scholarly journals Use of Raman and Raman optical activity to extract atomistic details of saccharides in aqueous solution

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vladimír Palivec ◽  
Christian Johannessen ◽  
Jakub Kaminský ◽  
Hector Martinez-Seara

Sugars are crucial components in biosystems and industrial applications. In aqueous environments, the natural state of short saccharides or charged glycosaminoglycans is floating and wiggling in solution. Therefore, tools to characterize their structure in a native aqueous environment are crucial but not always available. Here, we show that a combination of Raman/ROA and, on occasions, NMR experiments with Molecular Dynamics (MD) and Quantum Mechanics (QM) is a viable method to gain insights into structural features of sugars in solutions. Combining these methods provides information about accessible ring puckering conformers and their proportions. It also provides information about the conformation of the linkage between the sugar monomers, i.e., glycosidic bonds, allowing for identifying significantly accessible conformers and their relative abundance. For mixtures of sugar moieties, this method enables the deconvolution of the Raman/ROA spectra to find the actual amounts of its molecular constituents, serving as an effective analytical technique. For example, it allows calculating anomeric ratios for reducing sugars and analyzing more complex sugar mixtures to elucidate their real content. Altogether, we show that combining Raman/ROA spectroscopies with simulations is a versatile method applicable to saccharides. It allows for accessing many features with precision comparable to other methods routinely used for this task, making it a viable alternative. Furthermore, we prove that the proposed technique can scale up by studying the complicated Raffinose trisaccharide, and therefore, we expect its wide adoption to characterize sugar structural features in solution.

Author(s):  
Girisha Malhotra ◽  
Shilpa S. Chapadgaonkar

Abstract Background Xylanase is one of the widely applied industrial enzymes with diverse applications. Thermostability and alkali tolerance are the two most desirable qualities for industrial applications of xylanase. In this paper, we reveal the statistical Taguchi optimization strategy for maximization of xylanase production. The important process parameters pH, temperature, concentration of wheat bran, and concentration of yeast extract were optimized using the Taguchi L8 orthogonal array where the 4 factors were considered at 2 levels (high and low). Results The optimized conditions given by model were obtained as follows: (i) pH 6, (ii) culture temperature 35 °C, (iii) concentration of xylan 2% w/v, (iv) concentration of wheat bran 2.5% w/v. The production was scaled upto 2.5 L bioreactor using optimized process parameters. A high xylanase titer of 400 U/ml could be achieved in less than 60 h of culture in the reactor. Conclusion Optimization was successful in achieving about threefold increase in the yield of xylanase. The optimized conditions resulted in a successful scale up and enhancement of xylanase production.


2006 ◽  
Vol 116-117 ◽  
pp. 402-405 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qin Yue Pan ◽  
Stuart Wiesner ◽  
Diran Apelian

The continuous rheoconversion process (CRP) is a novel slurry-on-demand process that was developed at MPI/WPI in 2002. The process is based on a passive liquid mixing technique in which the nucleation and growth of the primary phase are controlled using a specially designed “reactor”. The reactor provides heat extraction, copious nucleation, and forced convection during the initial stage of solidification, thus leading to the formation of globular structures. This paper presents our recent work on the scale-up of the CRP for industrial applications. Specifically, we demonstrate an important application of the CRP to low temperature (low fraction solid) HPDC. In Part I of this paper, we present salient results on microstructural characterization of CRP processed castings vs. conventional die castings.


1984 ◽  
Vol 49 (11) ◽  
pp. 2674-2679 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Capek ◽  
Rudolf Toman ◽  
Jozef Rosík ◽  
Alžbeta Kardošová ◽  
František Janeček

From the roots of the medicinal plant Althaea officinalis L., three D-glucans were isolated by gel chromatography which differed in molecular weights. The results of methylation analyses and 13C NMR measurements indicated predominantly linear character of the polysaccharide chains composed of α-D-glucopyranose units linked by 1 → 6 glycosidic bonds almost exclusively. The polymers had essentially the same structural features as D-glucan isolated from the leaves of this plant.


Tribology ◽  
2006 ◽  
Author(s):  
I. Hilerio ◽  
M. Vite ◽  
M. A. Barro´n ◽  
H. Jime´nez ◽  
G. D. Alva´rez

In the present work, is developed the tribologic characterization of steels AISI H-13 and D-2, submitted to nitruration ionic process to determine wear resistance in aqueous conditions. Wear test are realized with an abrasion wear tool in an aqueous environment, designed and constructed by SEPI, ESIME, IPN, according to the norm ASTM G105-89. The aim of this investigation is to use a new material at lower prize which has an excellent wear resistance properties for high abrasion in aqueous environments, as occurs in several cases as mining industry equipments.


Author(s):  
Gregory L. Holst ◽  
Brian D. Jensen

This paper presents an underwater, silicon, thermal microactuation system capable of moving a 200 μN load to a displacement of 110 μm. Its function relies on a thermal actuator capable of 9 μm of displacement in an aqueous environment. This actuator is combined with a ratcheting device to achieve the 110 μm of displacement. The system is a microelectromechanical system (MEMS) fabricated with a two layer surface-micromachining process, PolyMUMPS. The actuation system is designed to provide motion to biological microelectromechanical systems (BioMEMS) in aqueous environments. This paper presents the design and experimental demonstration of the actuation system. The in-depth analysis of the thermal, mechanical, and fabrication aspects of the actuation system are outlined, and the experimental procedure and test parameters are discussed.


