No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

Electron paramagnetic resonance and ab initio supercell calculations suggest that the P6/P7 centers, which were previously assigned to the photoexcited triplet states of the carbon vacancy-antisite pairs in the double positive charge state, are related to the triplet ground states of the neutral divacancy. The spin density is found to be located mainly on three nearest C neighbors of the silicon vacancy, whereas it is negligible on the nearest Si neighbors of the carbon vacancy.

Defensins are antimicrobial peptides that are important in the innate immune defense of mammals. In contrast to mammalian α- and β-defensins, rhesus theta defensin-1 (RTD-1) comprises only 18 amino acids stabilized by three disulfide bonds and an unusual backbone cyclic topology. In this work we report for the first time the recombinant expression of the fully folded θ-defensin RTD-1 using a bacterial expression system. This was accomplished using an intramolecular native chemical ligation in combination with a modified protein-splicing unit. RTD-1 was produced either in vitro or in vivo. In-cell production of RTD-1 was estimated to reach an intracellular concentration of ≈ 4 μM. Recombinant RTD-1 was shown to be correctly folded as characterized by heteronucelar-NMR and by its ability to specifically inhibit Lethal Factor protease. The recombinant production of folded θ-defensins opens the possibility to produce peptide libraries based on this peptide scaffold that could be used to develop in-cell screening and directed evolution technologies.