| 1. |
- Gonzalez Rodriguez, Adrian, 1988, et al.
(författare)
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Melting transition of oriented Li-DNA fibers submerged in ethanol solutions
- 2021
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Ingår i: Biopolymers. - : Wiley. - 0006-3525 .- 1097-0282. ; 112:3
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The melting transition of Li-DNA fibers immersed in ethanol-water solutions has been studied using calorimetry and neutron diffraction techniques. The data have been analyzed using the Peyrard-Bishop-Dauxois model to determine the strengths of the intra- and inter-base pair potentials. The data and analysis show that the potentials are weaker than those for DNA in water. They become weaker still and the DNA less stable as the ethanol concentration increases but, conversely, the fibers become more compact and the distances between base pairs become more regular. The results show that the melting transition is relatively insensitive to local confinement and depends more on the interaction between the DNA and its aqueous environment.
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| 2. |
- Makarova, Irina, et al.
(författare)
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Crystal structure, hydrogen bonds and thermal transformations of superprotonic conductor Cs6(SO4)3(H3PO4)4
- 2021
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Ingår i: Acta Crystallographica. Section B. - : International Union Of Crystallography. - 2052-5192 .- 2052-5206. ; 77:2, s. 266-274
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Crystals of Cs-6(SO4)(3)(H3PO4)(4) belong to the family of alkali metal acid salts that show a high protonic conductivity at relatively low temperatures. Such properties make superprotonic crystals an excellent choice for the study of the influence of the hydrogen subsystem on the physicochemical properties and promising materials for energy-efficient technologies. Single crystals of Cs-6(SO4)(3)(H3PO4)(4) were studied by neutron diffraction methods, optical polarization microscopy, scanning electron microscopy and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. Neutron diffraction studies made it possible to determine the positions of all the atoms with high accuracy, including the H atom on a hydrogen bond characterized by a single-minimum potential, to confirm the chemical composition of the Cs-6(SO4)(3)(H3PO4)(4) crystals and their cubic symmetry in low- and high-temperature phases, and to draw conclusions about the three-dimensional system of hydrogen bonds, which is fundamentally different in comparison with other superprotonic compounds. Based on the experimental data obtained, crystal transformations with temperature changes are reported, and the stability of the chemical composition is shown.
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| 3. |
- Popp, David, et al.
(författare)
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Flow-aligned, single-shot fiber diffraction using a femtosecond X-ray free-electron laser
- 2017
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Ingår i: CYTOSKELETON. - : WILEY. - 1949-3584 .- 1949-3592. ; 74:12, s. 472-481
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- A major goal for X-ray free-electron laser (XFEL) based science is to elucidate structures of biological molecules without the need for crystals. Filament systems may provide some of the first single macromolecular structures elucidated by XFEL radiation, since they contain one-dimensional translational symmetry and thereby occupy the diffraction intensity region between the extremes of crystals and single molecules. Here, we demonstrate flow alignment of as few as 100 filaments (Escherichia coli pili, F-actin, and amyloid fibrils), which when intersected by femtosecond X-ray pulses result in diffraction patterns similar to those obtained from classical fiber diffraction studies. We also determine that F-actin can be flow-aligned to a disorientation of approximately 5 degrees. Using this XFEL-based technique, we determine that gelsolin amyloids are comprised of stacked -strands running perpendicular to the filament axis, and that a range of order from fibrillar to crystalline is discernable for individual -synuclein amyloids.
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| 4. |
- Ramos, Joao, et al.
(författare)
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The impact of folding modes and deuteration on the atomic resolution structure of hen egg-white lysozyme
- 2021
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Ingår i: Acta Crystallographica Section D: Structural Biology. - 2059-7983. ; 77, s. 1579-1590
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The biological function of a protein is intimately related to its structure and dynamics, which in turn are determined by the way in which it has been folded. In vitro refolding is commonly used for the recovery of recombinant proteins that are expressed in the form of inclusion bodies and is of central interest in terms of the folding pathways that occur in vivo. Here, biophysical data are reported for in vitro-refolded hydrogenated hen egg-white lysozyme, in combination with atomic resolution X-ray diffraction analyses, which allowed detailed comparisons with native hydrogenated and refolded perdeuterated lysozyme. Distinct folding modes are observed for the hydrogenated and perdeuterated refolded variants, which are determined by conformational changes to the backbone structure of the Lys97-Gly104 flexible loop. Surprisingly, the structure of the refolded perdeuterated protein is closer to that of native lysozyme than that of the refolded hydrogenated protein. These structural differences suggest that the observed decreases in thermal stability and enzymatic activity in the refolded perdeuterated and hydrogenated proteins are consequences of the macromolecular deuteration effect and of distinct folding dynamics, respectively. These results are discussed in the context of both in vitro and in vivo folding, as well as of lysozyme amyloidogenesis.
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| 5. |
- Sawada, Daisuke, et al.
(författare)
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Untangling the threads of cellulose mercerization
- 2022
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Ingår i: Nature Communications. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2041-1723. ; 13:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Naturally occurring plant cellulose, our most abundant renewable resource, consists of fibers of long polymer chains that are tightly packed in parallel arrays in either of two crystal phases collectively referred to as cellulose I. During mercerization, a process that involves treatment with sodium hydroxide, cellulose goes through a conversion to another crystal form called cellulose II, within which every other chain has remarkably changed direction. We designed a neutron diffraction experiment with deuterium labelling in order to understand how this change of cellulose chain direction is possible. Here we show that during mercerization of bacterial cellulose, chains fold back on themselves in a zigzag pattern to form crystalline anti-parallel domains. This result provides a molecular level understanding of one of the most widely used industrial processes for improving cellulosic materials.
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