Search

Polymers are widely utilized as protective coatings to prevent metal surfaces from wear, corrosion, or bio-fouling. Yet, stability and adhesive properties of polymer to metal bondings are not fully understood at the molecular level. Here, we measured the interaction forces between a gold electrode surface and amine-functionalized polymers (PEG) using a novel electrochemical surface forces apparatus. We examined the potential dependence of specific amine-gold interactions and measured that the binding strength of amine-gold bonds can range from 0.5 to 40 kBT per binding site, depending on the applied electrochemical potential. Notably, this interaction exhibits a pronounced minimum around the potential of zero charge, where the polymer-gold adhesion is dominated by non-specific interactions between the polymer backbone and electrode surface, consistent with the adhesion of PEG polymers with gold surfaces in the absence of amine functionalization. Further, repulsive hydration interactions were observed to be stronger for amine-terminated PEG compared to non-functionalized PEG, due to increased hydration and presence of counterions in the case of amine-terminated PEG. Our results provide molecular-scale insight into design and optimization of polymer coatings for numerous applications requiring strong, specific binding interactions between polymers and metals (or their native oxides), for example passivating layers in biomedical implants and electronic devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An important post-translational modification (PTM) of α-tubulin is the removal of amino acids from its C-terminus. Removal of the C-terminal tyrosine residue yields detyrosinated α-tubulin, and subsequent removal of the penultimate glutamate residue produces ΔC2-α-tubulin. These PTMs alter the ability of the α-tubulin C-terminal tail to interact with effector proteins and are thereby thought to change microtubule dynamics, stability, and organization. The peptidase(s) that produces ΔC2-α-tubulin in a physiological context remains unclear. Here, we take advantage of the observation that ΔC2-α-tubulin accumulates to high levels in cells lacking tubulin tyrosine ligase (TTL) to screen for cytosolic carboxypeptidases (CCPs) that generate ΔC2-α-tubulin. We identify CCP1 as the sole peptidase that produces ΔC2-α-tubulin in TTLΔ HeLa cells. Interestingly, we find that the levels of ΔC2-α-tubulin are only modestly reduced in photoreceptors of ccp1 -/- mice, indicating that other peptidases act synergistically with CCP1 to produce ΔC2-α-tubulin in post-mitotic cells. Moreover, the production of ΔC2-α-tubulin appears to be under tight spatial control in the photoreceptor cilium: ΔC2-α-tubulin persists in the connecting cilium of ccp1 -/- but is depleted in the distal portion of the photoreceptor. This work establishes the groundwork to pinpoint the function of ΔC2-α-tubulin in proliferating and post-mitotic mammalian cells.

Detyrosination of the α-tubulin C-terminal tail is a post-translational modification (PTM) of microtubules that is key for many biological processes. 1 Although detyrosination is the oldest known microtubule PTM, 2-7 the carboxypeptidase responsible for this modification, VASH1/2-SVBP, was identified only 3 years ago, 8 , 9 precluding genetic approaches to prevent detyrosination. Studies examining the cellular functions of detyrosination have therefore relied on a natural product, parthenolide, which is widely believed to block detyrosination of α-tubulin in cells, presumably by inhibiting the activity of the relevant carboxypeptidase(s). 10 Parthenolide is a sesquiterpene lactone that forms covalent linkages predominantly with exposed thiol groups; e.g., on cysteine residues. 11-13 Using mass spectrometry, we show that parthenolide forms adducts on both cysteine and histidine residues on tubulin itself, in vitro and in cells. Parthenolide causes tubulin protein aggregation and prevents the formation of microtubules. In contrast to epoY, an epoxide inhibitor of VASH1/2-SVBP, 9 parthenolide does not block VASH1-SVBP activity in vitro. Lastly, we show that epoY is an efficacious inhibitor of microtubule detyrosination in cells, providing an alternative chemical means to block detyrosination. Collectively, our work supports the notion that parthenolide is a promiscuous inhibitor of many cellular processes and suggests that its ability to block detyrosination may be an indirect consequence of reducing the polymerization-competent pool of tubulin in cells., Competing Interests: Declaration of Interests The authors declare no competing interests., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Ethanolamine (EA) is a compound prevalent in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract that can be used as a carbon, nitrogen, and/or energy source. Enterococcus faecalis , a GI commensal and opportunistic pathogen, contains approximately 20 e thanolamine ut ilization ( eut ) genes encoding the necessary regulatory, enzymatic, and structural proteins for this process. Here, using a chemically defined medium, two regulatory factors that affect EA utilization were examined. First, the functional consequences of loss of the small RNA (sRNA) EutX on the efficacy of EA utilization were investigated. One effect observed, as loss of this negative regulator causes an increase in eut gene expression, was a concomitant increase in the number of catabolic b acterial m icro c ompartments (BMCs) formed. However, despite this increase, the growth of the strain was repressed, suggesting that the overall efficacy of EA utilization was negatively affected. Second, utilizing a deletion mutant and a complement, carbon catabolite control protein A (CcpA) was shown to be responsible for the repression of EA utilization in the presence of glucose. A predicted cre site in one of the three EA-inducible promoters, PeutS , was identified as the target of CcpA. However, CcpA was shown to affect the activation of all the promoters indirectly through the two-component system EutV and EutW, whose genes are under the control of the PeutS promoter. Moreover, a bioinformatics analysis of bacteria predicted to contain CcpA and cre sites revealed that a preponderance of BMC-containing operons are likely regulated by carbon catabolite repression (CCR). IMPORTANCE Ethanolamine (EA) is a compound commonly found in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract that can affect the behavior of human pathogens that can sense and utilize it, such as Enterococcus faecalis and Salmonella Therefore, it is important to understand how the genes that govern EA utilization are regulated. In this work, we investigated two regulatory factors that control this process. One factor, a small RNA (sRNA), is shown to be important for generating the right levels of gene expression for maximum efficiency. The second factor, a transcriptional repressor, is important for preventing expression when other preferred sources of energy are available. Furthermore, a global bioinformatics analysis revealed that this second mechanism of transcriptional regulation likely operates on similar genes in related bacteria., (Copyright © 2019 American Society for Microbiology.)

The ethanolamine utilization (eut) locus of Enterococcus faecalis, containing at least 19 genes distributed over four polycistronic messenger RNAs, appears to be regulated by a single adenosyl cobalamine (AdoCbl)-responsive riboswitch. We report that the AdoCbl-binding riboswitch is part of a small, trans-acting RNA, EutX, which additionally contains a dual-hairpin substrate for the RNA binding-response regulator, EutV. In the absence of AdoCbl, EutX uses this structure to sequester EutV. EutV is known to regulate the eut messenger RNAs by binding dual-hairpin structures that overlap terminators and thus prevent transcription termination. In the presence of AdoCbl, EutV cannot bind to EutX and, instead, causes transcriptional read through of multiple eut genes. This work introduces riboswitch-mediated control of protein sequestration as a posttranscriptional mechanism to coordinately regulate gene expression., (Copyright © 2014, American Association for the Advancement of Science.)