In a mountainous region like the Hornsund area, mountains additionally limit the horizontal path of photons, especially when the cloud base is below the mountain

peaks. This attenuates the irradiance transmittance, both the increase over the fjord waters and the decrease over the land, which is shown in Figure 7 for the cases of h = 200 m and h = 1800 m (τ = 12, spring albedo pattern, ϑ = 53° and λ = 469 nm). For h = 200 m, the irradiance transmittance over the fjord nearly reaches its ‘oceanic’ value within 2 km from a straight selleck chemicals shore, while for h = 1800 m the ocean value is never reached over the ca 10-km-wide fjord. The transmittance enhancement over the near-shore plots ( Figure 8a) is 1.5–3 times lower for h = 200 m than it is for h = 1800 m. ΔTE drops 7 times with diminishing cloud layer height in plot 11 (the fjord mouth), and 3 times over the whole fjord. The radiative conditions are more local for lower clouds, and dark water diminishes irradiance

transmittance at the coast. Hence, irradiance transmittance at the station drops with increasing cloud base height. The transmittance enhancement over the fjord due to 3D effects (photon transport) weakens in the infrared. It is practically negligible for λ = 1640 nm (Figure 8b), the absolute value of ΔTE is lower than 0.005 for all the plots. In this spectral channel the surface albedo is almost uniform and very low (< 0.11). Because the 3D effects depend strongly on wavelength, they must modify the irradiance spectrum on the fjord surface. The behaviour of the ratio TE (λ = 469 nm)/TE (λ = 858 nm) with increasing τ Selleck Vemurafenib is presented in Figure 9. The differences in the ratio between the fjord and the ocean are the highest for inner fjords (plots 5 and 8) and they range from 0.08 for a cloudless sky to 0.66 for clouds of τ = 30 (h = 1 km, spring albedo pattern, ϑ = 53° and Chlormezanone λ = 469 nm). The respective ratio differences for the whole fjord are 0.05 and

0.29. The variability of TE (λ = 469 nm)/TE (λ = 858 nm) over the fjord are caused mainly by a decrease in snow albedo with the wavelength between λ = 468 nm and 858 nm. All the runs/simulations discussed so far represent radiative transfer through water clouds. So as to simulate 3D effects under ice clouds, the asymmetry factor g was changed from 0.865 used for water cloud simulations with λ = 469 nm to 0.75 (e.g. Zhang et al., 2002, Baran et al., 2005 and Fu, 2007). An ‘ice cloud’ run was performed for the spring albedo pattern, τ = 12, ϑ = 53°, h = 1 km and λ = 469 nm (not shown in the figure). It was found that for ice clouds the 3D effect is stronger than for water clouds of the same height and optical thickness. Lowering factor g increases cloud albedo and decreases its transmittance. Thus it reduces TE but increases ΔTrelE from 19% for g = 0.865 to 25% for g = 0.75 for the whole fjord, and from 40% to 55% for the inner fjords (plots 5 and 8).

The ballast on most ships is usually achieved using water, and the amount of ballast water transferred globally each year is estimated to be 10 billion tonnes (see Wright and Mackey, 2006 and MacPhee, 2006). Ships usually discharge ballast water in I-BET-762 solubility dmso ports while loading and take up ballast water in destination ports while unloading, where the water is shallow and rich in aquatic organisms. Taking up non-indigenous species (NIS) in one port and transporting them to another sea can lead to significant environmental problems. Zebra mussels, native to the Caspian Sea region of Asia but transported to the Great Lakes via ballast water, reduce

the amount of phytoplankton available for other organisms and cost $100 M/year to manage control measures (see Pimentel et al., 2000). In order to prevent the transfer of aquatic organisms from one region to another via ballast water, the International Maritime Organization adopted the Ballast Water Management Convention in 2004. According to Ballast Water Exchange Standard, Regulation D-1 of the Convention, ships utilising the exchange method need to exchange ballast water

at least LDK378 in vitro 95% by volume; for ships exchanging ballast water by the pumping-through method, pumping through three times the volume of each ballast tank was considered to meet the standard. Pumping through less than three times the volume may be acceptable if the procedure can demonstrate that at least 95% of original ballast water is removed. The original intention of the Ballast Water Convention was that the water exchange technique would be a short-term solution and be replaced by water treatment. When

the Convention was written no ballast water treatment plants were in production. Their development has been slower than expected due to various reasons including an underestimation of the technical challenges, insufficient resources Cell press and market economics (see King et al., 2012). The magnitude of the logistical effort required for effective enforcement and regulation of various aspects of the Convention have also been identified as potential barriers to implementation (see Wright, 2012). These are some of the reasons that the Convention is still not ratified even though some of its initial deadlines for implementation have already passed. The situation is complex but the outcome is that ballast water exchange is still in widespread use and will continue to be so for quite some time. Moreover some authorities are now insisting on a combination of ballast water exchange and treatment. It is also becoming clear that a much more detailed understanding of the flow behaviour within ballast tanks is required for compliance assessment and enforcement once ballast water treatment is introduced.

