One of the crucial issues in biological electron transfer is the determination of the role of spatially intermediate amino acid residues in controlling or directing the electronic tunneling interaction between redox sites. A quantum path integral Monte Carlo method is developed for the analysis of electronic tunneling pathways in a highly structured environment. This path integral method is applied to intramolecular electron transfer in a ruthenium-modified myoglobin that contains a tryptophan in the "line-of-flight." A principal result is the identification of the relevant cylindrical zone swept out by the tunneling electron.

Zika virus (ZIKV) infection during human pregnancy may cause diverse and serious congenital defects in the developing fetus. Previous efforts to generate animal models of human ZIKV infection and clinical symptoms often involved manipulating mice to impair their Type I interferon (IFN) signaling, thereby allowing enhanced infection and vertical transmission of virus to the embryo. Here, we show that even pregnant mice competent to generate Type I IFN responses that can limit ZIKV infection nonetheless develop profound placental pathology and high frequency of fetal demise. We consistently found that maternal ZIKV exposure led to placental pathology and that ZIKV RNA levels measured in maternal, placental or embryonic tissues were not predictive of the pathological effects seen in the embryos. Placental pathology included trophoblast hyperplasia in the labyrinth, trophoblast giant cell necrosis in the junctional zone, and loss of embryonic vessels. Our findings suggest that, in this context of limited infection, placental pathology rather than embryonic/fetal viral infection may be a stronger contributor to adverse pregnancy outcomes in mice. Our finding demonstrates that in immunocompetent mice, direct viral infection of the embryo is not essential for fetal demise. Our immunologically unmanipulated pregnancy mouse model provides a consistent and easily measurable congenital abnormality readout to assess fetal outcome, and may serve as an additional model to test prophylactic and therapeutic interventions to protect the fetus during pregnancy, and for studying the mechanisms of ZIKV congenital immunopathogenesis.

The solution conformation of peptides rich in the alpha, alpha-dialkylated amino acid Aib has proven to be a subtle problem, not because of helix/coil transitions, but rather because of alpha-helical/3(10)-helical competition. A special series of peptides containing 75% Aib has been synthesized that feature identical amino acid composition but differing sequences; they are sequence permutation isomers. Nuclear magnetic resonance hydrogen-bonding studies reveal that there is a sequence permutation induced transition between the two alternative helical forms within this set. The implications for the design and conformational prediction of helical Aib-rich peptides are discussed.

1D and 2D NMR spectroscopy is used to determine the helical stability of two Aib-rich peptides, iBoc-(Aib)3-DkNap-Leu-Aib-Ala-(Aib)2-NH(CH2)2OCH3 (Dk4[7/9]) and Ac-(Aib)2-beta-(1'-naphthyl)Ala-(Aib)2-Phe-(Aib)2-NHMe (Nap3Phe6[6/8]), where the bracket notation indicates the number of Aib-class residues/total number of residues. 2D ROESY experiments, carried out previously on Nap3Phe6[6/8] in DMSO (Basu & Kuki, 1993), showed that this compound adopts the 3(10)-helical conformation at 20 degrees C. The first step in the present work is to apply this technique to the peptide Dk4[7/9], demonstrating that it likewise adopts the 3(10)-helical conformation in chloroform at 20 degrees C. The amide proton shifts of Nap3-Phe6[6/8] in DMSO and Dk4[7/9] in C2D2Cl4 were then monitored by means of 1D NMR over a large temperature range, up to 150 and 120 degrees C, respectively. The nonamer Dk4[7/9] exhibits no evidence of any conformational or unfolding transition as the temperature is raised. The nearly temperature independent amide proton chemical shifts of this nonamer are an indication of retention of the intrahelical hydrogen bonding, which was then verified directly by solvent perturbation with DMSO at 120 degrees C. The resulting hydrogen-bonding pattern confirms that Dk4[7/9] retains its 3(10)-helical conformation in C2D2Cl4 over the entire temperature range. This conformational quietness is exploited to examine the intrinsic temperature dependence of free versus intrahelically hydrogen bonded amide proton shifts within the same peptide structure. It is also shown that Nap3Phe6[6/8] retains its 3(10)-helical conformation over the entire temperature range in the stronger hydrogen-bonding solvent DMSO. The extreme thermal stability of these octameric and nonameric Aib-rich peptides in both solvents is contrasted with that of much longer alanine-rich peptides in water.

Excitation transport in synthetic zinc chlorophyllide substituted hemoglobin has been observed by pico -second time-resolved fluorescence depolarization experiments. In this hybrid molecular system, two zinc chlorophyllide molecules are substituted into the beta-chains of hemoglobin, while deoxy hemes remain in the alpha-chains. The rate of excitation transfer between the two chlorophyllides is analyzed in terms of the distance and orientation dependences predicted by the F orster dipole-dipole theory. In this analysis, the beta-beta interchromophore geometry is assumed to be that of the deoxyhemoglobin crystal structure. When combined with steady-state fluorescence depolarization data of the complementary hybrid containing zinc chlorophyllide in the alpha-chains, these experiments provide the necessary information to determine the orientation of the S1 transition dipole moment in the zinc chlorophyllide molecule. We also find that the fluorescence lifetime of the zinc chlorophyllide is 1.42 ns when the heme is in the deoxy state but 3.75 ns when the heme is ligated to carbon monoxide. This is explained by irreversible excitation transfer from the S1 state of the zinc chlorophyllide to the lower energy excited states present in deoxy heme.