Systematic Structure-Based Search for Ochratoxin-Degrading Enzymes in Proteomes from Filamentous Fungi

(1) Background: ochratoxins are mycotoxins produced by filamentous fungi with important implications in the food manufacturing industry due to their toxicity. Decontamination by specific ochratoxin-degrading enzymes has become an interesting alternative for the treatment of contaminated food commodities. (2) Methods: using a structure-based approach based on homology modeling, blind molecular docking of substrates and characterization of low-frequency protein motions, we performed a proteome mining in filamentous fungi to characterize new enzymes with potential ochratoxinase activity. (3) Results: the proteome mining results demonstrated the ubiquitous presence of fungal binuclear zinc-dependent amido-hydrolases with a high degree of structural homology to the already characterized ochratoxinase from Aspergillus niger. Ochratoxinase-like enzymes from ochratoxin-producing fungi showed more favorable substrate-binding pockets to accommodate ochratoxins A and B. (4) Conclusions: filamentous fungi are an interesting and rich source of hydrolases potentially capable of degrading ochratoxins, and could be used for the detoxification of diverse food commodities.

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Characterization of RF Sputtered ZnO Piezoelectric Films Using Transmission Electron Microscope

Proceedings, annual meeting, Electron Microscopy Society of America ◽

10.1017/s0424820100114050 ◽

1975 ◽

Vol 33 ◽

pp. 86-87

Author(s):

Kemining W. Yeh ◽

Richard S. Muller ◽

Wei-Kuo Wu ◽

Jack Washburn

Keyword(s):

Integrated Circuit ◽

Acoustic Waves ◽

New Technology ◽

Surface Acoustic Waves ◽

Electromechanical Properties ◽

Leading Role ◽

Saw Devices ◽

Transmission Electron ◽

High Degree

Considerable and continuing interest has been shown in the thin film transducer fabrication for surface acoustic waves (SAW) in the past few years. Due to the high degree of miniaturization, compatibility with silicon integrated circuit technology, simplicity and ease of design, this new technology has played an important role in the design of new devices for communications and signal processing. Among the commonly used piezoelectric thin films, ZnO generally yields superior electromechanical properties and is expected to play a leading role in the development of SAW devices.

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Characterization of Uncertainty in Low Frequency Active Sonar

10.21236/ada628079 ◽

2002 ◽

Author(s):

Peter G. Cable

Keyword(s):

Low Frequency ◽

Active Sonar

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Characterization of biomass-degrading enzymes using neutron diffraction and scattering

Neutron News ◽

10.1080/10448632.2021.1875777 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 32 (1) ◽

pp. 13-14

Author(s):

Flora Meilleur

Keyword(s):

Neutron Diffraction ◽

Degrading Enzymes ◽

Neutron Diffraction And Scattering

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New Insights on the Zeugodacus cucurbitae (Coquillett) Bacteriome

Microorganisms ◽

10.3390/microorganisms9030659 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 9 (3) ◽

pp. 659

Author(s):

Elias Asimakis ◽

Panagiota Stathopoulou ◽

Apostolis Sapounas ◽

Kanjana Khaeso ◽

Costas Batargias ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Relative Abundance ◽

Bacterial Communities ◽

High Throughput Sequencing ◽

Mutual Exclusion ◽

Bacterial Composition ◽

Operational Taxonomic Units ◽

Host Diet ◽

Dominant Bacteria ◽

High Degree

Various factors, including the insect host, diet, and surrounding ecosystem can shape the structure of the bacterial communities of insects. We have employed next generation, high-throughput sequencing of the 16S rRNA to characterize the bacteriome of wild Zeugodacus (Bactrocera) cucurbitae (Coquillett) flies from three regions of Bangladesh. The tested populations developed distinct bacterial communities with differences in bacterial composition, suggesting that geography has an impact on the fly bacteriome. The dominant bacteria belonged to the families Enterobacteriaceae, Dysgomonadaceae and Orbaceae, with the genera Dysgonomonas, Orbus and Citrobacter showing the highest relative abundance across populations. Network analysis indicated variable interactions between operational taxonomic units (OTUs), with cases of mutual exclusion and copresence. Certain bacterial genera with high relative abundance were also characterized by a high degree of interactions. Interestingly, genera with a low relative abundance like Shimwellia, Gilliamella, and Chishuiella were among those that showed abundant interactions, suggesting that they are also important components of the bacterial community. Such knowledge could help us identify ideal wild populations for domestication in the context of the sterile insect technique or similar biotechnological methods. Further characterization of this bacterial diversity with transcriptomic and metabolic approaches, could also reveal their specific role in Z. cucurbitae physiology.

