Previously we revealed that flagellin proteins in Pseudomonas syringae pv. tabaci 6605 (Pta 6605) were glycosylated with a trisaccharide, modified viosamine (mVio)-rhamnose-rhamnose and that glycosylation was required for virulence. We further identified some glycosylation-related genes, including vioA, vioB, vioT, fgt1, and fgt2. In this study, we newly identified vioR and vioM in a so-called viosamine island as biosynthetic genes for glycosylation of mVio in Pta 6605 by the mass spectrometry (MS) of flagellin glycan in the respective mutants. Furthermore, characterization of the mVio-related genes and MS analyses of flagellin glycans in other pathovars of P. syringae revealed that mVio-related genes were essential for mVio biosynthesis in flagellin glycans, and that P. syringae pv. syringae B728a, which does not possess a viosamine island, has a different structure of glycan in its flagellin protein.

We examined the effects of bisphenol A (BPA) on immune cells and it was shown that BPA upregulated the proliferation of murine splenocytes stimulated with Concanavalin A (ConA). The upregulating effects of BPA were removed with depleting Mac1+ cells from the splenocytes. This study provides evidence for the first time that Mac1+ cells were required for enhancement of splenocytes proliferation caused by bisphenol A.

Acrylamide levels in commercially available potato chips in Japan were monitored between August 2006 and June 2010 using the xanthydrol derivative gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) method. Seasonal and annual changes in acrylamide concentrations were determined. Nationwide bimonthly sampling of potato chips was carried out using a four-level design, and seasonal variations were detected in which the minimum acrylamide concentration was observed in August, and the maximum between February and June. Seasonal variations became less apparent after August 2008 as a result of annual effects and/or mitigation measures taken by the potato chip producers. Sampling uncertainties were separated into time-to-time, city-to-city, and lot-to-lot variation, and the largest variation was shown to be lot-to-lot including bag-to-bag.

Conformations of the crystalline 3,3,3-trifluoro-2-methoxy-2-phenylpropanamide derivatives (MTPA amides) deposited in the Cambridge Structural Database (CSD) were examined statistically as R_acid-enantiomers. The majority of dihedral angles (48/58, ca. 83%) of the amide carbonyl groups and the trifluoromethyl groups ranged from –30° to 0° with an average angle θ¹ of −13°. The other conformational properties were also clarified: (1) one of the fluorine atoms was antiperiplanar (ap) to the amide carbonyl group, forming a staggered conformation; (2) the MTPA amides prepared from primary amines showed a Z form in amide moieties; (3) in the case of the MTPA amide prepared from a primary amine possessing secondary alkyl groups (i.e., Mosher-type MTPA amide), the dihedral angles between the methine groups and the carbonyl groups were syn and indicative of a moderate conformational flexibility; (4) the phenyl plane was inclined from the O–C_chiral bond of the methoxy moiety with an average dihedral angle θ² of +21°; (5) the methyl group of the methoxy moiety was ap to the ipso-carbon atom of the phenyl group.