scholarly journals Three-Dimensional Structure of PANI/CdS NRs-SiO2 Hydrogel for Photocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution with High Activity and Stability

Nanomaterials ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 427 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jinrong Lu ◽  
Xin Zhang ◽  
Huiyuan Gao ◽  
Wenquan Cui

Three-dimensional PANI/CdSNRs-SiO2 hydrogel (CdS NRs-PANI-SiO2) was synthesized by loading polyaniline (PANI) onto the semiconductor CdS nanorods (NRs) surface and loading the binary complex on SiO2 gel. The structure, optical properties, and electrochemical properties of the composite were studied in detail. The hydrogen production amount of CdS NRs-PANI (3%)-SiO2 (20%) increased in comparison with CdS NRs and reached 43.25 mmol/g in 3 h under visible light. The three-dimensional structure of SiO2 hydrogel increased the specific surface area of the catalyst, which was conducive to exposing more active sites of the catalyst. In addition, the conductive polymer PANI coated on CdS NRs played the role of conductive charge and effectively inhibited the photo-corrosion of CdS NRs. In addition, the recovery experiment showed that the recovery rate of the composite catalyst reached 90% and hydrogen production efficiency remained unchanged after five cycles, indicating that the composite catalyst had excellent stability.

2015 ◽  
Vol 71 (12) ◽  
pp. 2433-2448 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hodaya V. Solomon ◽  
Orly Tabachnikov ◽  
Shifra Lansky ◽  
Rachel Salama ◽  
Hadar Feinberg ◽  
...  

Geobacillus stearothermophilusT-6 is a Gram-positive thermophilic soil bacterium that contains a battery of degrading enzymes for the utilization of plant cell-wall polysaccharides, including xylan, arabinan and galactan. A 9.4 kb gene cluster has recently been characterized inG. stearothermophilusthat encodes a number of galactan-utilization elements. A key enzyme of this degradation system is Gan42B, an intracellular GH42 β-galactosidase capable of hydrolyzing short β-1,4-galactosaccharides into galactose units, making it of high potential for various biotechnological applications. The Gan42B monomer is made up of 686 amino acids, and based on sequence homology it was suggested that Glu323 is the catalytic nucleophile and Glu159 is the catalytic acid/base. In the current study, the detailed three-dimensional structure of wild-type Gan42B (at 2.45 Å resolution) and its catalytic mutant E323A (at 2.50 Å resolution), as determined by X-ray crystallography, are reported. These structures demonstrate that the three-dimensional structure of the Gan42B monomer generally correlates with the overall fold observed for GH42 proteins, consisting of three main domains: an N-terminal TIM-barrel domain, a smaller mixed α/β domain, and the smallest all-β domain at the C-terminus. The two catalytic residues are located in the TIM-barrel domain in a pocket-like active site such that their carboxylic functional groups are about 5.3 Å from each other, consistent with a retaining mechanism. The crystal structure demonstrates that Gan42B is a homotrimer, resembling a flowerpot in general shape, in which each monomer interacts with the other two to form a cone-shaped tunnel cavity in the centre. The cavity is ∼35 Å at the wide opening and ∼5 Å at the small opening and ∼40 Å in length. The active sites are situated at the interfaces between the monomers, so that every two neighbouring monomers participate in the formation of each of the three active sites of the trimer. They are located near the small opening of the cone tunnel, all facing the centre of the cavity. The biological relevance of this trimeric structure is supported by independent results obtained from gel-permeation chromatography. These data and their comparison to the structural data of related GH42 enzymes are used for a more general discussion concerning structure–activity aspects in this GH family.


2014 ◽  
Vol 70 (11) ◽  
pp. 2994-3012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shifra Lansky ◽  
Rachel Salama ◽  
Hodaya V. Solomon ◽  
Hadar Feinberg ◽  
Hassan Belrhali ◽  
...  

L-Arabinose sugar residues are relatively abundant in plants and are found mainly in arabinan polysaccharides and in other arabinose-containing polysaccharides such as arabinoxylans and pectic arabinogalactans. The majority of the arabinose units in plants are present in the furanose form and only a small fraction of them are present in the pyranose form. The L-arabinan-utilization system inGeobacillus stearothermophilusT6, a Gram-positive thermophilic soil bacterium, has recently been characterized, and one of the key enzymes was found to be an intracellular β-L-arabinopyranosidase (Abp). Abp, a GH27 enzyme, was shown to remove β-L-arabinopyranose residues from synthetic substrates and from the native substrates sugar beet arabinan and larch arabinogalactan. The Abp monomer is made up of 448 amino acids, and based on sequence homology it was suggested that Asp197 is the catalytic nucleophile and Asp255 is the catalytic acid/base. In the current study, the detailed three-dimensional structure of wild-type Abp (at 2.28 Å resolution) and its catalytic mutant Abp-D197A with (at 2.20 Å resolution) and without (at 2.30 Å resolution) a bound L-arabinose product are reported as determined by X-ray crystallography. These structures demonstrate that the three-dimensional structure of the Abp monomer correlates with the general fold observed for GH27 proteins, consisting of two main domains: an N-terminal TIM-barrel domain and a C-terminal all-β domain. The two catalytic residues are located in the TIM-barrel domain, such that their carboxylic functional groups are about 5.9 Å from each other, consistent with a retaining mechanism. An isoleucine residue (Ile67) located at a key position in the active site is shown to play a critical role in the substrate specificity of Abp, providing a structural basis for the high preference of the enzyme towards arabinopyranoside over galactopyranoside substrates. The crystal structure demonstrates that Abp is a tetramer made up of two `open-pincers' dimers, which clamp around each other to form a central cavity. The four active sites of the Abp tetramer are situated on the inner surface of this cavity, all opening into the central space of the cavity. The biological relevance of this tetrameric structure is supported by independent results obtained from size-exclusion chromatography (SEC), dynamic light-scattering (DLS) and small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) experiments. These data and their comparison to the structural data of related GH27 enzymes are used for a more general discussion concerning structure–selectivity aspects in this glycoside hydrolase (GH) family.


