1.Quantitative proteome-based guidelines for intrinsic disorder characterization.
Vincent M1, Whidden M1, Schnell S2. Biophys Chem. 2016 Apr 5;213:6-16. doi: 10.1016/j.bpc.2016.03.005. [Epub ahead of print]
Intrinsically disordered proteins fail to adopt a stable three-dimensional structure under physiological conditions. It is now understood that many disordered proteins are not dysfunctional, but instead engage in numerous cellular processes, including signaling and regulation. Disorder characterization from amino acid sequence relies on computational disorder prediction algorithms. While numerous large-scale investigations of disorder have been performed using these algorithms, and have offered valuable insight regarding the prevalence of protein disorder in many organisms, critical proteome-based descriptive statistical guidelines that would enable the objective assessment of intrinsic disorder in a protein of interest remain to be established. Here we present a quantitative characterization of numerous disorder features using a rigorous non-parametric statistical approach, providing expected values and percentile cutoffs for each feature in ten eukaryotic proteomes.
2.The bile acid Deoxycholate Elicits defenses in Arabidopsis and reduces bacterial infection.
Zarattini M1,2, Launay A1,3, Farjad M1, Wénès E1, Taconnat L4, Boutet S1, Bernacchia G2, Fagard M1. Mol Plant Pathol. 2016 Apr 16. doi: 10.1111/mpp.12416. [Epub ahead of print]
Crop yield loss is significantly affected by disease. Considering that the worldwide demand for agricultural products is increasing, there is a need to pursue the development of new methods to protect crops from disease. One mechanism of plant protection is through the activation of its immune system. By exogenous application, "plant activator molecules" with elicitor properties, can be used to activate the plant immune system. These defense-inducing molecules represent a powerful and often environment-friendly toolset to fight pathogens. We show that the secondary bile acid deoxycholic acid (DCA) induces defense in Arabidopsis and reduces the proliferation of two bacterial phytopathogens, Erwinia amylovora and Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato. We describe the global defense response triggered by this new plant activator in Arabidopsis at the transcriptional level. Several induced genes were selected for further analysis by qRT-PCR: we describe the kinetics of their induction and we show that abiotic stress, such as moderate drought or nitrogen limitation, does not impede DCA induction of defense.
3.Isolation and identification of oxidation products of syringol from brines and heated meat matrix.
Bölicke SM1, Ternes W2. Meat Sci. 2016 Apr 5;118:108-116. doi: 10.1016/j.meatsci.2016.03.029. [Epub ahead of print]
In this study we developed new extraction and detection methods (using HPLC-UV and LC-MS), making it possible to analyze the smoke phenol syringol and its oxidation products nitrososyringol, nitrosyringol, and the syringol dimer 3,3',5,5'-tetramethoxy-1,1'-biphenyl-4,4'-diol, which were identified in heated meat for the first time. Preliminary brine experiments performed with different concentrations of ascorbic acid showed that high amounts of this antioxidant also resulted in almost complete degradation of syringol and to formation of the oxidation products when the brines were heated at low pH values. Heat treatment (80°C) and subsequent simulated digestion applied to meat samples containing syringol, ascorbic acid and different concentrations of sodium nitrite produced 3,3',5,5'-tetramethoxy-1,1'-biphenyl-4,4'-diol even at a low nitrite level in the meat matrix, while nitroso- and nitrosyringol were isolated only after the digestion experiments.
4.A Pycnoporus sanguineus laccase for denim bleaching and its comparison with an enzymatic commercial formulation.
Iracheta-Cárdenas MM1, Rocha-Peña MA2, Galán-Wong LJ3, Arévalo-Niño K4, Tovar-Herrera OE5. J Environ Manage. 2016 Apr 13;177:93-100. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2016.04.008. [Epub ahead of print]
A laccase from the basidiomycete Pycnoporus sanguineus strain RVAN5 was evaluated for its ability to decolorize synthetic dyes and denim bleaching. Dye color reduction and denim bleaching were monitored at different dye concentrations and incubation times. Dye decolorization by Pycnoporus sanguineus fungal crude extract (FCE) ranged from 80 to 96% within 2-4 h at 25-65 °C. Comparable results were obtained when violuric acid (VA) was added as mediator to the FCE, however, the number of decolorized dyes increased significantly. Dye decolorization rates with VA varied of initial and final optical density (595 nm) values of 2.5-3.0 and 0.2-0.02, respectively. P. sanguineus FCE had no substantial effect on denim bleaching when used alone, notwithstanding, the mixture of FCE with VA (10 mM) showed significant denim color reduction values and considerably higher than those obtained with a bleaching enzyme from a commercial formulation; CIElab values obtained with FCE/VA mixture were of ΔL = 6.
