Crotonylation of GAPDH regulates human embryonic stem cell endodermal lineage differentiation and metabolic switch.

BACKGROUND: Post-translational modifications of proteins are crucial to the regulation of their activity and function. As a newly discovered acylation modification, crotonylation of non-histone proteins remains largely unexplored, particularly in human embryonic stem cells (hESCs). METHODS: We investigated the role of crotonylation in hESC differentiation by introduce crotonate into the culture medium of GFP tagged LTR7 primed H9 cell and extended pluripotent stem cell lines. RNA-seq assay was used to determine the hESC transcriptional features. Through morphological changes, qPCR of pluripotent and germ layer-specific gene markers and flow cytometry analysis, we determined that the induced crotonylation resulted in hESC differentiating into the endodermal lineage. We performed targeted metabolomic analysis and seahorse metabolic measurement to investigate the metabolism features after crotonate induction. Then high-resolution tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) revealed the target proteins in hESCs. In addition, the role of crotonylated glycolytic enzymes (GAPDH and ENOA) was evaluated by in vitro crotonylation and enzymatic activity assays. Finally, we used knocked-down hESCs by shRNA, wild GAPDH and GAPDH mutants to explore potential role of GAPDH crotonylation in regulating human embryonic stem cell differentiation and metabolic switch. RESULT: We found that induced crotonylation in hESCs resulted in hESCs of different pluripotency states differentiating into the endodermal lineage. Increased protein crotonylation in hESCs was accompanied by transcriptomic shifts and decreased glycolysis. Large-scale crotonylation profiling of non-histone proteins revealed that metabolic enzymes were major targets of inducible crotonylation in hESCs. We further discovered GAPDH as a key glycolytic enzyme regulated by crotonylation during endodermal differentiation from hESCs. CONCLUSIONS: Crotonylation of GAPDH decreased its enzymatic activity thereby leading to reduced glycolysis during endodermal differentiation from hESCs.

The balance of acidity and redox capability over modified CeO2 catalyst for the selective catalytic reduction of NO with NH3.

The effect of acidity and redox capability over sulfuric acid-modified CeO2 catalysts were studied for the selective catalytic reduction of NOx with NH3 (NH3-SCR). The deposition of sulfate significantly enhanced the catalytic performance over CeO2. NOx conversion over 4H2SO4/CeO2 at 230-440 °C was higher than 90%. The strong redox capability of CeO2 could result in unselective NH3 oxidation and decrease high temperatures catalytic activity and N2 selectivity. The deposition of sulfate increased the acidity and weakened the redox capability, and then increased the high temperature NOx conversion and N2 selectivity. An appropriate level of acidity also promoted the activity at 190-250 °C over ceria-based catalysts, and with further increase in the acidity, the SCR activity decreased slightly. Weak redox capability lowered the low-temperature catalytic activity. Excellent SCR activity requires a balance of acidity and redox capability on the catalysts.

Theoretical and experimental study on formation and adsorption of enolic species on Ag-Pd/Al2O3 catalyst.

The formation and adsorption of enolic species on a palladium promoted Ag/Al2O3 catalyst (denoted Ag-Pd/Al2O3) during the selective catalytic reduction (SCR) of NOx by C3H6 has been studied by means of DRIFTS and density functional calculations. The structure of the enolic species adsorbed on Ag-Pd/Al2O3 catalyst has been established based on the in situ DRIFTS spectra and simulated results. The reaction mechanism from C3H6 to enolic species on Ag-Pd/Al2O3 catalyst was proposed and the hypothesis about the Pd promotion was discussed.

Density functional theory (DFT) and DRIFTS investigations of the formation and adsorption of enolic species on the Ag/Al2O3 surface.

Molecular structure and vibrational frequencies of the novel surface enolic species intermediate on Ag/Al2O3 have been investigated by means of density functional theory (DFT) calculations and in situ infrared spectroscopy. The geometrical structures and vibrational frequencies were obtained at the B3P86 levels of DFT and compared with the corresponding experimental values. Theoretical calculations show that the calculated IR spectra are in good agreement with the experimental spectroscopic results. In addition, the adsorption energy of enolic species on the Ag/Al2O3 catalyst surface was also evaluated. The reaction mechanism from C2H5OH to enolic species on Ag/Al2O3 catalyst was proposed.