11 documents found, page 1 of 2
Preserving and hydrogel-matrixing the bioactive properties of aromatic medicina...
Parracho, Tiago; Cruz, Pedro F.; Peralta, Claúdia C.; Silva, Cândida G.; Campos, Maria Jorge; Neves, Marta; Cordeiro, Rachel; Trindade, DanielaEdible wild plants are part of the ethnobotanic heritage of a certain geographical area and are important sources of essential oils, antioxidants, minerals, and special flavours. Corema album (Portuguese crowberry), Crithmum maritimum (sea fennel), Eryngium maritimum (sea holly), Helichrysum italicum (curry plant) and Otanthus maritimus (cottonweed) wildly flourish along the sandy dunes of the coast of the Iber...
Enhancing the Production of Hydrolytic Enzymes in Elicited Tamarillo (Solanum b...
Casimiro, Bruno; Mota, Inês; Veríssimo, Paula; Canhoto, Jorge M. P. L.; Correia, SandraPlant cell suspension cultures are widely used as a tool for analyzing cellular and molecular processes, metabolite synthesis, and differentiation, bypassing the structural complexity of plants. Within the range of approaches used to increase the production of metabolites by plant cells, one of the most recurrent is applying elicitors capable of stimulating metabolic pathways related to defense mechanisms. Prev...
Searching for the Best Transthyretin Aggregation Protocol to Study Amyloid Fibr...
Ferreira, Elisabete; Almeida, Zaida L.; Cruz, Pedro F.; Sousa, Marta Silva e; Veríssimo, Paula; Brito, Rui M. M.Several degenerative amyloid diseases, with no fully effective treatment, affect millions of people worldwide. These pathologies-amyloidoses-are known to be associated with the formation of ordered protein aggregates and highly stable and insoluble amyloid fibrils, which are deposited in multiple tissues and organs. The disruption of preformed amyloid aggregates and fibrils is one possible therapeutic strategy ...
Sand-Dune Plants from the Atlantic Coast of the Iberian Peninsula: Features and...
Parracho, Tiago; Vaz, Daniela C.; Veríssimo, Paula; Santos Ribeiro, VâniaPlants with one or more consumable parts are considered edible. Although many plants have been classified as edible (about 27 thousand species), few are used as food. Nonetheless, to overcome food scarcity and excessive dependence on the same plant species, humans have always consumed wild plants, either through direct intake, or as spices, condiments, or oils. Thus, edible wild plants are part of a cultural an...
Pollen Proteases Play Multiple Roles in Allergic Disorders
Gaspar, Ricardo; Matos, Mafalda Ramos de; Cortes, Luísa; Nunes-Correia, Isabel; Todo-Bom, Ana; Pires, Euclides; Veríssimo, PaulaAllergic diseases are a major health concern worldwide. Pollens are important triggers for allergic rhinitis, conjunctivitis and asthma. Proteases released upon pollen grain hydration appear to play a major role in the typical immunological and inflammatory responses that occur in patients with allergic disorders. In this study, we aimed to identify specific proteolytic activity in a set of pollens with diverse...
NEP-TC a rRNA Methyltransferase Involved on Somatic Embryogenesis of Tamarillo ...
Correia, Sandra; Alhinho, Ana T.; Casimiro, Bruno; Miguel, Célia M; Oliveira, Margarida; Veríssimo, Paula; Canhoto, JorgeSomatic embryogenesis (SE) is an important biotechnological tool for large-scale clonal propagation and for embryogenesis research. Moreover, genetic transformation and cryopreservation procedures in many species rely on efficient SE protocols. We have been studying different aspects related to SE induction and somatic embryo development in tamarillo (Solanum betaceum Cav.), a small tree from the Solanaceae fam...
Crystal structure of a novel cysteinless plant Kunitz-type protease inhibitor
Hansen, Daiane; Macedo-Ribeiro, Sandra; Veríssimo, Paula; Yoo Im, Sonia; Sampaio, Misako Uemura; Oliva, Maria Luiza VilelaBauhinia bauhinioides Cruzipain Inhibitor (BbCI) is a cysteine protease inhibitor highly homologous to plant Kunitz-type inhibitors. However, in contrast to classical Kunitz family inhibitors it lacks cysteine residues and therefore disulfide bridges. BbCI is also distinct in the ability to inactivate enzymes belonging to two different classes, cysteine and serine proteases. Besides inhibiting the cysteine prot...
Molecular cloning and characterization of cDNA encoding cardosin B, an aspartic...
Vieira, Margarida; Pissarra, José; Veríssimo, Paula; Castanheira, Pedro; Costa, Yael; Pires, Euclides; Faro, CarlosCardosins A and B are related aspartic proteinases from the pistils of Cynara cardunculus L., whose milk-clotting activity has been exploited for the manufacture of cheese. Here we report the cloning of cardosin B cDNA and its organ, tissue and cytological localization. The cDNA-derived amino acid sequence has 73% similarity with that of cardosin A and displays several distinguishing features. Cardosin B mRNA w...
Identification and proteolytic processing of procardosin A
Ramalho-Santos, Miguel; Veríssimo, Paula; Cortes, Luísa; Samyn, Bart; Beeumen, Jozef Van; Pires, Euclides; Faro, CarlosPlant aspartic proteinases contain a plant-specific insert (PSI) of about 100 amino acids of unknown function with no similarity with the other aspartic proteinases but with significant similarity with saposins, animal sphingolipid activator proteins. PSI has remained elusive at the protein level, suggesting that it may be removed during processing. To understand the molecular relevance of PSI, the proteolytic ...
The Glycosylation of the Aspartic Proteinases from Barley (Hordeum Vulgare L.) ...
Costa, Júlia; Ashford, David A.; Nimtz, Manfred; Bento, Isabel; Frazão, Carlos; Esteves, Cristina L.; Faro, Carlos J.; Kervinen, Jukka; Pires, EuclidesPlant aspartic proteinases characterised at the molecular level contain one or more consensus N-glycosylation sites [Runeberg-Roos, P., Törmäkangas, K. & Östman, A. (1991) Eur. J. Biochem. 202, 102120131027; Asakura, T., Watanabe, H., Abe, K. & Arai, S. (1995) Eur. J. Biochem. 232, 77201383; Veríssimo, P., Faro, C., Moir, A. J. G., Lin, Y., Tang, J. & Pires, E. (1996) Eur. J. Biochem. 235, 76220137681. We found...