Structurally Precise Two-Transition-Metal Water Oxidation Catalysts: Quantifying Adjacent 3d Metals by Synchrotron X-Radiation Anomalous Dispersion Scattering.

Mixed 3d metal oxides are some of the most promising water oxidation catalysts (WOCs), but it is very difficult to know the locations and percent occupancies of different 3d metals in these heterogeneous catalysts. Without such information, it is hard to quantify catalysis, stability, and other properties of the WOC as a function of the catalyst active site structure. This study combines the site selective synthesis of a homogeneous WOC with two adjacent 3d metals, [Co2Ni2(PW9O34)2]10- (Co2Ni2P2) as a tractable molecular model for CoNi oxide, with the use of multiwavelength synchrotron X-radiation anomalous dispersion scattering (synchrotron XRAS) that quantifies both the location and percent occupancy of Co (∼97% outer-central-belt positions only) and Ni (∼97% inner-central-belt positions only) in Co2Ni2P2. This mixed-3d-metal complex catalyzes water oxidation an order of magnitude faster than its isostructural analogue, [Co4(PW9O34)2]10- (Co4P2). Four independent and complementary lines of evidence confirm that Co2Ni2P2 and Co4P2 are the principal WOCs and that Co2+(aq) is not. Density functional theory (DFT) studies revealed that Co4P2 and Co2Ni2P2 have similar frontier orbitals, while stopped-flow kinetic studies and DFT calculations indicate that water oxidation by both complexes follows analogous multistep mechanisms, including likely Co-OOH formation, with the energetics of most steps being lower for Co2Ni2P2 than for Co4P2. Synchrotron XRAS should be generally applicable to active-site-structure-reactivity studies of multi-metal heterogeneous and homogeneous catalysts.

Genome-Wide Characterization and Comparative Genomic Analysis of the Serpin Gene Family in Microsporidian Nosema bombycis.

Microsporidia are ubiquitous in the environment, infecting almost all invertebrates, vertebrates, and some protists. The microsporidian Nosema bombycis causes silkworms pébrine disease and leads to huge economic losses. Parasite secreted proteins play vital roles in pathogen-host interactions. Serine protease inhibitors (serpins), belonging to the largest and most broadly distributed protease inhibitor superfamily, are also found in Microsporidia. In this study, we characterized 19 serpins (NbSPNs) in N. bombycis; eight of them were predicted with signal peptides. All NbSPN proteins contain a typical conserved serpin (PF00079) domain. The comparative genomic analysis revealed that microsporidia serpins were only found in the genus Nosema. In addition to N. bombycis, a total of 34 serpins were identified in another six species of Nosema including N. antheraeae (11), N. granulosis (8), Nosema sp. YNPr (3), Nosema sp. PM-1 (3), N. apis (4), and N. ceranae (5). Serpin gene duplications in tandem obviously occurred in Nosema antheranae. Notably, the NbSPNs were phylogenetically clustered with serpins from the Chordopoxvirinae, the subfamily of Poxvirus. All 19 NbSPN transcripts were detected in the infected midgut and fat body, while 19 NbSPN genes except for NbSPN12 were found in the transcriptome of the infected silkworm embryonic cell line BmE-SWU1. Our work paves the way for further study of serpin function in microsporidia.

Synthesis of Zeolitic Mo-Doped Vanadotungstates and Their Catalytic Activity for Low-Temperature NH3-SCR.

Mo was successfully introduced into a vanadotungstate (VT-1), which is a crystalline microporous zeolitic transition-metal oxide based on cubane clusters [W4O16]8- and VO2+ linkers (MoxW4-x. x: number of Mo in VT-1 unit cell determined by inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES)). It was confirmed that W in the cubane units was substituted by Mo. The resulting materials showed higher microporosity compared with VT-1. The surface area and the micropore volume increased to 296 m2·g-1 and 0.097 cm3·g-1, respectively, for Mo0.6W3.4 compared with the those values for VT-1 (249 m2·g-1 and 0.078 cm3·g-1, respectively). The introduction of Mo changed the acid properties including the acid amount (VT-1: 1.06 mmol g-1, Mo0.6W3.4: 2.18 mmol·g-1) and its strength because of the changes of the chemical bonding in the framework structure. MoxW4-x showed substantial catalytic activity for the selective catalytic reduction of NO with NH3 (NH3-selective catalytic reduction (SCR)) at a temperature as low as 150 °C.

Comparative genomics of parasitic silkworm microsporidia reveal an association between genome expansion and host adaptation.

