Biochemistry

Arginine is one of the amino acids with multiple metabolic pathways. Apart from its role in the composition of proteins, it is the biosynthetic precursor of nitric oxide, creatine, agmatine, proline, homoarginine and polyamines. In chapter One of this book, the reasons for and the possible advantages and disadvantages of nutritional arginine supplementation are critically…

Lignocellulosic biomass conversion to fuel is the only sustainable way to meet the current and future energy demands, at least in displacing a substantial amount of liquid transportation fuel, and curb detrimental effects of greenhouse gas emissions. Various routes and processes to convert lignocellulosic biomass to fuels, chemicals, and bio-based materials have been developed in…

This book provides current research on G-quadruplex structures, their formation and role in biology. Chapter One summarizes the structural features of quadruplexes built by sequence extensions and site-specifically incorporated modified building blocks that have been established to induce the formation of stable, majority single G-quadruplex folding topologies, primarily from the human telomere repeat DNAs. Chapter…

Protein-protein interactions (PPIs) play an important role in vital biological processes such as metabolic and signaling pathways, cell cycle control, and DNA replication and transcription. This book discusses types, methods for detection and the analysis of PPIs. Chapter One describes two key nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) methods for the investigation of protein-protein interactions, chemical shift…

Carnosine (â-alanyl histidine) is a water-soluble dipeptide. It is mainly distributed in the skeletal muscles and in the brain. It is widely recognized that carnosine has various functions including maintenance of the acid-base balance, antioxidant, protective chelating, and anti-glycation activity. In this book, Chapter One aims to discuss the properties of carnosine and its role…

Procyanidins are phenolic compounds from plants and they are abundant in our diet. Research studies on procyanidins have shown that they have many health benefits, especially as preventive agents for cancer, cardiovascular diseases and diabetes. High concentrations of procyanidins can be found in plants and foods such as red wine, grapes, grape seeds, cocoa, berries…

The E3 ubiquitin ligases facilitate substrate specificity and isopeptide bond formation between C-terminal glycine residue of ubiquitin (Gly 76) and a lysine residue in the target protein. This book reviews several new insights, discusses emerging roles and analyzes clinical implications of uniquitin ligases. (Imprint: Nova)