| 1. |
- Beal, Jacob, et al.
(author)
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Robust estimation of bacterial cell count from optical density
- 2020
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In: Communications Biology. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2399-3642. ; 3:1
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Optical density (OD) is widely used to estimate the density of cells in liquid culture, but cannot be compared between instruments without a standardized calibration protocol and is challenging to relate to actual cell count. We address this with an interlaboratory study comparing three simple, low-cost, and highly accessible OD calibration protocols across 244 laboratories, applied to eight strains of constitutive GFP-expressing E. coli. Based on our results, we recommend calibrating OD to estimated cell count using serial dilution of silica microspheres, which produces highly precise calibration (95.5% of residuals <1.2-fold), is easily assessed for quality control, also assesses instrument effective linear range, and can be combined with fluorescence calibration to obtain units of Molecules of Equivalent Fluorescein (MEFL) per cell, allowing direct comparison and data fusion with flow cytometry measurements: in our study, fluorescence per cell measurements showed only a 1.07-fold mean difference between plate reader and flow cytometry data.
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| 2. |
- Kivi, Rait, et al.
(author)
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Kinetics of Acrylodan-Labelled cAMP-Dependent Protein Kinase Catalytic Subunit Denaturation
- 2013
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In: The Protein Journal. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1572-3887 .- 1875-8355. ; 32:7, s. 519-525
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Fluorescence spectroscopy was used to study denaturation of cAMP-dependent protein kinase catalytic subunit labeled with an acrylodan moiety. The dye was covalently bound to a cystein residue introduced into the enzyme by replacement of arginine in position 326 in the native sequence, located near the enzyme active center. This labeling had no effect on catalytic activity of the enzyme, but provided possibility to monitor changes in protein structure through measuring the fluorescence spectrum of the dye, which is sensitive to changes in its environment. This method was used to monitor denaturation of the protein kinase catalytic subunit and study the kinetics of this process as well as influence of specific ligands on stability of the protein. Stabilization of the enzyme structure was observed in the presence of adenosine triphosphate, peptide substrate RRYSV and inhibitor peptide PKI[5-24].
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| 3. |
- Loog, Mart, et al.
(author)
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Comparision of substrate specificities of protein kinases A and C based on peptide substrates
- 1994
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In: Bioorganic chemistry. - : Elsevier BV. - 0045-2068. ; 22:3, s. 328-336
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Peptides, obtained by gradual removal of amino acids from both ends of pEKRPSQRSKYL, and stereoisomeric nonapeptides KRPSQRAKY with one D-amino acid residue successively in each position, were tested as substrates for protein kinase A, All these compounds were phosphorylated but at quite different rates by the enzyme. Comparison of the kinetic data with the appropriate results for protein kinase C, measured earlier, was used to analyze and compare the specificity determining factors of these enzymes. The analysis of the cross-specificity points to the possibility that only a short part, mainly the sequence of 1 to 2 amino acids around the phosphorylatable serine residue, is important for differentiation of substrates by these enzymes, while the remaining part of the peptide structure has similar influence on their reactivity in the case of these two protein kinases. Thus, the active center of these enzymes can be conventionally divided into two parts, which are responsible for selectivity and effectiveness of the phosphorylation reaction, respectively.
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| 6. |
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| 7. |
- Loog, Mart
(author)
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Studies on the Differential Specificity of Protein Kinases and Its Applications
- 2001
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Protein kinases are enzymes that catalyse the phosphoryl transfer from the g-phosphate of ATP to acceptor amino acids in proteins. The specificity of selected model protein kinases was studied at three different levels using a) novel bi-substrate-analogue inhibitors, b) synthetic peptide substrates and c) mutated protein substrate analogues. A new class of protein kinase bi-substrate-analogue inhibitors was designed on the basis of adenosine-5’-carboxylic acid derivatives, where a short arginine containing peptide was attached to the 5'-carbon atom of the adenosine sugar moiety via a linker chain. These compounds showed high inhibitory potential against two basophilic protein kinases, the protein kinase A (PKA) and protein kinase C (PKC), with IC50 values in the nanomolar range, but no inhibitory activity towards the acidophilic kinases CK1 and CK2. The inhibitors were efficiently applied for affinity purification of PKA using MgATP as well as L-arginine as eluting agents. Ca2+-dependent protein kinase (CDPK-1) was purified from maize seedlings and its substrate specificity was studied using a set of synthetic peptides. These were derived from the phosphorylatable sequence RVLSRLHS(15)VRER of maize sucrose synthase 2 (SuSy2), and a consensus sequence motif A/LXRXXSXRZR (where X denotes a position with no strict amino acid requirements and Z a position strictly not tolerating arginine) was defined from a study using arrays of systematically varied peptides attached to cellulose membrane (SPOTsTM membranes). The SuSy2 derived peptides were also found to be efficient substrates for mammalian PKC, but showed low reactivity in the case of PKA. On the basis of this peptide motif, a positionally oriented peptide library approach based on ESI-MS detection of phosphopeptides in initial velocity conditions was designed for quantitative kinetic characterization of protein kinase specificity profiles. On the basis of the obtained data an optimal peptide substrate for PKC, FRRRRSFRRR, was designed. The specificity of protein kinase A was studied using site-directed mutagenesis in the phosphorylation site of L-type pyruvate kinase (L-PK), and comparison of the obtained data with the data from previous studies on structurally altered peptide substrates revealed that amino acid alterations in short peptide substrates cause stronger effects on the phosphorylation rate than the corresponding alterations in the protein substrate L-PK.
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