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Utilization of Solid Waste from Brick Industry and Hydrated Lime in Self-Compacting Cement Pastes

Materials ◽

10.3390/ma14051109 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 14 (5) ◽

pp. 1109

Author(s):

Mati Ullah Shah ◽

Muhammad Usman ◽

Muhammad Usman Hanif ◽

Iqra Naseem ◽

Sara Farooq

Keyword(s):

Mechanical Properties ◽

Solid Waste ◽

Manufacturing Industry ◽

Setting Time ◽

Hydrated Lime ◽

Pozzolanic Reaction ◽

Early Age ◽

Cement Pastes ◽

Brick Powder ◽

High Degree

The huge amount of solid waste from the brick manufacturing industry can be used as a cement replacement. However, replacement exceeding 10% causes a reduction in strength due to the slowing of the pozzolanic reaction. Therefore, in this study, the pozzolanic potential of brick waste is enhanced using ultrafine brick powder with hydrated lime (HL). A total of six self-compacting paste mixes were studied. HL 2.5% by weight of binder was added in two formulations: 10% and 20% of waste burnt brick powder (WBBP), to activate the pozzolanic reaction. An increase in the water demand and setting time was observed by increasing the replacement percentage of WBBP. It was found that the mechanical properties of mixes containing 5% and 10% WBBP performed better than the control mix, while the mechanical properties of the mixes containing 20% WBBP were found to be almost equal to the control mix at 90 days. The addition of HL enhanced the early-age strength. Furthermore, WBBP formulations endorsed improvements in both durability and rheological properties, complemented by reduced early-age shrinkage. Overall, it was found that brick waste in ultrafine size has a very high degree of pozzolanic potential and can be effectively utilized as a supplementary cementitious material.

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Design and Characterization of low frequency Capacitive Micromachined Ultrasonic Transducer (CMUT)

2020 IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics (SMC) ◽

10.1109/smc42975.2020.9282903 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Mayank B. Thacker ◽

Douglas A. Buchanan

Keyword(s):

Ultrasonic Transducer ◽

Low Frequency ◽

Capacitive Micromachined Ultrasonic Transducer

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Genomic Tackling of Human Satellite DNA: Breaking Barriers through Time

International Journal of Molecular Sciences ◽

10.3390/ijms22094707 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 22 (9) ◽

pp. 4707

Author(s):

Mariana Lopes ◽

Sandra Louzada ◽

Margarida Gama-Carvalho ◽

Raquel Chaves

Keyword(s):

Human Genome ◽

Satellite Dna ◽

Repetitive Sequences ◽

Nucleotide Composition ◽

Genomic Component ◽

Genomic Studies ◽

Human Genomic ◽

Definition Of ◽

High Degree

(Peri)centromeric repetitive sequences and, more specifically, satellite DNA (satDNA) sequences, constitute a major human genomic component. SatDNA sequences can vary on a large number of features, including nucleotide composition, complexity, and abundance. Several satDNA families have been identified and characterized in the human genome through time, albeit at different speeds. Human satDNA families present a high degree of sub-variability, leading to the definition of various subfamilies with different organization and clustered localization. Evolution of satDNA analysis has enabled the progressive characterization of satDNA features. Despite recent advances in the sequencing of centromeric arrays, comprehensive genomic studies to assess their variability are still required to provide accurate and proportional representation of satDNA (peri)centromeric/acrocentric short arm sequences. Approaches combining multiple techniques have been successfully applied and seem to be the path to follow for generating integrated knowledge in the promising field of human satDNA biology.

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Stoichiometry and compositional plasticity of the yeast nuclear pore complex revealed by quantitative fluorescence microscopy

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ◽

10.1073/pnas.1719398115 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 115 (17) ◽

pp. E3969-E3977 ◽

Cited By ~ 36

Author(s):

Sasikumar Rajoo ◽

Pascal Vallotton ◽

Evgeny Onischenko ◽

Karsten Weis

Keyword(s):

Nuclear Pore Complex ◽

Yeast Cells ◽

Nuclear Pore ◽

Altered Expression ◽

Copy Numbers ◽

Quantitative Image ◽

Multiple Copies ◽

Almost All ◽

High Degree

The nuclear pore complex (NPC) is an eightfold symmetrical channel providing selective transport of biomolecules across the nuclear envelope. Each NPC consists of ∼30 different nuclear pore proteins (Nups) all present in multiple copies per NPC. Significant progress has recently been made in the characterization of the vertebrate NPC structure. However, because of the estimated size differences between the vertebrate and yeast NPC, it has been unclear whether the NPC architecture is conserved between species. Here, we have developed a quantitative image analysis pipeline, termed nuclear rim intensity measurement (NuRIM), to precisely determine copy numbers for almost all Nups within native NPCs of budding yeast cells. Our analysis demonstrates that the majority of yeast Nups are present at most in 16 copies per NPC. This reveals a dramatic difference to the stoichiometry determined for the human NPC, suggesting that despite a high degree of individual Nup conservation, the yeast and human NPC architecture is significantly different. Furthermore, using NuRIM, we examined the effects of mutations on NPC stoichiometry. We demonstrate for two paralog pairs of key scaffold Nups, Nup170/Nup157 and Nup192/Nup188, that their altered expression leads to significant changes in the NPC stoichiometry inducing either voids in the NPC structure or substitution of one paralog by the other. Thus, our results not only provide accurate stoichiometry information for the intact yeast NPC but also reveal an intriguing compositional plasticity of the NPC architecture, which may explain how differences in NPC composition could arise in the course of evolution.

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