We have purified membrane-bound fatty acid (omega-1-omega-3) hydroxylase of the fungus Fusarium oxysporum MT-811 and found that the activity depends on a single polypeptide with an apparent M(r) value of 118,000. The purified hydroxylase exhibited spectral characteristics of cytochrome P450 (P450), and could catalyze the hydroxylation without the aid of any other proteinaceous components, such as NADPH-P450 reductase. These properties of the fungal hydroxylase are the same as those of bacterial P450BM3 of Bacillus megaterium, a catalytically self-sufficient fused protein of P450 and its reductase. Other properties of the two enzymes, such as molecular weight, high catalytic turnover, and the regiospecificity of the hydroxylating position, were also almost identical. Further, the fungal hydroxylase reacted with the antibody to P450BM3. It was thus shown that the fungal fatty acid hydroxylase reacted with the antibody to P450BM3. It was thus shown that the fungal fatty acid hydroxylase structurally and functionally bears a close resemblance to P450BM3, although it is membrane-bound, unlike the bacterial counterpart. On the other hand, a unique phenomenon was found with the fungal hydroxylase: its NADPH-cytochrome c- or NADPH-menadione reductase activity was enhanced enormously upon binding of its substrate (fatty acid). This appears to be the first instance in which the reactivity of P450 reductase against an artificial electron acceptor was enhanced by the binding of the substrate (to be hydroxylated) to P450. These results raise interesting questions about the molecular evolution of P450. Here we term the fungal hydroxylase cytochrome P450foxy.

The plasma membrane acts as the primary interface between the cellular cytoplasm and the extracellular environment. To investigate the function of the plasma membrane in response to flooding stress, plasma membrane was purified from root and hypocotyl of soybean seedlings using an aqueous two-phase partitioning method. Purified plasma membrane proteins with 81% purity were analyzed using either two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis followed by mass spectrometry and protein sequencing (2-DE MS/sequencer)-based proteomics or nanoliquid chromatography followed by mass spectrometry (nanoLC-MS/MS)-based proteomics. The number of hydrophobic proteins identified by nanoLC-MS/MS-based proteomics was compared with those identified by 2-DE MS/sequencer-based proteomics. These techniques were applied to identify the proteins in soybean that are responsive to flooding stress. Results indicate insights of plasma membrane into the response of soybean to flooding stress: (i) the proteins located in the cell wall are up-regulated in plasma membrane; (ii) the proteins related to antioxidative system play a crucial role in protecting cells from oxidative damage; (iii) the heat shock cognate protein plays a role in protecting proteins from denaturation and degradation during flooding stress; and (iv) the signaling related proteins might regulate ion homeostasis.

The gene of a fatty-acid hydroxylase of the fungus Fusarium oxysporum (P450foxy) was cloned and expressed in yeast. The putative primary structure revealed the close relationship of P450foxy to the bacterial cytochrome P450BM3, a fused protein of cytochrome P450 and its reductase from Bacillus megaterium. The amino acid sequence identities of the P450 and P450 reductase domains of P450foxy were highest (40.6 and 35.3%, respectively) to the corresponding domains of P450BM3. Recombinant P450foxy expressed in yeast was catalytically and spectrally indistinguishable from the native protein, except most of the recombinant P450foxy was recovered in the soluble fraction of the yeast cells, in marked contrast to native P450foxy, which was exclusively recovered in the membrane fraction of the fungal cells. This difference implies that a post (or co)-translational mechanism functions in the fungal cells to target and bind the protein to the membrane. These results provide conclusive evidence that P450foxy is the eukaryotic counterpart of bacterial P450BM3, which evokes interest in the evolutionary aspects concerning the P450 superfamily along with its reducing systems. P450foxy was classified in the new family, CYP505.

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We describe here the preparation of soft crystals using disilanyl macrocycle C4 possessing four p-phenylenes circularly connected by four flexible disilane bonds. Single crystals of C4 exhibited a reversible thermal single-crystal-to-single-crystal (SCSC) phase transition behavior between two crystal phases accompanied by remarkable mechanical motion (thermosalient effect), as revealed by thermal analyses and X-ray diffraction measurements. Detailed structural analyses implied that flexibility of the parallelogram disilanyl architecture and molecular packing mode via weak intermolecular interactions facilitated a concerted structural transformation (parallel crank motion) of macrocycles in the crystal, thus resulting in the SCSC phase transition accompanied by anisotropic shrinking/elongation of the cells to induce the thermosalient effect. This work explores a new area of organosilicon chemistry and presents the potential utility of disilanyl macrocycles as soft crystals.

Geometrical structures of the isolated benzene and naphthalene molecules have been accurately determined by using ultrahigh-resolution laser spectroscopy and ab initio calculation in a complementary manner. The benzene molecule has been identified to be planar and hexagonal (D(6h)) and the structure has been determined with accuracies of 2 × 10(-14) m (0.2 mÅ; 1 Å = 1 × 10(-10) m) for the C-C bond length and 1.0 × 10(-13) m (1.0 mÅ) for the C-H bond length. The naphthalene molecule has been identified to be symmetric with respect to three coordinate axes (D(2h)) and the structure has been determined with comparable accuracies. We discuss the effect of vibrational averaging that is a consequence of zero-point motions on the uncertainty in determining the bond lengths.

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