Insights from computational analysis of full-length β-ketoacyl-[ACP] synthase-II cDNA isolated from American and African oil palms

Frequency Domain Feature Extraction Investigation to Increase the Accuracy of an Intelligent Nondestructive System for Volume Fraction and Regime Determination of Gas-Water-Oil Three-Phase Flows

In this research, a methodology consisting of an X-ray tube, one Pyrex-glass pipe, and two NaI detectors was investigated to determine the type of flow regimes and volume fractions of gas-oil-water three-phase flows. Three prevalent flow patterns—namely annular, stratified, and homogenous—in various volume percentages—10% to 80% with the step of 10%—were simulated by MCNP-X code. After simulating all the states and collecting the signals, the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) was used to convert the data to the frequency domain. The first and second dominant frequency amplitudes were extracted to be used as the inputs of neural networks. Three Radial Basis Function Neural Networks (RBFNN) were trained for determining the type of flow regimes and predicting gas and water volume fractions. The correct detection of all flow regimes and the determination of volume percentages with a Mean Relative Error (MRE) of less than 2.02% shows that the use of frequency characteristics in determining these important parameters can be very effective. Although X-ray radiation-based two-phase flowmeters have a lot of advantages over the radioisotope-based ones, they suffer from lower measurement accuracy. One reason might be that the X-ray multi-energy spectrum recorded in the detector has been analyzed in a simple way. It is worth mentioning that the X-ray sources generate multi-energy photons despite radioisotopes that generate single energy photons, therefore data analyzing of radioisotope sources would be easier than X-ray ones. As mentioned, one of the problems researchers have encountered is the lower measurement accuracy of the X-ray, radiation-based three-phase flowmeters. The aim of the present work is to resolve this problem by improving the precision of the X-ray, radiation-based three-phase flowmeter using artificial neural network (ANN) and feature extraction techniques.

Three-dimensional (3D) structure prediction of the American and African oil-palms β-ketoacyl-[ACP] synthase-II protein by comparative modelling

BACKGROUND

The fatty-acid profile of the vegetable oils determines its properties and nutritional value. Palm-oil obtained from the African oil-palm [Elaeis guineensis Jacq. (Tenera)] contains 44% palmitic acid (C16:0), but, palm-oil obtained from the American oilpalm [Elaeis oleifera] contains only 25% C16:0. In part, the b-ketoacyl-[ACP] synthase II (KASII) [EC: 2.3.1.179] protein is responsible for the high level of C16:0 in palm-oil derived from the African oil-palm. To understand more about E. guineensis KASII (EgKASII) and E. oleifera KASII (EoKASII) proteins, it is essential to know its structures. Hence, this study was undertaken.

OBJECTIVE

The objective of this study was to predict three-dimensional (3D) structure of EgKASII and EoKASII proteins using molecular modelling tools.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The amino-acid sequences for KASII proteins were retrieved from the protein database of National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), USA. The 3D structures were predicted for both proteins using homology modelling and ab-initio technique approach of protein structure prediction. The molecular dynamics (MD) simulation was performed to refine the predicted structures. The predicted structure models were evaluated and root mean square deviation (RMSD) and root mean square fluctuation (RMSF) values were calculated.

RESULTS

The homology modelling showed that EgKASII and EoKASII proteins are 78% and 74% similar with Streptococcus pneumonia KASII and Brucella melitensis KASII, respectively. The EgKASII and EoKASII structures predicted by using ab-initio technique approach shows 6% and 9% deviation to its structures predicted by homology modelling, respectively. The structure refinement and validation confirmed that the predicted structures are accurate.

CONCLUSION

The 3D structures for EgKASII and EoKASII proteins were predicted. However, further research is essential to understand the interaction of EgKASII and EoKASII proteins with its substrates.