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Description: The structures and interaction energies of guanine and uracil quartets have been determined by B3LYP hybrid density functional calculations. The total interaction energy $\Delta$E$^{T}$ of the $\it{C}$$_{4h}$-symmetric guanine quartet consisting of Hoogsteen type base pairs with two hydrogen bonds between two neighbour bases is -66.07 kcal/mol at the highest level. The uracil quartet with C6-H6...O4 interactions between the individual bases has only a small interaction energy of -20.92 kcal/mol and the interaction energy of -24.63 kcal/mol for the alternative structure with N3-H3...O4 hydrogen bonds is only slightly more negative. Cooperative effects contribute between 10 and 25 \% to all interaction energies. Complexes of metal ions with G-quartets can be classified into different structure types. The one with Ca$^{2+}$ in the central cavity adopts a $\it{C}$$_{4h}$-symmetric structure with coplanar bases, whereas the energies of the planar and non-planar Na$^{+}$ complexes are almost identical. The small ions Li$^{+}$, Be$^{2+}$, Cu$^{+}$ and Zn$^{2+}$ prefer a non-planar $\it{S}$$_{4}$-symmetric structure. The lack of co-planarity prevents probably a stacking of these base quartets. The central cavity is too small for K$^{+}$ ions and therefore this ion favours in contrast to all other investigated ions a $\it{C}$$_{4}$-symmetric complex, which is 4.73 kcal/mol more stable than the $\it{C}$$_{4h}$-symmetric one. The distance 1.665 {\AA} between K$^{+}$ and the root mean squares plane of the guanine bases is approximately half of the distance between two stacked G-quartets. The total interaction energy of alkaline earth ion complexes exceeds the ones with alkali ions. Within both groups of ions the interaction energy decreases with an increasing row position in the periodic table. The B3LYP and BLYP methods lead to similar structures and energies. Both methods are suitable for hydrogen-bonded biological systems. Compared with the before mentioned methods the HCTH functional leads to longer hydrogen bonds and different relative energies for two U-quartets. Finally we calculated also structures and relative energies with the MMFF94 forcefield. Contrary to all DFT methods, MMFF94 predicts bifurcated C-H...O contacts in the uracil quartet. In the G-quartet the MMFF94 hydrogen bond distances N2-H22...N7 are shorter than the DFT distances, whereas the N1-H1...O6 distances are longer.

Description: Pyridinochelin, a novel catecholate type siderophore, has been designed on the basis of the active analog enterobactin. Growth promotion tests indicate that this synthetic siderophore feeds various pathogenic bacteria effectively with iron even though it lacks one catecholate group compared to enterobactin. The superposition of the siderophore structures suggests that the structure of the skeleton connecting the catecholate groups might be an important factor for the iron transport.

Description: Large-eddy simulations (LES) with the new ICOsahedral Non-hydrostatic atmosphere model (ICON) covering Germany are evaluated for four days in spring 2013 using observational data from various sources. Reference simulations with the established Consortium for Small-scale Modelling (COSMO) numerical weather prediction model and further standard LES codes are performed and used as a reference. This comprehensive evaluation approach covers multiple parameters and scales, focusing on boundary-layer variables, clouds and precipitation. The evaluation points to the need to work on parametrizations influencing the surface energy balance, and possibly on ice cloud microphysics. The central purpose for the development and application of ICON in the LES configuration is the use of simulation results to improve the understanding of moist processes, as well as their parametrization in climate models. The evaluation thus aims at building confidence in the model's ability to simulate small- to mesoscale variability in turbulence, clouds and precipitation. The results are encouraging: the high-resolution model matches the observed variability much better at small- to mesoscales than the coarser resolved reference model. In its highest grid resolution, the simulated turbulence profiles are realistic and column water vapour matches the observed temporal variability at short time-scales. Despite being somewhat too large and too frequent, small cumulus clouds are well represented in comparison with satellite data, as is the shape of the cloud size spectrum. Variability of cloud water matches the satellite observations much better in ICON than in the reference model. In this sense, it is concluded that the model is fit for the purpose of using its output for parametrization development, despite the potential to improve further some important aspects of processes that are also parametrized in the high-resolution model.