Marine Drugs ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (6) ◽  
pp. 312 ◽  
Author(s):  
Franciele Camacho ◽  
Angela Macedo ◽  
Francisco Malcata

Bioactive compounds, e.g., protein, polyunsaturated fatty acids, carotenoids, vitamins and minerals, found in commercial form of microalgal biomass (e.g., powder, flour, liquid, oil, tablet, or capsule forms) may play important roles in functional food (e.g., dairy products, desserts, pastas, oil-derivatives, or supplements) or feed (for cattle, poultry, shellfish, and fish) with favorable outcomes upon human health, including antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, and antiviral effects, as well as prevention of gastric ulcers, constipation, anemia, diabetes, and hypertension. However, scale up remains a major challenge before commercial competitiveness is attained. Notwithstanding the odds, a few companies have already overcome market constraints, and are successfully selling extracts of microalgae as colorant, or supplement for food and feed industries. Strong scientific evidence of probiotic roles of microalgae in humans is still lacking, while scarce studies have concluded on probiotic activity in marine animals upon ingestion. Limitations in culture harvesting and shelf life extension have indeed constrained commercial viability. There are, however, scattered pieces of evidence that microalgae play prebiotic roles, owing to their richness in oligosaccharides—hardly fermented by other members of the intestinal microbiota, or digested throughout the gastrointestinal tract of humans/animals for that matter. However, consistent applications exist only in the dairy industry and aquaculture. Despite the underlying potential in formulation of functional food/feed, extensive research and development efforts are still required before microalgae at large become a commercial reality in food and feed formulation.


2014 ◽  
Vol 70 (6) ◽  
pp. 1659-1668 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kwang-Hyun Park ◽  
Jong-Hyun Jung ◽  
Sung-Goo Park ◽  
Myeong-Eun Lee ◽  
James F. Holden ◽  
...  

A novel maltose-forming α-amylase (PSMA) was recently found in the hyperthermophilic archaeonPyrococcussp. ST04. This enzyme shows <13% amino-acid sequence identity to other known α-amylases and displays a unique enzymatic property in that it hydrolyzes both α-1,4-glucosidic and α-1,6-glucosidic linkages of substrates, recognizing only maltose units, in an exo-type manner. Here, the crystal structure of PSMA at a resolution of 1.8 Å is reported, showing a tight ring-shaped tetramer with monomers composed of two domains: an N-domain (amino acids 1–341) with a typical GH57 family (β/α)7-barrel fold and a C-domain (amino acids 342–597) composed of α-helical bundles. A small closed cavity observed in proximity to the catalytic residues Glu153 and Asp253 at the domain interface has the appropriate volume and geometry to bind a maltose unit, accounting for the selective exo-type maltose hydrolysis of the enzyme. A narrow gate at the putative subsite +1 formed by residue Phe218 and Phe452 is essential for specific cleavage of glucosidic bonds. The closed cavity at the active site is connected to a short substrate-binding channel that extends to the central hole of the tetramer, exhibiting a geometry that is significantly different from classical maltogenic amylases or β-amylases. The structural features of this novel exo-type maltose-forming α-amylase provide a molecular basis for its unique enzymatic characteristics and for its potential use in industrial applications and protein engineering.


2013 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 2320-2327 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olivia N Monaco ◽  
Sarah C Tomas ◽  
Meghan K Kirrane ◽  
Amy M Balija

Bisimine and bisamine AB2 monomers have been synthesized from 3,5-diaminobenzoic acid and benzaldehyde derivatives without the need for protective groups or purification. This monomer preparation is universal for various electron-donating and electron-withdrawing benzaldehyde substrates. To demonstrate the versatility of these previously unreported AB2 monomers in the formation of high molecular weight structures, novel first-generation dendrimers and hybrid second-generation dendrimers have been synthesized. Using fluorescence spectroscopy, pyrene was shown to be removed from an aqueous environment upon exposure to thin dendrimer films, with the first-generation dendrimer removing 70% of the pyrene within 30 min and the hybrid second-generation dendrimers removing 38–52%. Inclusion formation constants were calculated to be on the order of 109–1011 M−1 and are comparable to the values of previously reported macromolecules. These results illustrate that size may not influence pyrene removal as effectively as composition.


2009 ◽  
Vol 1224 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan F. Jankowski

AbstractNanocrystalline nanolaminate (ncnl) structures are widely used in the study of physical properties in order to engineer materials for a variety of industrial applications. Often, novel and interesting mechanical behaviours that are found in nanolaminate materials can be linked with two characteristic features of structure. These are the layer pair spacing and the grain size. For the case of nanolaminates synthesized by physical vapor deposition processes, the layer spacing corresponds with the repeating sequence of layer pairs and can be referred to as composition wavelength. The grain size is the average width of the tapered columnar structure along the growth direction. Since the mechanical properties of strength and hardness are known to functionally vary with the separation between dislocations in crystalline materials, both structural features can potentially contribute to the total interfacial area and the characteristic separation of interfaces that mitigate dislocation motion. In this investigation, the individual contribution of layer pair spacing and grain size to the total interfacial structure are each quantified in an assessment of strength and hardness. A model is proposed for the total interfacial area of the material volume under plastic deformation that can quantify the interfacial area contribution from the layer pairs and the grain size. It is anticipated that each structural feature can potentially dominate the plastic deformation of the nanolaminate as dependent upon the specific layer pair spacing, the grain size, and the extent of plastic deformation.


2001 ◽  
Vol 56 (2) ◽  
pp. 387-394 ◽  
Author(s):  
A Tuchlenski ◽  
A Beckmann ◽  
D Reusch ◽  
R Düssel ◽  
U Weidlich ◽  
...  

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