2014 ◽  
Vol 70 (2) ◽  
pp. 261-278 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shifra Lansky ◽  
Onit Alalouf ◽  
Hodaya Vered Solomon ◽  
Anat Alhassid ◽  
Lata Govada ◽  
...  

Geobacillus stearothermophilusT6 is a thermophilic, Gram-positive soil bacterium that possesses an extensive and highly regulated hemicellulolytic system, allowing the bacterium to efficiently degrade high-molecular-weight polysaccharides such as xylan, arabinan and galactan. As part of the xylan-degradation system, the bacterium uses a number of side-chain-cleaving enzymes, one of which is Axe2, a 219-amino-acid intracellular serine acetylxylan esterase that removes acetyl side groups from xylooligosaccharides. Bioinformatic analyses suggest that Axe2 belongs to the lipase GDSL family and represents a new family of carbohydrate esterases. In the current study, the detailed three-dimensional structure of Axe2 is reported, as determined by X-ray crystallography. The structure of the selenomethionine derivative Axe2-Se was initially determined by single-wavelength anomalous diffraction techniques at 1.70 Å resolution and was used for the structure determination of wild-type Axe2 (Axe2-WT) and the catalytic mutant Axe2-S15A at 1.85 and 1.90 Å resolution, respectively. These structures demonstrate that the three-dimensional structure of the Axe2 monomer generally corresponds to the SGNH hydrolase fold, consisting of five central parallel β-sheets flanked by two layers of helices (eight α-helices and five 310-helices). The catalytic triad residues, Ser15, His194 and Asp191, are lined up along a substrate channel situated on the concave surface of the monomer. Interestingly, the Axe2 monomers are assembled as a `doughnut-shaped' homo-octamer, presenting a unique quaternary structure built of two staggered tetrameric rings. The eight active sites are organized in four closely situated pairs, which face the relatively wide internal cavity. The biological relevance of this octameric structure is supported by independent results obtained from gel-filtration, TEM and SAXS experiments. These data and their comparison to the structural data of related hydrolases are used for a more general discussion focusing on the structure–function relationships of enzymes of this category.


Author(s):  
N. H. Olson ◽  
T. S. Baker ◽  
Wu Bo Mu ◽  
J. E. Johnson ◽  
D. A. Hendry

Nudaurelia capensis β virus (NβV) is an RNA virus of the South African Pine Emperor moth, Nudaurelia cytherea capensis (Lepidoptera: Saturniidae). The NβV capsid is a T = 4 icosahedron that contains 60T = 240 subunits of the coat protein (Mr = 61,000). A three-dimensional reconstruction of the NβV capsid was previously computed from visions embedded in negative stain suspended over holes in a carbon film. We have re-examined the three-dimensional structure of NβV, using cryo-microscopy to examine the native, unstained structure of the virion and to provide a initial phasing model for high-resolution x-ray crystallographic studiesNβV was purified and prepared for cryo-microscopy as described. Micrographs were recorded ∼1 - 2 μm underfocus at a magnification of 49,000X with a total electron dose of about 1800 e-/nm2.


Author(s):  
David A. Agard ◽  
Yasushi Hiraoka ◽  
John W. Sedat

In an effort to understand the complex relationship between structure and biological function within the nucleus, we have embarked on a program to examine the three-dimensional structure and organization of Drosophila melanogaster embryonic chromosomes. Our overall goal is to determine how DNA and proteins are organized into complex and highly dynamic structures (chromosomes) and how these chromosomes are arranged in three dimensional space within the cell nucleus. Futher, we hope to be able to correlate structual data with such fundamental biological properties as stage in the mitotic cell cycle, developmental state and transcription at specific gene loci.Towards this end, we have been developing methodologies for the three-dimensional analysis of non-crystalline biological specimens using optical and electron microscopy. We feel that the combination of these two complementary techniques allows an unprecedented look at the structural organization of cellular components ranging in size from 100A to 100 microns.


Author(s):  
José L. Carrascosa ◽  
José M. Valpuesta ◽  
Hisao Fujisawa

The head to tail connector of bacteriophages plays a fundamental role in the assembly of viral heads and DNA packaging. In spite of the absence of sequence homology, the structure of connectors from different viruses (T4, Ø29, T3, P22, etc) share common morphological features, that are most clearly revealed in their three-dimensional structure. We have studied the three-dimensional reconstruction of the connector protein from phage T3 (gp 8) from tilted view of two dimensional crystals obtained from this protein after cloning and purification.DNA sequences including gene 8 from phage T3 were cloned, into Bam Hl-Eco Rl sites down stream of lambda promotor PL, in the expression vector pNT45 under the control of cI857. E R204 (pNT89) cells were incubated at 42°C for 2h, harvested and resuspended in 20 mM Tris HC1 (pH 7.4), 7mM 2 mercaptoethanol, ImM EDTA. The cells were lysed by freezing and thawing in the presence of lysozyme (lmg/ml) and ligthly sonicated. The low speed supernatant was precipitated by ammonium sulfate (60% saturated) and dissolved in the original buffer to be subjected to gel nitration through Sepharose 6B, followed by phosphocellulose colum (Pll) and DEAE cellulose colum (DE52). Purified gp8 appeared at 0.3M NaCl and formed crystals when its concentration increased above 1.5 mg/ml.


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