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In the present study, the adsorption potential of pomegranate peel for the removal of Rhodamine B (RhB) was investigated in a batch system. Kinetic and thermodynamic studies of adsorption were conducted. The rate adsorption of RhB was rapid, attained equilibrium at about 120 ​min, at which the adsorption capacity is close to 30,47 ​mg/g, and this in the initial dye concentration of 100 ​mg/L. The kinetic modeling of RhB adsorption was investigated using four celebrated models: pseudo-first order, pseudo-second order, Elovich, and intraparticle diffusion. According to the values of R2, RMSE, ARE, and χ2 it was found that the pseudo-second order model provided a better fit to kinetic data. The results also show that intraparticle diffusion is not the only rate-limiting step on RhB adsorption onto pomegranate peel. Moreover, the thermodynamic study revealed no-spontaneous and endothermic nature of the adsorption process.

ATG16L1 is a critical mediator of macroautophagy/autophagy required for LC3 lipidation and autophagosome formation. However, ATG16L1 has a C-terminal domain including 7 WD40-type repetitions (WD40 domain, WDD) that is unnecessary for the conventional autophagic pathway. Instead, this domain mediates unconventional activities where LC3 is lipidated in atypical subcellular localizations unrelated to canonical double-membrane autophagosomes. The WDD provides a docking surface for molecules including a specific amino acid motif, thus engaging the LC3 lipidation capabilities of ATG16L1 in single-membrane structures. The physiological implications of such atypical activities are poorly characterized. In a recent report we described the improvement of the WDD-binding motif and the identification of transmembrane molecules that harbor this element in their intracellular region. One of them, IL10RB (interleukin 10 receptor subunit beta), binds the WDD after IL10 activation to facilitate endocytosis, early trafficking and signaling of IL10-IL10R complexes without influencing their degradation rate. These results reveal a novel unconventional role of ATG16L1 in cytokine signaling that does not entail a degradative purpose, thus contributing to catalog the physiological roles played by unconventional activities of the autophagic machinery., This work was funded by grants from the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación of the Spanish Government (Refs. SAF2014-53320-R and SAF2017-88390-R), the Junta de Castilla y León local government (Ref. SA042P17), the Broad Medical Research Program (Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America, CCFA; Ref. IBD-0369) and the Fundación Solórzano (Ref. FS/18-2014). The Centro de Investigación del Cáncer is supported by the Programa de Apoyo a Planes Estratégicos de Investigación de Estructuras de Investigación de Excelencia cofunded by the Castilla y León autonomous government and the European Regional Development Fund (CLC–2017–01). Additional funding comes from the Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER) program of the European Union. R.V. and A.F. are the recipients of predoctoral contracts from the Junta de Castilla y León and the University of Salamanca, respectively. I.S.G. was supported by predoctoral fellowships from the Fundación Moraza and the Estrategia Regional de Investigación e Innovación (Junta de Castilla y León and FEDER; Ref. CLC-2017-01). E.T. holds a predoctoral contract from the Formación de Doctores program of the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (Spanish Government). Rachid Taouil Hammouti acknowledges a predoctoral grant from the Government of Andorra (Ref. ATC0XX - AND-2019/2020).

A molecular receptor has been synthesized joining an aza-crown ether with a chiral chromane which mimics the oxyanion hole of the enzymes. With this receptor an apolar host-guest complex with zwitterionic alanine has been achieved through the formation of up to seven H-bonds. This complex allows the extraction of aqueous alanine to a chloroform phase, while other natural amino acids are poorly extracted or are not extracted at all. Due to the chiral nature of the receptor, enantioselective extraction from the aqueous alanine solution to a chloroform phase takes place. X-Ray analysis combined with anisotropic effects, NOE and CD studies revealed the absolute configuration of both strong and weak complexes. Modelling studies also support the proposed structures. The presence of an oxyanion-hole motif in this structure was corroborated by X-ray diffraction studies.