Effects of feeding-inhibitory quinones on the nervous system ofPeriplaneta

Zusammenfassung Bei elektrophysiologischer und biochemischer Funktionsprüfung des Bauchmarkes vonPeriplaneta americana wird gezeigt, dass die frasshemmenden Chinone Juglon und 1,4-Naphthochinon sowie N-Aethylmaleimid sowohl die endogene Nervenaktivität wie auch ATPase hemmen, während Menadion nur auf die Nerven wirkte. 2-OH-1,4-Naphthochinon undp-Chloromercuribenzoat hemmten nur die ATPase und Iodacetamide hatte keinerlei Effekt.     

Kemp elimination catalysts by computational enzyme design

The design of new enzymes for reactions not catalysed by naturally occurring biocatalysts is a challenge for protein engineering and is a critical test of our understanding of enzyme catalysis. Here we describe the computational design of eight enzymes that use two different catalytic motifs to catalyse the Kemp elimination-a model reaction for proton transfer from carbon-with measured rate enhancements of up to 10(5) and multiple turnovers. Mutational analysis confirms that catalysis depends on the computationally designed active sites, and a high-resolution crystal structure suggests that the designs have close to atomic accuracy. Application of in vitro evolution to enhance the computational designs produced a >200-fold increase in k(cat)/K(m) (k(cat)/K(m) of 2,600 M(-1)s(-1) and k(cat)/k(uncat) of >10(6)). These results demonstrate the power of combining computational protein design with directed evolution for creating new enzymes, and we anticipate the creation of a wide range of useful new catalysts in the future.