scholarly journals Homochirality May Not Be a Prerequisite for Protein Structure and Function: A Computational Model Investigation of Prebiotic Peptides

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jianxun Shen ◽  
Pauline M. Schwartz ◽  
Carl Barratt
Keyword(s):  
Amino Acids ◽  
Amino Acid ◽  
Hierarchical Cluster ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
Beta Sheets ◽  
Folding Energy ◽  
Primitive Earth ◽  
C Terminus ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Prebiotic Amino Acids

On the primitive Earth, both L- and D-amino acids would have been present. However, only L-amino acids are essential blocks to construct proteins in modern life. To study the relative stability of homochiral and heterochiral peptides, a variety of computational methods were employed. 10 prebiotic amino acids (Gly, Ala, Asp, Glu, Ile, Leu, Pro, Ser, Thr, and Val) were previously determined by multiple previous meteorite, spark discharge, and hydrothermal vent studies. We focused on what had been reported as primary early Earth polypeptide analogs: 1ARK, 1PPT, 1ZFI, and 2LZE. Tripeptide composed of only Asp, Ser, and Val exemplified that different positions (i.e., N-terminus, C-terminus, and middle) made a difference in minimal folding energy of peptides, while the classification of amino acid (hydrophobic, acidic, or hydroxylic) did not show significant difference. Hierarchical cluster analysis for dipeptides with all possible combinations of the proposed 10 prebiotic amino acids and their D-amino acid substituted derivatives generated five clusters. Prebiotic polypeptides were built up to test the significance of molecular fluctuations, secondary structure occupancies, and folding energy differences based on these clusters. Most interestingly, among 129 residues, mutation sensitivity profiles presented that the ratio of more stable to less stable to equally stable D-amino acids was about 1:1:1. In conclusion, some combinations of a mixture of L- and D-amino acids can act as essential building blocks of life. Peptides with α-helices, long β-sheets, and long loops are usually less sensitive to D-amino acid replacements in comparison to short β-sheets.

Responses of single facial taste fibers in the channel catfish, Ictalurus punctatus, to amino acids

1992 ◽  
Vol 68 (4) ◽  
pp. 1012-1026 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Kohbara ◽  
W. Michel ◽  
J. Caprio
Keyword(s):  
Amino Acids ◽  
Amino Acid ◽  
Spontaneous Activity ◽  
Ictalurus Punctatus ◽  
Channel Catfish ◽  
Response Times ◽  
Hierarchical Cluster ◽  
Whitney Test ◽  
Mann Whitney Test ◽  
Significant Difference

1. Amino acids and nucleotides stimulate taste receptors of teleosts. In this report, responses to these compounds of 105 facial taste fibers (79 fully characterized) that innervate maxillary barbel taste buds of the channel catfish (Ictalurus punctatus) were analyzed. 2. The fully characterized facial taste fibers that responded to amino acids (n = 68) were generally poorly responsive to nucleotides and related substances (NRS), whereas the fibers responsive to NRS (n = 11) were poorly responsive to amino acids. Spike discharge of the amino acid-responsive fibers to the most potent amino acid stimulus tested per fiber increased 44-fold from a mean spontaneous activity of 2.1 +/- 3.5 to 92.1 +/- 42.4 (SD) spikes/3 s. Spike activity of the NRS-responsive fibers to NRS increased 11.5-fold from a mean spontaneous activity of 3.4 +/- 5.9 to 39.1 +/- 27.4 spikes/3 s. There was no significant difference between the spontaneous rates, but stimulus evoked spike rates for the amino acid-responsive fibers were significantly greater (P < 0.05; Mann-Whitney test) than those for the NRS-responsive fibers. 3. Hierarchical cluster analysis based on the 3-s response time identified three major groups of neurons. The identified clusters comprised neurons that were highly responsive to either L-alanine (i.e., Ala cluster; n = 39), L-arginine (i.e., Arg cluster; n = 29), or NRS (NRS cluster; n = 11). Fibers comprising the Arg cluster were more narrowly tuned than those within the Ala cluster. This report further characterizes the responses to amino acids of the individual facial taste fibers comprising the Ala and Arg clusters. 4. Subclusters were evident within both of the amino acid-responsive clusters. The Arg cluster was divisible into two subclusters dependent on the response to 1 mM L-proline. Twelve neurons that were significantly (P < 0.05; Mann-Whitney test) more responsive to L-proline than the remaining 17 neurons within the Arg cluster formed the Arg/Pro subcluster; these latter 17 neurons comprised the Arg subcluster. However, there was no significant difference (Mann-Whitney test) in the response to L-arginine between fibers within either subcluster across four different response times analyzed. Fibers within the Ala cluster were generally poorly responsive to L-proline. Four alanine subclusters were suggested on the basis of their relative responses to L-alanine, D-alanine, L-arginine, and the NRS; however, of the 39 fibers comprising the alanine cluster, two alanine subclusters comprised only two fibers each, and the third subcluster consisted of four fibers.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

scholarly journals Effect of Different Edaphic Crop Conditions on the Free Amino Acid Profile of PH-16 Dry Cacao Beans