BACKGROUND: Microsporidian Nosema bombycis has received much attention because the pébrine disease of domesticated silkworms results in great economic losses in the silkworm industry. So far, no effective treatment could be found for pébrine. Compared to other known Nosema parasites, N. bombycis can unusually parasitize a broad range of hosts. To gain some insights into the underlying genetic mechanism of pathological ability and host range expansion in this parasite, a comparative genomic approach is conducted. The genome of two Nosema parasites, N. bombycis and N. antheraeae (an obligatory parasite to undomesticated silkworms Antheraea pernyi), were sequenced and compared with their distantly related species, N. ceranae (an obligatory parasite to honey bees). RESULTS: Our comparative genomics analysis show that the N. bombycis genome has greatly expanded due to the following three molecular mechanisms: 1) the proliferation of host-derived transposable elements, 2) the acquisition of many horizontally transferred genes from bacteria, and 3) the production of abundnant gene duplications. To our knowledge, duplicated genes derived not only from small-scale events (e.g., tandem duplications) but also from large-scale events (e.g., segmental duplications) have never been seen so abundant in any reported microsporidia genomes. Our relative dating analysis further indicated that these duplication events have arisen recently over very short evolutionary time. Furthermore, several duplicated genes involving in the cytotoxic metabolic pathway were found to undergo positive selection, suggestive of the role of duplicated genes on the adaptive evolution of pathogenic ability. CONCLUSIONS: Genome expansion is rarely considered as the evolutionary outcome acting on those highly reduced and compact parasitic microsporidian genomes. This study, for the first time, demonstrates that the parasitic genomes can expand, instead of shrink, through several common molecular mechanisms such as gene duplication, horizontal gene transfer, and transposable element expansion. We also showed that the duplicated genes can serve as raw materials for evolutionary innovations possibly contributing to the increase of pathologenic ability. Based on our research, we propose that duplicated genes of N. bombycis should be treated as primary targets for treatment designs against pébrine. The genome data and annotation information of N. bombycis and N.antheraeae were submitted to GenBank (Accession numbers ACJZ01000001 -ACJZ01003558).

[Identification of a new serpin gene (NbSPN106) from Nosema bombycis].

OBJECTIVE: Serpins from pathogens have been implicated in evasion of the host immune system. We identified a new serpin protein (NbSPN106), analyzed its sequences, and detected using Western blotting. METHODS: Nosema bombycis proteins with an expect score less than 1 x 10(-5) were checked against MEROPS database (http://merops.sanger.ac.uk) by Local Alignment Search Tool search and confirmed with Database of Protein Families and HMMS. Multiple sequence alignments were performed using the ClustalX. The sequence encoding the mature protein was amplified by PCR, cloned into the pGEX4T-1 vector and expressed in Escherichia coli. Specific antiserum generated against the recombinant protein was used in immunoblot assay. RESULTS: A new serpin gene, named NbSPN106, was identified form Nosema Bombycis genome. The coding sequence of this gene is 1155 bp length with a putative signal peptide and contains the conserved serpin sequences. A specific band of approximately 45 kDa was recognized by the anti-NbSPN106 serum. CONCLUSIONS: The finding of serpins in Nosema bombycis raises new questions about their possible role in pathogenicity, which deserves further studies.

A Polyoxometalate-Based Microfluidic Device for Liquid-Phase Oxidation of Glycerol.

Peroxidation of glycerol has been carried out in a polyoxometalate (POM)-based microfluidic reactor, which was fabricated on a capillary by using a layer-by-layer strategy. Lactic acid (LA) is produced selectively in high yield with a TOF as high as 20 000 h-1 , compared to a TOF of 200 h-1 in batch mode. This POM microfluidic reactor is readily prepared, scalable, highly stable, reusable, and also potentially applicable to selective oxidation of other bio-wastes.

Multi-Tasking POM Systems.

Polyoxometalate (POM)-based materials of current interest are summarized, and specific types of POM-containing systems are described in which material facilitates multiple complex interactions or catalytic processes. We specifically highlight POM-containing multi-hydrogen-bonding polymers that form gels upon exposure to select organic liquids and simultaneously catalyze hydrolytic or oxidative decontamination, as well as water oxidation catalysts (WOCs) that can be interfaced with light-absorbing photoelectrode materials for photoelectrocatalytic water splitting.

Designation of highly efficient catalysts for one pot conversion of glycerol to lactic acid.

