There are cases, such as regulation of the heat shock response or disassembly of clathrin coats, however, where binding of a short hydrophobic sequence selects conformational states of clients to favor their productive participation in a subsequent step. This Perspective

discusses current understanding of how Hsp70 molecular chaperones recognize and act on their substrates and the relationships between these fundamental processes and the functional roles played by these molecular machines. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights Selleck AG-120 reserved.”
“In many insect species, photoreceptors of a small dorsal rim area of the eye are specialized for sensitivity to the oscillation plane of polarized skylight and, thus, serve a role in sky compass GSK1838705A inhibitor orientation. To further understand peripheral mechanisms of polarized-light processing in the optic lobe, we have studied the projections of photoreceptors and their receptive fields in the main eye and dorsal rim area of the desert locust, a model system for polarization vision analysis. In both eye regions, one photoreceptor per ommatidium, R7, has a long visual fiber projecting through the lamina to the medulla. Axonal fibers from R7 receptors of

the dorsal rim area have short side branches throughout the depth of the dorsal lamina and maintain retinotopic projections to the dorsal medulla following the first optic chiasma. Receptive fields of dorsal rim photoreceptors are considerably larger (average acceptance angle 33A degrees) than those of the main eye (average acceptance angle 2.04A degrees) and, taken together, cover almost the entire sky. The data challenge previous reports of two long visual fibers per ommatidium in the main eye of the locust and provide data for future analysis of peripheral networks underlying polarization opponency in the locust brain.”
“A series of arylsulfonamides has been synthesized and investigated for the inhibition of some selected human carbonic anhydrase isoforms. The studied compounds showed significant inhibitory effects in the nanomolar range toward druggable isoforms

(hCA VII, hCA IX, and hCA XIV) (K-i values from 4.8 to 61.7 nM), whereas they generally exhibited significant selectivity over hCA I and hCA II, that are ubiquitous and considered FHPI off-target isoforms. On the basis of biochemical data, we herein discussed structure-affinity relationships for this series of arylsulfonamides, suggesting a key role for alkoxy substituents in CA inhibition. Furthermore, X-ray crystal structures of complexes of two active inhibitors (1 and 2a) with hCA II allowed us to elucidate the main interactions between the inhibitor and specific amino acid residues within the catalytic site.”
“Characterization of the shock response of biological materials is required in order to develop an understanding of how such materials behave under high strain-rate loading.