Agronomy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 1637
Author(s):  
Quintino Reis de Araujo ◽  
Guilherme Amorim Homem de Abreu Loureiro ◽  
Cid Edson Mendonça Póvoas ◽  
Douglas Steinmacher ◽  
Stephane Sacramento de Almeida ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Amino Acids ◽  
Amino Acid ◽  
Glutamic Acid ◽  
Free Amino Acid ◽  
Free Amino Acids ◽  
Free Amino ◽  
Principal Component ◽  
Amino Acid Profile ◽  
Gamma Aminobutyric Acid ◽  
Significant Difference

Free amino acids in cacao beans are important precursors to the aroma and flavor of chocolate. In this research, we used inferential and explanatory statistical techniques to verify the effect of different edaphic crop conditions on the free amino acid profile of PH-16 dry cacao beans. The decreasing order of free amino acids in PH-16 dry cacao beans is leucine, phenylalanine, glutamic acid, alanine, asparagine, tyrosine, gamma-aminobutyric acid, valine, isoleucine, glutamine, lysine, aspartic acid, serine, tryptophan, threonine, glycine. With the exception of lysine, no other free amino acid showed a significant difference between means of different edaphic conditions under the ANOVA F-test. The hydrophobic free amino acids provided the largest contribution to the explained variance with 58.01% of the first dimension of the principal component analysis. Glutamic acid stands out in the second dimension with 13.09%. Due to the stability of the biochemical profile of free amino acids in this clonal variety, it is recommended that cacao producers consider the genotype as the primary source of variation in the quality of cacao beans and ultimately the chocolate to be produced.

scholarly journals The Extracellular Transport Signal of the Vibrio cholerae Endochitinase (ChiA) Is a Structural Motif Located between Amino Acids 75 and 555

2002 ◽  
Vol 184 (8) ◽  
pp. 2225-2234 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason P. Folster ◽  
Terry D. Connell
Keyword(s):  
Amino Acids ◽  
Amino Acid ◽  
Vibrio Cholerae ◽  
Structural Information ◽  
Amino Acid Sequences ◽  
Structural Motif ◽  
Terminal Branch ◽  
C Terminus ◽  
N Terminus ◽  
Extracellular Transport

ABSTRACT ChiA, an 88-kDa endochitinase encoded by the chiA gene of the gram-negative enteropathogen Vibrio cholerae, is secreted via the eps-encoded main terminal branch of the general secretory pathway (GSP), a mechanism which also transports cholera toxin. To localize the extracellular transport signal of ChiA that initiates transport of the protein through the GSP, a chimera comprised of ChiA fused at the N terminus with the maltose-binding protein (MalE) of Escherichia coli and fused at the C terminus with a 13-amino-acid epitope tag (E-tag) was expressed in strain 569B(chiA::Kanr), a chiA-deficient but secretion-competent mutant of V. cholerae. Fractionation studies revealed that blockage of the natural N terminus and C terminus of ChiA did not prevent secretion of the MalE-ChiA-E-tag chimera. To locate the amino acid sequences which encoded the transport signal, a series of truncations of ChiA were engineered. Secretion of the mutant polypeptides was curtailed only when ChiA was deleted from the N terminus beyond amino acid position 75 or from the C terminus beyond amino acid 555. A mutant ChiA comprised of only those amino acids was secreted by wild-type V. cholerae but not by an epsD mutant, establishing that amino acids 75 to 555 independently harbored sufficient structural information to promote secretion by the GSP of V. cholerae. Cys77 and Cys537, two cysteines located just within the termini of ChiA(75-555), were not required for secretion, indicating that those residues were not essential for maintaining the functional activity of the ChiA extracellular transport signal.

scholarly journals Monoclonal Antibodies Detect a Single Amino Acid Difference Between the Coat Proteins of Soilborne Wheat Mosaic Virus Isolates: Implications for Virus Structure

