Allyl sulfides are characteristic flavor components obtained from garlic. These sulfides are thought to be responsible for their epidemiologically proven anticancer effect on garlic eaters. This study was aimed at clarifying the molecular basis of this anticancer effect of garlic by using human colon cancer cell lines HCT-15 and DLD-1. The growth of the cells was significantly suppressed by diallyl trisulfide (DATS, HCT-15 IC 50 ‫؍‬ 11.5 M, DLD-1 IC 50 ‫؍‬ 13.3 M); however, neither diallyl monosulfide nor diallyl disulfide showed such an effect. The proportion of HCT-15 and that of DLD-1 cells residing at the G 1 and S phases were decreased by DATS, and their populations at the G 2 /M phase were markedly increased for up to 12 h. The cells with a sub-G 1 DNA content were increased thereafter. Caspase-3 activity was also dramatically increased by DATS. Fluorescence-activated cell sorter analysis performed on the cells arrested at the G 1 /S boundary revealed cell cycle-dependent induction of apoptosis through the transition of the G 2 /M phase to the G 1 phase by DATS. DATS inhibited tubulin polymerization in an in vitro cell-free system. DATS disrupted microtubule network formation of the cells, and microtubule fragments could be seen at the interphase. Peptide mass mapping by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry analysis for DATS-treated tubulin demonstrated that there was a specific oxidative modification of cysteine residues Cys-12␤ and Cys-354␤ to form S-allylmercaptocysteine with a peptide mass increase of 72.1 Da. The potent antitumor activity of DATS was also demonstrated in nude mice bearing HCT-15 xenografts. This is the first paper describing intracellular target molecules directly modified by garlic components.Allyl sulfides, e.g. diallyl monosulfide (DAS), 4 diallyl disulfide (DADS), and diallyl trisulfide (DATS), are characteristic flavor components of the essential oil prepared from garlic (Allium sativum L.). Garlic is widely served around the world, and it has been reported that allyl sulfides inhibit both the initiation and promotion stages of tumorigenesis in experimental carcinogenesis models for various types of cancer (1-5). Recently, several lines of investigation have shown that allyl sulfides suppress cell growth and induce apoptosis in multiple cancer cell lines (6 -12). We previously reported that the sulfur-containing volatile oils prepared from garlic and onion inhibit proliferation and induce differentiation of the human promyelocytic leukemia cell line HL-60 (13). However, the molecular mechanisms underlying the antitumorigenesis of allyl sulfides are still not fully understood.Microtubules are ubiquitous proteins present in eukaryotes as components of the cytoskeleton and play pivotal roles in a variety of cellular processes involving cell division, motility, and intracellular trafficking (14). The microtubules are dynamic polymers composed of ␣␤-tubulin heterodimers, and they form the mitotic spindles, which are known to introduce the replicated DNA molecules to the res...

The potential of erythritol as a platform chemical in biomass refinery is discussed in terms of erythritol production and utilization. Regarding erythritol production, fermentation of sugar or starch has been already commercialized. The shift of the carbon source from glucose to inexpensive inedible waste glycerol is being investigated, which will decrease the price of erythritol. The carbonbased yield of erythritol from glycerol is comparable to or even higher than that from glucose. The metabolic pathway of erythritol biosynthesis has become clarified: erythrose-4-phosphate, which is one of the intermediates in the pentose phosphate pathway, is dephosphorylated and reduced to erythritol. The information about the metabolic pathway may give insights to improve the productivity by bleeding. Regarding erythritol utilization, chemical conversions of erythritol, especially deoxygenation, have been investigated in these days. Erythritol is easily dehydrated to 1,4-anhydroerythritol, which can be also used as the substrate for production of useful C4 chemicals. C−O hydrogenolysis and deoxydehydration using heterogeneous catalysts are effective reactions for erythritol/1,4anhydroerythritol conversion.

Fifty-five triterpenoids consisting of 19 tetracyclic, 32 pentacyclic, and 4 incompletely cyclized triterpenoids, and 2 sterols, mostly isolated from various plant and fungal materials, were examined for their inhibitory effects on a purified human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) reverse transcriptase. Twenty triterpenoids and one sterol showed inhibitory effects with 50% inhibition concentration (IC50) values less than 5.0 microM. Among these cycloartenol ferulate (IC50 = 2.2 microM), 24-methylenecycloartanol ferulate (1.9 microM), lupenone (2.1 microM), betulin diacetate (1.4 microM), and karounidiol 29-benzoate (2.2 microM) inhibited most effectively. Some of the triterpenoids and sterols may be potential new lead compounds to find still more potent HIV-1 reverse transcriptase inhibitors.

Rice straw was evaluated as a carbon source for the fungi, Trichoderma reesei and Humicola insolens, to produce enzymes for rice straw hydrolysis. The enzyme activity of T. reesei and H. insolens cultivated in medium containing non-treated rice straw were almost equivalent to the enzyme of T. reesei cultivated in Avicel medium, a form of refined cellulose. The enzyme activity of T. reesei cultivated in medium containing NHOH-treated rice straw was 4-fold higher than enzyme from cultures grown in Avicel medium. In contrast, H. insolens enzyme from cultures grown in NHOH-treated rice straw had significantly lower activity compared with non-treated rice straw or Avicel. The combined use of T. reesei and H. insolens enzymes resulted in a significant synergistic enhancement in enzymatic activity. Our data suggest that rice straw is a promising low-cost carbon source for fungal enzyme production for rice straw hydrolysis.

In order to seek chicken W chromosome-linked genes expressed significantly earlier than the time of gonadal differentiation, female-minus-male-subtracted cDNA macroarrays were prepared from day 2 (Hamburger-Hamilton stages 12-13), day 3 (stages 19-20) and day 4 (stages 24-25) embryos. From a total of 15-744 macroarrayed cDNA clones, 610 clones exhibiting significantly female-specific expression were selected. When each one of the 610 cDNA clones was used as a probe in Southern blot hybridization with male or female chicken genomic DNA, 62 clones, grouped into eight (A-H) types according to their patterns of hybridization, were considered to be derived from W chromosome-linked genes. When representative cDNA clones in each type were sequenced, clones derived from two known W-linked genes; SPIN-W and ATP5A1W , and from two hitherto unknown W-linked genes, represented by 2d-2D9 and 2d-2F9 clones, were identified and their localizations on the W chromosome were confirmed by fluorescence in-situ hybridization. The 2d-2D9 sequence has no significant homology with other genes in databases but 2d-2F9 has a region which shows partial homology to the consensus sequence of the AAA ATPase superfamily. Both 2d-2D9 and 2d-2F9 sequences are found in contigs of undetermined chromosome-linkage in the Draft Chicken Genome Sequence.

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