Protein and Peptide Letters - Volume 22, Issue 8, 2015

Bacterial vaginosis is a common reproductive infection in which commensal vaginal lactobacilli are displaced by a mixed population of pathogenic bacteria. Bacterial vaginosis increases susceptibility to HIV, and it has been suggested that host innate immune responses to pathogenic bacteria contribute to enhanced infection, yet the cellular mechanisms mediating the increased HIV susceptibility remain uncharacterized. We ev Read More

A feruloyl esterase (FAE) gene was isolated from a rumen microbial metagenome, cloned into E. coli, and expressed in active form. The enzyme (RuFae4) was classified as a Type D feruloyl esterase based on its action on synthetic substrates and ability to release diferulates. The RuFae4 alone released ferulic acid (FA) and diferulic acid (diFA) from wheat insoluble arabinoxylan (WIA) and other natural substrates. The diFA releas Read More

Late embryogenesis abundant (LEA) proteins are small molecular weight proteins involved in acquisition of tolerance to drought, salinity, high temperature, cold, and freezing stress in many plants. Previous studies revealed a cDNA sequence coding for a 10 kDa atypical LEA protein, named MeLEA3, predicted to be located into mitochondria with potential role in salt stress response of cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz). Her Read More

Mono or di-substituted prolines, namely proline chimeras of natural or synthetic origin, carry the side chain of other specific amino acids on the pyrrolidine ring. Thus, proline chimeras are useful tools for a wide range of chemical and biological applications as chiral synthons or building blocks for peptidomimetic design. We focused our attention on domoic acid and kainic acid and we report here a concise and up to date review Read More

Grapevine virus A (GVA), a flexible filament of approximately 800 nm in length is composed of capsid subunits that spontaneously assembles around a positive sense genomic RNA. In addition to encapsidation, plant viruses capsid proteins (CPs) participate in other processes throughout infection and GVA CP is involved in cell-to-cell translocation of the virus. A protocol was developed to obtain low-molecular weight GVA-C Read More

Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) appear as a promising therapeutic candidate against multiresistant pathogens, because they are able to kill microorganisms and have low toxicity of resistance cells. Hylin a1 (Hy-a1, IFGAILPLALGALKNLIK-NH2) is a peptide extracted from the skin secretion of the frog Hypsiboas albopunctatus, which displays antimicrobial and hemolytic activities. We report here structural studies of Hy-a1 usi Read More

To achieve the food-grade expression of bile salt hydrolase (BSH, EC 3.5.1.24) from Lactobacillus plantarum BBE7, the nisin controlled gene expression system (NICE), food-grade selection maker and signal peptide of Lactococcus lactis were used in this study. The open reading frame of BSH was optimized based on the codon bias of L. lactis, resulting in 12-fold and 9.5% increases in the intracellular and extracellular BSH Read More

Former data of our workgroup indicated that the accumulation of oxidized amino acids (meta- and ortho-tyrosine) due to oxidative stress may play an important role in the impaired insulininduced vasoactive properties of different arterial segments. There are evidences, that incorporation of these amino acids into cellular proteins leads to certain hormonal resistances, which might be restored by supplementation with the phy Read More

In the present study, we reported for the first time the effect of various concentrations (0.5– 3.0 mM) of Mg2+ and Al3+ ions on the kinetics and thermodynamics of Aspergillus niger invertases for sucrose hydrolysis. We found that both metal ions enhanced the affinity of invertase for sucrose by decreasing the Km. In the presence of 0.5 mM Al3+ ions invertase have maximum affinity for sucrose (Km = 0.00914 M sucrose). Inv Read More

A ~56 kDa protein having hemagglutination activity was purified and characterized from the Murraya paniculata seeds. The gel electrophoresis studies demonstrated that protein is primarily of two different subunits, molecular weight ~ 35 and 21 kDa held together by disulfide-linkages and predominantly by secondary forces. The cloning and sequence analysis revealed that the protein exhibited a substantial sequence identi Read More

An α-MSH peptide analogue, named MTII (Ac-Nle-c[Asp-His-D-Phe-Arg-Trp-Lys]- NH2), is one of the most important ligands of melanotropic receptors but are relatively nonselective. In order to improve the melanotropic activities of the well-characterized MTII analogues, we report here a new analogue by modifying the core structure as well as the size of the cyclic region of MTII peptide. The analogue peptide, Ac-Nle-c[As Read More