wherea is the mean atomic separation anda ₀ is the Bohr radius.     

Zero bias anomaly in the density of states of low-dimensional metals

We consider the effect of Coulomb interactions on the average density of states (DOS) of disordered low-dimensional metals for temperatures T and frequencies ω smaller than the inverse elastic life-time 1/τ. Using the fact that long-range Coulomb interactions in two dimensions (2d) generate ln²-singularities in the DOS ν(ω) but only ln-singularities in the conductivity σ(ω), we can re-sum the most singular contributions to the average DOS via a simple gauge-transformation. If σ(ω) > 0, then a metallic Coulomb gapν(ω) ∝ |ω|/e ⁴ appears in the DOS at T = 0 for frequencies below a certain crossover frequency Ω ₂ which depends on the value of the DC conductivity σ(0). Here, - e is the charge of the electron. Naively adopting the same procedure to calculate the DOS in quasi 1d metals, we find ν(ω) ∝ (|ω|/Ω ₁)^1/2exp(- Ω ₁/|ω|) at T = 0, where Ω ₁ is some interaction-dependent frequency scale. However, we argue that in quasi 1d the above gauge-transformation method is on less firm grounds than in 2d. We also discuss the behavior of the DOS at finite temperatures and give numerical results for the expected tunneling conductance that can be compared with experiments. Received 28 August 2001 / Received in final form 28 January 2002 Published online 9 July 2002