jon d

Hello everyone,

I am currently working in a research lab and am overexpressing and purifying a number of homologous proteins. I have done a variety of kinetic assays with them and am getting really consistent results from prep to prep and all of my controls are behaving as expecting.

So here's the issue, I am finding that these proteins have an optimal pH between 8.0 and 11.4. What is particularly interesting about this is that these proteins are cytosolic in vivo and the cytosolic pH of these organisms are between 6.0 and 7.0 depending on the organism, Particularly interesting is that the enzyme with optimal pH of 11.4 is from an organism with a cytoplasmic pH of 6.3 and it shows no observable reaction below a pH of 8.3.

At first, I was convinced that I had done something wrong or that I was misinterpreting data but I have done so many controls that I am becoming increasingly convinced that these numbers are accurate. On top of this, I recently found a few papers on other similar enzymes and their optimal pHs were also surprisingly high.

I've been banging my head against the wall trying to think of how this could work, how could an enzyme have essentially no activity in the pH that it is found but excellent activity at a pH that it should never experience? Any responses are appreciated but if someone knows of a paper explaining this phenomena, you'll get best answer for sure.

Thanks everyone, and sorry for the long question.

Hello everybody,

I have been using vanillin to stain some TLC plates but I ran out. I need to stain a couple plates tonight and I have heard that artificial vanilla extract is just vanillin in ethanol. I could run down to the grocery store but Im not sure what else is in the solution. Does anyone know what is in it or has anyone tried this? Thanks for any insights.

If God wants everyone to accept him and love him and get into heaven, why doesn't he let us live until we're believers, just in case someday we convert? If he knows that it'll never happen then doesn't it make him pretty evil to create beings knowing ahead of time that they're destined to eternal suffering?

I was wondering how credit card companies determine whether or not you have made your minimum payment. I tried searching on Google and was informed how the amount of your minimum payment is determined but not how they know. I guess this sounds kind of stupid at the moment because obviously you give them some money, that's how they know but let me explain. Lets say my minimum payment this month is $100. If I got a cash advance today for $100 and deposited it onto my credit card later, would this work as a minimum payment? How would they know any different. They can't look at the total withdraws vs deposits because if I happened to buy something expensive, I'd have to pay it off entirely plus the minimum payment to make the minimum payment that month. That's obviously not how it works. Is it just, I made a deposit of $100 this month so my minimum payment is satisfied? I hope that much makes sense. The reason I ask is this, I have good credit, I've worked really hard to maintain that credit level but, to make a long story short, I can't make my minimum payment this month and I might not be able to make it for quite a few months (personal issues). I am wondering if getting a cash advance and using it to pay off the minimum payment would work so I don't kill my credit rating. Before I get a dozen people telling me that that's not a smart way to deal with credit and so on and so forth, I am aware. I take credit very seriously and I hope to buy a house in a year or two. At the moment, I can't work as much as I normally do and most of my money is being spent elsewhere. This is obviously just a temporary fix and I'm hoping I'll be back on my feet in at most three or four months. So that's the long and short of it, would that work? I'm looking back on what I just wrote and it looks like a scrambled mess so if it doesn't make sense, feel free to ask. Thanks in advance everyone.

My girlfriend was born in Canada and is a Canadian citizen. When she was born her parents got her an American social security number. She lived in Utah for a while when she was younger legally and her dad now lives in Nevada legally although Im not sure if hes a citizen or just has a green card. We currently live together in Canada but she would like to move to Nevada to live with her dad. The social security card she got does not say anything about needing a green card or naturalization papers. Is this card valid why/why not? Does having this card help with getting a visa or citizenship or does the fact that she obtained this legally and a Canadian social insurance number mean that she is already a duel citizen?

I know this is a lot of little questions rolled up into one but she loves the USA and wants to make sure that if she applies for a job there that she isnt breaking any laws.

Thank you so much in advance for any insights, Ive been researching and Im just not 100% sure yet.