1997 ◽  
Vol 87 (3) ◽  
pp. 295-301 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jianping Chen ◽  
Lesley Torrance ◽  
Graham H. Cowan ◽  
Stuart A. MacFarlane ◽  
Gerald Stubbs ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Amino Acids ◽  
Monoclonal Antibodies ◽  
Amino Acid ◽  
Mosaic Virus ◽  
Single Amino Acid ◽  
Computer Assisted ◽  
Amino Acid Difference ◽  
Coat Proteins ◽  
C Terminus ◽  
Readthrough Protein

Four monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) were prepared against an isolate of soilborne wheat mosaic furovirus from Oklahoma (SBWMV Okl-7). Three MAbs had different reactivities in tests on SBWMV isolates from Nebraska (Lab1), France, and Japan. One MAb (SCR 133) also reacted with oat golden stripe furovirus. None of the MAbs cross-reacted with other rod-shaped viruses including beet necrotic yellow vein furovirus, potato mop-top furovirus, and tobacco rattle tobravirus. Sequence analysis of nucleotides between 334 and 1,000 of RNA 2, the region that encodes the coat protein (CP) and the first 44 amino acids of a readthrough protein, of the four SBWMV isolates revealed up to 27 base changes from the published sequence of a Nebraska field isolate of SBWMV. Most changes were translationally silent, but some caused differences of one to three amino acids in residues located near either the N- or C-terminus of the CPs of the different isolates. Two further single amino acid changes were found at the beginning of the readthrough domain of the CP-readthrough protein. Some of these amino acid changes could be discriminated by MAbs SCR 132, SCR 133, and SCR 134. Peptide scanning (Pepscan) analysis indicated that the epitope recognized by SCR 134 is located near the N-terminus of the CP. SCR 132 was deduced to react with a discontinuous CP epitope near the C-terminus, and SCR 133 reacted with a surface-located continuous epitope also near the C-terminus. Predictions of CP structure from computer-assisted three-dimensional model building, by comparison with the X-ray fiber diffraction structure of tobacco mosaic virus, suggested that the three CP amino acids found to differ between isolates of SBWMV were located near the viral surface and were in regions predicted to be antigenic.

scholarly journals Prebiotic amino acids bind to and stabilize prebiotic fatty acid membranes

2019 ◽  
Vol 116 (35) ◽  
pp. 17239-17244 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caitlin E. Cornell ◽  
Roy A. Black ◽  
Mengjun Xue ◽  
Helen E. Litz ◽  
Andrew Ramsay ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Amino Acids ◽  
Fatty Acid ◽  
Divalent Cations ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
Rna Catalysis ◽  
Membrane Stabilization ◽  
Molecular Building Blocks ◽  
Prebiotic Amino Acids ◽  
Self Assembled ◽  
High Concentrations

The membranes of the first protocells on the early Earth were likely self-assembled from fatty acids. A major challenge in understanding how protocells could have arisen and withstood changes in their environment is that fatty acid membranes are unstable in solutions containing high concentrations of salt (such as would have been prevalent in early oceans) or divalent cations (which would have been required for RNA catalysis). To test whether the inclusion of amino acids addresses this problem, we coupled direct techniques of cryoelectron microscopy and fluorescence microscopy with techniques of NMR spectroscopy, centrifuge filtration assays, and turbidity measurements. We find that a set of unmodified, prebiotic amino acids binds to prebiotic fatty acid membranes and that a subset stabilizes membranes in the presence of salt and Mg2+. Furthermore, we find that final concentrations of the amino acids need not be high to cause these effects; membrane stabilization persists after dilution as would have occurred during the rehydration of dried or partially dried pools. In addition to providing a means to stabilize protocell membranes, our results address the challenge of explaining how proteins could have become colocalized with membranes. Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins, and our results are consistent with a positive feedback loop in which amino acids bound to self-assembled fatty acid membranes, resulting in membrane stabilization and leading to more binding in turn. High local concentrations of molecular building blocks at the surface of fatty acid membranes may have aided the eventual formation of proteins.

scholarly journals Amino acid sequences around the cystine residues in horse growth hormone

1968 ◽  
Vol 109 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louise Oliver ◽  
Anne Stockell Hartree
Keyword(s):  
Amino Acids ◽  
Growth Hormone ◽  
Amino Acid ◽  
Growth Hormones ◽  
Amino Acid Sequences ◽  
The Other ◽  
Published Data ◽  
C Terminus

The cystine-containing peptides of horse growth hormone were isolated and their amino acid sequences determined. Four unique half-cystine residues occur in two peptides, one containing 11 and the other, at the C-terminus of the protein, 15 amino acids. These sequences are compared with published data on growth hormones from other species.

