Derivates of diketopyrrolopyrrole are colored pigments with potential use in field of organic semiconductor structures. Their electrical attributes such as conductivity, photocon¬¬ductivity and electroluminescence relate to their crystal structures that determine charge transport path through the compound. For crystallographic structure determination from RTG diffractometry it is needed to grow a measurable single crystal. Growing crystals of derivates of diketopyrrolopyrrols is very difficult due to their poor solubility in all solvents. Several relatively suitable – perhaps even measurable – samples were obtained throughout the testing of series of methods. One of these samples was measured with RTG diffractometry and on the ground of this measurement it was possible to find and solve the crystallographic structure.

This study is part of a project which aim is solving the structure of the catalytic domain of neutral trehalase Nth1 from Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The main goal of this thesis is the preparation of new constructs of yeast Nth1 and optimization of their purification protocols, the selection of the ideal buffer for crystallization trials using the method of differential scanning fluorimetry (DSF) and at last the protein crystallization. Another part of the thesis is the measurement of the enzymatic activity of pNth1 WT in the presence of Bmh1 protein, verification of trehalose binding to the selected constructs of Nth1 using differential scanning fluorimetry (DSF), thermoforesis (MST) and further crystallization with trehalose. Neutral trehalase is highly conserved trehalase that has been found in a wide variety of organisms. These enzymes belong to the class of hydrolases, subgroup of glycosidases and hydrolytically cleave trehalose into two glucose molecules. Trehalose is a naturally occurring non-reducing disaccharide serving in yeast cells a source of carbon and energy as well as protection against stress conditions such as a thermal shock. Trehalose hydrolysis is essential for flying insects, because it is present as the main sugar component of insect haemolymph, therefore trehalase inhibitors...

Hliníková slitina AA8079 připravena plynulým odléváním mezi válce je běžně používána pro výrobu tenké potravinářské fólie. Vzhledem k použité metodě odlévání a složení slitiny je struktura litého materiálu značně nehomogenní a obsahuje intermetalické fáze, které se shlukují v eutektických koloniích. Litý materiál tak vyžaduje tepelné zpracování před dalšími kroky výroby. Mikrostruktura materiálu po homogenizačních žíháních na různých teplotách je rozdílná, což ovlivňuje další zpracování. Po homogenizaci je materiál válcován což způsobuje snížení tažnosti. Rekrystalizační žíhání je vyžadováno po zválcování na střední tloušťku před finálním válcování, aby byla tažnost obnovena. Chování materiálu během rekrystalizačního žíhání je ovlivněno přítomnými fázemi, jejich velikostí a rozdělením. Byl studován vliv mikrostruktury po homogenizaci na rozdílných teplotách na rekrystalizaci, byla vyhodnocena kinetika rekrystalizace a byly identifikovány dva hlavní mechanismy ovlivňující rekrystalizaci - částicemi stimulovaná nukleace a Zenerův tlak.

Natural killer or NK cells are immunocytes that mediate innate immunity against pathogens and tumors without pre-exposition to the antigen. They are holding rapid antiviral defense during the initial phase of immune response, before starting the production of antibodies and the development of specific cytotoxic T -lymphocytes. On the surface of NK cells is expressed wide range of inhibition and activation receptors. Important family of those receptors are C - type lectin like from which the family of NKR - P1 ("natural killer cell receptor - protein 1") was discovered first. Diploma thesis deals with the preparation/study of mice NK cell activation receptor NKR- P1C and searching for its binding partner. The soluble form of the protein NKR-P1C was prepared by recombinant expression using the transient transfection of HEK293 cell line (human embryonic kidney 293) with wild type or homogenous glycosylation as IgG - Fc fusion protein, from which was it possible to obtain pure dimer of NKR P1C, after process of affinity purification, TEV protease cleavage and HPLC chromatography. The fusion protein was bound to protein A labeled with a fluorescent probe DyLight 488. Mice tissues and cell lines were labeled by this complex for purpose of seeking ligand.

The Natural Killer (NK) cells have an important role in the nonspecific immunity of the or- ganism. They have the ability to identify and to kill tumor cells and cells infected by a virus without preceding sensitization by antigen. Their function is directed by the amount of sti- mulation and inhibition receptors interacting with ligands on the tumor or infected cell. This thesis focuses on the preparation and the study of the complex of rat NK cellular inhi- bition receptor NKR-P1B ("natural killer cell receptor - protein 1B") and its ligand Clrb ("C-type lectin-related ligand b"). The Clrb initiates the inhibition of NKR-P1B, meaning that if the cell express Clrb, it won't be destroyed. If the cell gets infected by the rat cytome- galovirus, it loses Clrb from its surface and its destruction is therefore no longer prevented. Cells infected with this virus defend themselves from destruction by expression of the viral gene of C-type lectin RCTL, which is a homolog of Clrb. Transient transfection of human embryonic kidney 293 cell line with simple glycosylation (HEK293S GnTI− ) was used for the recombinant preparation of the soluble form of these two receptors of the rat NK cells. The native forms of the receptors - disulfidic homo- dimers - were prepared as the fusion construct with IgG Fc (using...

Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Science, Charles University in Prague 2010 Structure and function of C-type lectin NK cell receptors studied by recombinant expression and protein crystallography Abstract of Ph.D. thesis Ondřej Vaněk Supervisor: Prof. RNDr. Karel Bezouška, DSc. Natural killer cells (NK cells) were found out for their ability to spontaneously kill certain allogeneic tumour cell lines, without any previous sensitization. NK cells are part of non- adaptive immune response with very short reaction time against pathogens such as viruses, intracellular bacteria, parasites, and they are responsible for elimination of certain tumour cells and thus they are able to fight against malignancy and formation of metastasis. Activity of NK cells is regulated by the balance between activation and inhibitory signals mediated by the NK cell surface receptors. From the structural point of view, the majority of NK cell surface receptors could be classified as the C-type lectin or immunoglobulin-like receptors. One of many C-type lectin subgroups are type II lymphocyte receptors that are expressed on the NK cell surface. This study had two main aims. The first one was to find suitable expression and purification systems for selected C-type lectin receptors of NK cells and the other one was to perform their...

3 ABSTRACT LEDGF/p75 protein is a human transcriptional co-activator and epigenetic reader associated with transcriptionally active chromatin. It is crucial for HIV integration and MLL1 fusion-driven leukemia development. Interactions of LEDGF/p75 with HIV integrase (HIV IN) and MLL1-menin complex are considered an attractive therapeutic target for drug development. LEDGF/p75 interacts with both HIV IN and MLL1-menin complex through its integrase binding domain (IBD). While the pathophysiological interactions of LEDGF/p75 IBD were intensively studied, little was known about the physiological ones. In addition to HIV IN and MLL1, the LEDGF/p75 IBD also interacts with JPO2, PogZ, ASK and MLL2. In search for specific inhibitors of LEDGF/p75 IBD interaction with HIV IN and MLL1, it is essential to obtain detailed information about its interactions with all binding partners. The IBD-MLL1-menin complex has been structurally characterized, but only partially. Using NMR spectroscopy, we identified and mapped a novel part of the IBD-MLL1 interface. This additional interface is able to maintain the interaction between LEDGF/p75 and MLL1 even without the presence of menin, which was considered necessary. Moreover, colony forming assays of primary leukemic blasts revealed that this additional interface is essential for...

Since 1991, when the first haloalkane dehalogenase (HLD) from Xanthobacter autotrophicus GJ10 was described, nearly 20 HLDs have been characterized biochemically and fourteen HLDs were analysed structurally. These enzymes belong to alpha/beta-hydrolases and, owing to their ability to bring about the hydrolytic conversion of toxic halogenated compounds, are a source of broad biotechnological applications. DpcA from Psychrobacter cryohalolentis K5 and DmxA from Marinobacter sp. ELB17 are among them. Although their overall structures are quite similar to other HLD members, they possess several unique properties. Information on their 3D structure may significantly contribute to the understanding of protein function. DpcA and DmxA structures will allow us to gain insights into structural determinants of specificity and stability. This thesis aims to elucidate the tertiary and quaternary structures of these enzymes using of X-ray crystallography.

In this thesis, we focused on local structural features of the DNA backbone in protein-complexed DNA and non-complexed (naked) DNA, and its dependence on types of a base pairing in DNA, and on the base sequence. To reach this goal we analyzed about 1,400 crystal structures of DNA in complexes with proteins and more than 400 crystal structures of naked DNA. DNA local conformations were structurally classified into 38 dinucleotide conformers ntCs, which were described previously (Svozil et al. Nucleic Acids Res. 2008). The ntC were further clustered into 16 structural alphabet classes ntA to reduce the number of analyzed variables. We assembled base-paired dinucleotides from double helical DNA structures accord- ing to their assigned structural alphabet classes into so called Association matrices. Three basic Association matrices were analyzed; two compare ntA/ntA associations between dinucleotides forming only Watson-Crick base pairs in protein/DNA com- plexes and in naked DNA, respectively; the third one ntA/ntA associations between dinucleotides base-paired also by non-Watson-Crick pairs. We also analyzed As- sociation matrices of dinucleotides as a function of their sequences. The analyzes revealed differences in structural behavior of various ntA and their dependence on dinucleotide sequences.

DNA is the fundamental molecule in all domains of life, its role in heredity is well established. Although the famous double helical complementary form is indispensable for replication mechanism DNA can occupy wide range of conformations. In the past studies performed in the laboratory, DNA oligomers related to single stranded bacterial Repetitive Extragenic Palindromic (REP) showed spectral behavior suggesting complex equilibria including double helical, hairpin, and tetraplex conformations. The studies presented in this thesis extended the scope of analyzed sequences and employed circular dichroism spectroscopy and X-ray crystallography. We report spectral data and X-ray structures of three successfully crystalized oligonucleotides. All three structures acquire double helical architecture with two consecutive T- T mismatches in the center. To improve the convergence of the refinement process of the crystal structures we used novel dinucleotide conformational classes, NtC classes. The NtC class classification was also used to analyze geometries of selected non-canonical base pairs in all DNA crystal structures in the Protein Data Bank. We measured the fit between geometries of the dinucleotides involved in the non-canonical base pairing and the NtC classes and correlated this fit to the electron...