Production of lactic acid from glycerol is a cascade catalytic procedure using multifunctional catalysts combined with oxidative and acidic catalytic sites. Therefore, a series of silver-exchanged phosphomolybdic acid catalysts (AgxH3-xPMo12O40, x = 1 ~ 3, abbreviated as AgxPMo) was designed and applied in glycerol oxidation with O2 as an oxidant to produce lactic acid (LA) without adding any base. Among all, total silver exchanged phosphomolybdic acid (Ag3PMo) was found to be the most active one with LA selectivity of 93% at 99% conversion under mild conditions of 5 h at 60 °C. The exceptionally high efficiency was contributed to the generation of strong Lewis acid sites, enhanced redox potentials and water-tolerance. More importantly, Ag3PMo was tolerant in crude glycerol from biodiesel production. And the reaction mechanism was also discussed. Meanwhile, Ag3PMo acted as a heterogeneous catalyst for 12 recycles without loss of activity.

Lewis-acid-promoted catalytic cascade conversion of glycerol to lactic acid by polyoxometalates.

The polyoxometalates AlPMo12O40 and CrPMo12O40 show high activity and reusablility for cascade conversion of glycerol directly to lactic acid under mild conditions without the addition of base, and can be reused more than 12 times with 90.5% selectivity at 93.7% conversion. AlPMo12O40 is tolerant to crude glycerol from biodiesel production.

Hetropolyacid-Catalyzed Oxidation of Glycerol into Lactic Acid under Mild Base-Free Conditions.

Lactic acid (LA) is a versatile platform molecule owing to the opportunity to transform this compound into useful chemicals and materials. Therefore, efficient production of LA based on inexpensive renewable feedstocks is of utmost importance for insuring its market availability. Herein, we report the efficient conversion of glycerol into LA catalyzed by heteropolyacids (HPAs) under mild base-free conditions. The catalytic performance of molecular HPAs appears to correlate with their redox potential and Brønsted acidity. Namely, H3 PMo(12)O(40) (HPMo) exhibits the best selectivity towards LA (90 %) with 88 % conversion of glycerol. Loading of HPMo onto a carbon support (HPMo/C) further improves LA productivity resulting in 94 % selectivity at 98 % conversion under optimized reaction conditions. The reaction takes place through the formation of dihydroxyacetone/glyceraldehyde and pyruvaldehyde as intermediates. No leaching of HPMo was observed under the applied reaction conditions and HPMo/C could be recycled 5 times without significant loss of activity.

Tailoring the Synergistic Bronsted-Lewis acidic effects in Heteropolyacid catalysts: Applied in Esterification and Transesterification Reactions.

In order to investigate the influences of Lewis metals on acidic properties and catalytic activities, a series of Keggin heteropolyacid (HPA) catalysts, HnPW11MO39 (M = Ti(IV), Cu(II), Al(III), Sn(IV), Fe(III), Cr(III), Zr(IV) and Zn(II); for Ti and Zr, the number of oxygen is 40), were prepared and applied in the esterification and transesterification reactions. Only those cations with moderate Lewis acidity had a higher impact. Ti Substituted HPA, H5PW11TiO40, posse lower acid content compared with Ti(x)H(3-4x)PW12O40 (Ti partial exchanged protons in saturated H3PW12O40), which demonstrated that the Lewis metal as an addenda atom (H5PW11TiO40) was less efficient than those as counter cations (Ti(x)H(3-4x)PW12O40). On the other hand, the highest conversion reached 92.2% in transesterification and 97.4% in esterification. Meanwhile, a good result was achieved by H5PW11TiO40 in which the total selectivity of DAG and TGA was 96.7%. In addition, calcination treatment to H5PW11TiO40 make it insoluble in water which resulted in a heterogeneous catalyst feasible for reuse.

Immobilization of L-asparaginase on the microparticles of the natural silk sericin protein and its characters.

The natural silk sericin recovered from Bombyx mori silk waste by the degumming processing in the high-temperature and high-pressure is a macromolecular protein. Amino acid composition and molecular weight range of the sericin protein as a vector for enzyme immobilization were investigated. The silk sericin protein with different molecular mass from 50 to 200 kDa was poorly soluble microparticles with an average size of about 10 microm. Anti-leukemic enzyme L-asparaginase (L-ASNase) was covalently conjugated on the microparticles of the sericin protein. The immobilized L-ASNase on the natural support by cross-linking with glutaraldehyde maintained 62.5% of the original activity of the enzyme. The Km of sericin-conjugates was 8 times lower than that of native L-ASNase. The bioconjugation of L-ASNase widened the optimum reactive temperature range of the enzyme. The immobilized L-ASNase showed significantly higher stability when the temperature raised to 40-50 degrees C, it also showed preferable resistance to trypsin digestion as compared with native enzyme. The results are discussed regarding the possible explanations of sericin-induced enzyme stability, as well as the possible applications of immobilized L-ASNase research.