Charge Properties (charge + property)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


Functional role of fumarate site Glu59 involved in allosteric regulation and subunit,subunit interaction of human mitochondrial NAD(P)+ -dependent malic enzyme

FEBS JOURNAL, Issue 4 2009
Ju-Yi Hsieh
Here we report on the role of Glu59 in the fumarate-mediated allosteric regulation of the human mitochondrial NAD(P)+ -dependent malic enzyme (m-NAD-ME). In the present study, Glu59 was substituted by Asp, Gln or Leu. Our kinetic data strongly indicated that the charge properties of this residue significantly affect the allosteric activation of the enzyme. The E59L enzyme shows nonallosteric kinetics and the E59Q enzyme displays a much higher threshold in enzyme activation with elevated activation constants, KA,Fum and ,KA,Fum. The E59D enzyme, although retaining the allosteric property, is quite different from the wild-type in enzyme activation. The KA,Fum and ,KA,Fum of E59D are also much greater than those of the wild-type, indicating that not only the negative charge of this residue but also the group specificity and side chain interactions are important for fumarate binding. Analytical ultracentrifugation analysis shows that both the wild-type and E59Q enzymes exist as a dimer,tetramer equilibrium. In contrast to the E59Q mutant, the E59D mutant displays predominantly a dimer form, indicating that the quaternary stability in the dimer interface is changed by shortening one carbon side chain of Glu59 to Asp59. The E59L enzyme also shows a dimer,tetramer model similar to that of the wild-type, but it displays more dimers as well as monomers and polymers. Malate cooperativity is not significantly notable in the E59 mutant enzymes, suggesting that the cooperativity might be related to the molecular geometry of the fumarate-binding site. Glu59 can precisely maintain the geometric specificity for the substrate cooperativity. According to the sequence alignment analysis and our experimental data, we suggest that charge effect and geometric specificity are both critical factors in enzyme regulation. Glu59 discriminates human m-NAD-ME from mitochondrial NADP+ -dependent malic enzyme and cytosolic NADP+ -dependent malic enzyme in fumarate activation and malate cooperativity. [source]


Insulin transport across porous charged membranes: Effect of the electrostatic interaction

BIOTECHNOLOGY PROGRESS, Issue 5 2009
Shaoling Zhang
Abstract Insulin transport phenomena across a series of porous charged membranes were studied at two pH conditions (pH 3.3 and pH 7.4) in this article. The membranes were prepared by pore-surface modification of porous poly(acrylonitrile) (PAN) membranes by grafting with weak acidic and basic functional groups. The insulin partition coefficient K between the membrane and solution was estimated from the equilibrium adsorption amount in the batch adsorption experiment. The insulin effective diffusion coefficient D inside the membrane was determined as a fitting parameter by matching the diffusion model with the experimental data of the diffusion measurement. Both K and D correlated well with the charge properties of the insulin and membrane: when the insulin and membrane carried opposite net charge, the partition coefficient showed relatively larger values, while the effective diffusion coefficient was reduced. The insulin permeability coefficient P obtained from the experimental results agreed with that estimated from the partition coefficient and effective diffusion coefficient. These results suggested that the combined effects of the solubility and diffusivity on the permeability coefficient complicated the relationship between the permeability and the charge properties of the insulin and membrane. Additionally, our calculation supported that insulin permeability was reduced by the boundary layer between the membrane and solution. © 2009 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Biotechnol. Prog., 2009 [source]


Insulin adsorption into porous charged membranes: Effect of the electrostatic interaction

BIOTECHNOLOGY PROGRESS, Issue 4 2009
Shaoling Zhang
Abstract Insulin adsorption into a series of porous charged membranes was investigated by batch adsorption experiments, and the experimental results were analyzed by the homogeneous diffusion model. The membranes used in this study were prepared by pore-surface modification of porous poly(acrylonitrile) (PAN) membranes by grafting with weak acidic and basic functional groups. The amount of insulin adsorbed into the membrane was determined from the material balance of insulin. The insulin partition coefficient K between the membrane and solution was estimated from the equilibrium adsorption amount, and the effective diffusion coefficient D was estimated by matching the model with the experimental data as a fitting parameter. The dependence of K and D on the charge properties of the insulin and membrane is observed and discussed. The partition coefficient K increased when the insulin and the membrane carried opposite charges, on the other hand, the effective diffusion coefficient D was reduced. These results indicate that the electrostatic interaction between the insulin and the membranes played an important role in the insulin adsorption. © 2009 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Biotechnol. Prog. 2009 [source]


Modified Microperoxidases Exhibit Different Reactivity Towards Phenolic Substrates

CHEMBIOCHEM, Issue 12 2004
Corrado Dallacosta Dr.
Abstract The reactivity of several microperoxidase derivatives with different distal-site environments has been studied. The distal-site environments of these heme peptides include a positively charged one, an uncharged environment, two bulky and doubly or triply positively charged ones, and one containing aromatic apolar residues. The reactivity in the catalytic oxidation of two representative phenols, carrying opposite charges, by hydrogen peroxide has been investigated. This allows the determination of the binding constants and of the electron-transfer rate from the phenol to the catalyst in the substrate/microperoxidase complex. The electron-transfer rates scarcely depend on the redox and charge properties of the phenol, but depend strongly on the microperoxidase. Information on the disposition of the substrate in the adducts with the microperoxidases has been obtained through determination of the paramagnetic contribution to the1H NMR relaxation rates of the protons of the bound substrates. The data show that the electron-transfer rate drops when the substrate binds too far away from the iron and that the phenols bind to microperoxidases at similar distances to those observed with peroxidases. While the reaction rate of microperoxidases with peroxide is significantly smaller than that of the enzymes, the efficiency in the one-electron oxidation of phenolic substrates is almost comparable. Interestingly, the oxyferryl form of the triply positively charged microperoxidases shows a reactivity larger than that exhibited by horseradish peroxidase. [source]


Adsorption of hydrophobic organic compounds onto a hydrophobic carbonaceous geosorbent in the presence of surfactants,

ENVIRONMENTAL TOXICOLOGY & CHEMISTRY, Issue 6 2008
Peng Wang
Abstract The adsorption of hydrophobic organic compounds (HOCs; atrazine and diuron) onto lampblack was studied in the presence of nonionic, cationic, and anionic surfactants (Triton® X-100), benzalkonium chloride [BC], and linear alkylbenzene sulfonate [LAS]) to determine the effect of the surfactant on HOC adsorption onto a hydrophobic carbonaceous geosorbent. Linear alkylbenzene sulfonate showed an adsorption capacity higher than that of BC but similar to that of Triton X-100, implying the charge property of a surfactant is not a useful indicator for predicting the surfactant's adsorption onto a hydrophobic medium. The results also indicated that the octanol-water partition coefficient (Kow) of a surfactant is not a good predictor of that surfactant's sorption onto a hydrophobic medium. Under subsaturation adsorption conditions (i.e., before sorption saturation is reached), surfactant adsorption reduced HOC adsorption to a significant extent, with the reduction in HOC adsorption increasing monotonically with the amount of surfactant adsorbed. Among the three surfactants, Triton X-100 was the most effective in reducing HOC adsorption, whereas BC and LAS showed similar effectiveness in this regard. Under the same amount of the surfactant sorbed, the reduction in atrazine adsorption was consistently greater than that for diuron because of atrazine's lower hydrophobicity. No significant difference was observed in the amount of the HOC adsorbed under different adsorption sequences. Our results showed that the presence of surfactant can significantly decrease HOC adsorption onto hydrophobic environmental media and, thus, is important in predicting HOC fate and transport in the environment. [source]