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The 1.3 Å resolution structure of the truncated group Ia type IV pilin from Pseudomonas aeruginosa strain P1

The type IV pilus is a diverse molecular machine capable of conferring a variety of functions and is produced by a wide range of bacterial species. The ability of the pilus to perform host-cell adherence makes it a viable target for the development of vaccines against infection by human pathogens such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa . Here, the 1.3 Å resolution crystal structure of the N-terminally truncated type IV pilin from P. aeruginosa strain P1 (ΔP1) is reported, the first structure of its phylogenetically linked group (group I) to be discussed in the literature. The structure was solved from X-ray diffraction data that were collected 20 years ago with a molecular-replacement search model generated using AlphaFold ; the effectiveness of other search models was analyzed. Examination of the high-resolution ΔP1 structure revealed a solvent network that aids in maintaining the fold of the protein. On comparing the sequence and structure of P1 with a variety of type IV pilins, it was observed that there are cases of higher structural similarities between the phylogenetic groups of P. aeruginosa than there are between the same phylogenetic group, indicating that a structural grouping of pilins may be necessary in developing antivirulence drugs and vaccines. These analyses also identified the α–β loop as the most structurally diverse domain of the pilins, which could allow it to serve a role in pilus recognition. Studies of ΔP1 in vitro polymerization demonstrate that the optimal hydrophobic catalyst for the oligomerization of the pilus from strain K122 is not conducive for pilus formation of ΔP1; a model of a three-start helical assembly using the ΔP1 structure indicates that the α–β loop and the D-loop prevent in vitro polymerization.

Bragagnolo, Nicholas

The Chicago Carnegie Hubble Program: Improving the Calibration of Type Ia Supernovae with JWST Measurements of the Tip of the Red Giant Branch

We present distances to 10 supernova (SN) host galaxies determined via the tip of the red giant branch using JWST/NIRCam and the F115W, F356W, and F444W bandpasses. The majority of the analysis was conducted on photometric catalogs that had their absolute zero-points randomized to mask information on distance. The new F115W TRGB distances, anchored by the geometric maser distance to NGC 4258, agree well with our previously derived Hubble Space Telescope (HST) TRGB distances, differing by only 1% on average and 4% on a per-galaxy basis. The color-corrected F115W TRGB is therefore equally precise a method of distance measurement as, and offers unique advantages over, its color-insensitive, I-band counterpart. We use these distances to update four published H 0 calibrations and evaluate how different SN analyses, both within and across independent groups, yield different H 0 values. For our JWST sample of 11 SNe, we find consistent values of H 0 ≃ 69 km s −1 Mpc −1 , with a dispersion of just 0.6 km s −1 Mpc −1 across the updated calibrations. When we expand the sample to 24 by combining with HST TRGB measurements, the results from different SN analyses begin to diverge, with the H 0 based on Pantheon+ and the Carnegie Supernova Project II (CSP-II), respectively, increasing by +2.0 km s −1 Mpc −1 (3.1σ significance) and +0.8 km s −1 Mpc −1 (1.4σ significance). More independent analyses of low-redshift SNe and JWST observations of the TRGB are needed to improve our understanding of systematics in distance ladder determinations of H 0 .

Hoyt, Taylor J. [Lawrence Berkeley National Labora