Abstract The chemiluminescent light‐emission pathway of phenoxy‐1,2‐dioxetane luminophores attracts growing interest within the scientific community. Dioxetane probes undergoing rapid flash‐type chemiexcitation exhibit higher detection sensitivity than those with a slow glow‐type chemiexcitation rate. We discovered that dioxetanes fused to non‐strained six‐member rings, with hetero atoms or inductive electron‐withdrawing groups, present both accelerated chemiexcitation rates and elevated chemical stability compared to dioxetanes fused to four‐member strained rings. DFT computational simulations supported the chemiexcitation acceleration observed by spiro‐fused six‐member rings with inductive electron‐withdrawing groups of dioxetanes. Specifically, a spiro‐dioxetane with a six‐member sulfone ring exhibited a chemiexcitation rate 293‐fold faster than that of spiro‐adamantyl‐dioxetane. A turn‐ON dioxetane probe for the detection of the enzyme β‐galactosidase, containing the six‐member sulfone unit, exhibited a S/N value of 108 in LB cell growth medium. This probe demonstrated a substantial increase in detection sensitivity towardsE. colibacterial cells expressing β‐galactosidase, with an LOD value that is 44‐fold more sensitive than that obtained by the adamantyl counterpart. The accelerated chemiexcitation and the elevated chemical stability presented by dioxetane containing a spiro‐fused six‐member ring with a sulfone inductive electron‐withdrawing group, make it an ideal candidate for designing efficient turn‐on chemiluminescent probes with exceptionally high detection sensitivity.
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An amyloid-like protein polymerizes into sheath during archaeal cell growth.
Abstract Certain archaeal cells possess external proteinaceous sheath, whose structure and organization are both unknown. By cellular cryogenic electron tomography (cryoET), here we have determined sheath organization of the prototypical archaeon,Methanospirillum hungatei. Fitting of Alphafold-predicted model of the sheath protein (SH) monomer into the 7.9 Å-resolution structure reveals that the sheath cylinder consists of axially stacked β-hoops, each of which is comprised of two to six 400 nm-diameter rings of β-strand arches (β-rings). With both similarities to and differences from amyloid cross-β fibril architecture, each β-ring contains two giant β-sheets contributed by ~ 450 SH monomers that entirely encircle the outer circumference of the cell. Tomograms of immature cells suggest models of sheath biogenesis: oligomerization of SH monomers into β-ring precursors after their membrane-proximal cytoplasmic synthesis, followed by translocation through the unplugged end of a dividing cell, and insertion of nascent β-hoops into the immature sheath cylinder at the junction of two daughter cells.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1911781
- PAR ID:
- 10552096
- Publisher / Repository:
- Nature Communications
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Nature Communications
- Volume:
- 14
- Issue:
- 1
- ISSN:
- 2041-1723
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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