Laboratory simulation of UV irradiation from the Sun on amino acids. I: irradiation of tyrosine

2007 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 123-129 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Scappini ◽  
F. Casadei ◽  
R. Zamboni ◽  
S. Monti ◽  
P. Giorgianni ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Amino Acids ◽  
Uv Irradiation ◽  
Degradation Products ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
Laboratory Simulation ◽  
The Sun ◽  
Primitive Earth ◽  
Laboratory Results ◽  
Building Capability ◽  
Primordial Life

AbstractThe effects of ultraviolet (UV) irradiation on water solutions of tyrosine (HO—C6H4—CH2—CHNH2—COOH) have been investigated using a Xe lamp in the region 200–800 nm. This is a step in laboratory simulation towards reproducing the action of the Solar radiation on the building blocks of life, specifically α-amino acids, in the primitive Earth anoxic conditions. Results are presented showing the photostability of tyrosine against different UV doses. Degradation products partly maintain life building capability and partly do not. A tendency towards structure complexification was observed. The analysis of the irradiated tyrosine solutions was conducted using various spectroscopic and analytic techniques. The laboratory results are discussed in the light of a primordial life-emerging scenario.

Trans-tegumental absorption of L-alanine and L-leucine by a monogenean, Diclidophora merlangi

Parasitology ◽  
1978 ◽  
Vol 76 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. W. Halton
Keyword(s):  
Amino Acids ◽  
Molecular Weight ◽  
Amino Acid ◽  
Sea Water ◽  
Low Molecular Weight ◽  
Acid Uptake ◽  
Neutral Amino Acids ◽  
Freeze Dried ◽  
Significant Difference

SummaryAn in vitro investigation has been made of the relative roles of the gut and tegument in the absorption of the neutral amino acids L-alanine and L-leucine by a marine fish-gill parasite, Diclidophora merlangi. The use of ligatures to preclude oral ingestion of trace-labelled medium has proved inadequate, invariably damaging the tegument, as revealed by stereoscan electron microscopy, and resulting in artifactual levels of absorption. Three alternative procedures have given consistently reliable data on the route of entry of low molecular weight substrates. (1) Ultrastructural examination of worms previously incubated in electron-dense cationic tracers has shown that, in vitro, there is no oral intake of sea water. (2) The suspending of worms in trace-labelled medium with the mouth out of the medium and comparing amino acid uptake with that of worms totally immersed in medium has revealed no statistically significant difference in the absorption levels. (3) Application of section (freeze-dried) auto-radiography to detect diffusible isotope has demonstrated directly transtegumental absorption of a neutral amino acid. It is concluded from these experiments that Diclidophora has a tegumental transport system for absorbing certain neutral amino acids, and whilst, clearly, the worm is sanguinivorous and digests blood in a well-developed gut, it may also be capable of supplementing this diet with low molecular weight organic nutrient absorbed directly from sea water via the tegument.

scholarly journals Amino Acid Compositions of 27 Food Fishes and Their Importance in Clinical Nutrition

2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bimal Mohanty ◽  
Arabinda Mahanty ◽  
Satabdi Ganguly ◽  
T. V. Sankar ◽  
Kajal Chakraborty ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Amino Acids ◽  
Amino Acid ◽  
Protein Content ◽  
High Performance ◽  
Crude Protein ◽  
Cold Water ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
Crude Protein Content ◽  
Dietary Counseling ◽  
Amino Acid Compositions

Proteins and amino acids are important biomolecules which regulate key metabolic pathways and serve as precursors for synthesis of biologically important substances; moreover, amino acids are building blocks of proteins. Fish is an important dietary source of quality animal proteins and amino acids and play important role in human nutrition. In the present investigation, crude protein content and amino acid compositions of important food fishes from different habitats have been studied. Crude protein content was determined by Kjeldahl method and amino acid composition was analyzed by high performance liquid chromatography and information on 27 food fishes was generated. The analysis showed that the cold water species are rich in lysine and aspartic acid, marine fishes in leucine, small indigenous fishes in histidine, and the carps and catfishes in glutamic acid and glycine. The enriched nutrition knowledge base would enhance the utility of fish as a source of quality animal proteins and amino acids and aid in their inclusion in dietary counseling and patient guidance for specific nutritional needs.

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