(C) 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 115: 2703-2709, 2010″
“One selection pressure shaping sequence evolution is the requirement that a protein fold with sufficient stability to perform its biological functions. We present a conceptual framework that explains how this requirement causes the probability that a particular amino acid mutation is fixed during evolution to depend on its effect

on protein stability. We mathematically formalize this framework to develop a Bayesian approach for inferring the stability effects of individual mutations from homologous protein sequences of known phylogeny. This approach is able to predict published experimentally measured mutational stability effects (Delta Delta G values) with an accuracy that exceeds both a state-of-the-art find more physicochemical modeling program and the sequence-based consensus approach. As a further test, we use our phylogenetic inference approach to predict stabilizing mutations to influenza hemagglutinin. We introduce these mutations into a temperature-sensitive influenza virus with a defect in its hemagglutinin gene and experimentally demonstrate that some of the mutations allow the virus to grow at higher temperatures. Our work therefore describes a powerful new approach for predicting Selleckchem PARP inhibitor stabilizing mutations that can be successfully applied

even to large, complex proteins such as hemagglutinin. This approach also makes a mathematical link between phylogenetics and experimentally measurable protein properties, potentially paving the way for more accurate analyses of molecular evolution.”
“Single phase cubic Gd2O3 nanophosphor codoped with Eu3+ and Yb3+ ions has been synthesized through solution combustion route. Structural properties have been investigated using x-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy

(TEM). The as-synthesized Gd2O3 phosphor shows amorphous nature which changes to crystalline single cubic phase check details on annealing. Optical properties have been investigated through absorption, photoluminescence, and lifetime measurements. Intense red emission (D-5(0)-> F-7(2)) is observed both from cooperative upconversion (Yb3++Yb3+-> Eu3+ on 976 nm excitation) as well as through downconversion process (on 355 nm excitation). The unusual and rarely reported emissions from the higher lying D-5(J) (J=2, 3, and 4) to F-7(J) (J=0, 1, 2, 3, and 4) levels are also observed with 976 nm excitation. Nearly twenty two times enhancement in the intensity of the hypersensitive transition (D-5(0)-> F-7(2)) along with an increase in the decay time (770 mu s) is observed for the sample annealed at 1200 degrees C on 355 nm excitation. These observations have been explained satisfactorily. (C) 2010 American Institute of Physics. [doi: 10.1063/1.3373628]“
“As accurate discrimination between Staphylococcus (S.) aureus and NSA (non-S.