7). The animals were housed in polypropylene cages that measured 30 × 20 × 13 cm and covered by a stainless steel lid. The mice were housed in groups of 5. The bedding material consisted of sterile wood chips. The animals were maintained under standard conditions (with temperature and relative humidity of approximately 22 ± 2 °C and 55 ± 10%, respectively) and received food and water ad libitum. This study was conducted in strict accordance with the recommendations this website in the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals of the Brazilian National Council of Animal Experimentation (http://www.cobea.org.br/) and Federal Law 11.794

(October 8, 2008). The Institutional Committee for Animal Ethics of Fiocruz approved all procedures (CEUA/Fiocruz, License 004/09). Mice were infected Obeticholic Acid cost intraperitoneally with 100 blood trypomastigote (bt) forms of the type I Colombian strain of T. cruzi ( Zingales et al., 2012), which is considered myotropic ( Melo and Brener, 1978) and has previously been shown to colonize the CNS ( Silva et al., 1999 and Roffê et al., 2003). The parasite was maintained by serial passage in mice every 35 days post-infection (dpi). Parasitemia was quantitated

weekly during the acute and chronic infection phases using Brener’s method from 5 μL of tail vein blood; the presence of the rare trypomastigotes marked the onset of the chronic phase as previously described ( Silva et al., 1999 and dos Santos et al., 2001). In some experiments, the animals were infected with 500-bt of the type II Y strain ( Zingales et al., 2012), which is considered macrophagotropic ( Melo and Brener, 1978). This strain was maintained by serial passage in mice every 8 dpi. All behavioral experiments occurred during the light phase between 8:00 am and Janus kinase (JAK) 6:00 pm and were recorded with a DSC-DVD810 video camera (Sony, USA). To minimize stress and maximize

familiarity, all behavioral tests applied to the different experimental groups were conducted in an environment with a 12-h light and 12-h dark cycle, a room temperature of 22 ± 2 °C and an ambient noise level of approximately 40 dB produced by an air conditioner. To analyze depressive and locomotor/exploratory activity, the animals were subjected to the behavioral tests starting at 7 dpi or from 30 to 42 dpi (acute phase) and at 90 or 120 dpi (chronic phase) when the animals were infected with the Colombian strain and at 7, 14 and 21 dpi (acute phase) and 28 and 35 dpi (chronic phase) for the Y strain. In experiments with intervention during the chronic infection with the Colombian strain, treatment started at 120 dpi and the animals were subjected to behavioral tests at 150 dpi. When animals were re-used, the tests were performed on consecutive days according to the following sequence: day 1, open-field test; day 2, TST; day 3, FST. No animal was re-tested.

Cp is the heat capacity, i.e., 4200 J (kg °C)−1, and ρo is the reference density of sea water, i.e., 103 kg m−3. Then the total heat loss from the WMB (Floss,WMB) can then be roughly estimated Entinostat clinical trial to be approximately −9 W m−2, which has the same sign but is slightly lower than the value indicated in Table 3 (−12.66 W m−2). Similarly, the total heat loss (neglecting heat from rivers) from the EMB (Floss,EMB) can roughly be written as: Floss,EMBAsur,EMB≈ρoCp(Qin,sur,SciTin,sur,WMB−Qout,deep,SciTout,deep,EMB)Floss,EMBAsur,EMB≈ρoCp(Qin,sur,SciTin,sur,WMB−Qout,deep,SciTout,deep,EMB)The

total heat loss from the EMB (Floss,EMB) can then be roughly approximately 11 W m−2, which is near the value indicated in Table 3 (10.85 W m−2). The final test to evaluate the PROBE-MED 2.0 model results was to compare the modelled annual changes in the heat and salt content for the whole WMB/EMB water column with the MEDAR reanalysed data (data not shown). For the WMB, there was a bias in the heat content Ferroptosis cancer of approximately 9% but an insignificant bias in the salt content. For the EMB, there was an insignificant bias in the heat content and a bias of 2% in the salt content. Clearly, the PROBE-MED version 2.0 model realistically captures the general water and heat cycles of the Mediterranean Sea as well as the differences between the western and eastern parts of the sea. The

coupling between the large-scale atmospheric circulation and the Mediterranean Sea water balance was examined by analysing the relationship between the winter North Atlantic Oscillation Index (NAOI; extracted from the KNMI climate explorer database, climexp.knmi.nl) and the winter net precipitation (Table 4). The t-test was used to

examine the significant correlations at a 95% significance level. Table 4 shows a significant inverse correlation between the NAOI and winter net precipitation rates over the WMB. The relationship between the NAOI and WMB evaporation rates is insignificant, but between the NAOI and WMB precipitation is significant. For the EMB, no significant relationships with the NAOI could be found. The NAOI influences the net precipitation over the WMB and therefore the water balance of the Mediterranean Sea. This agrees with the previous learn more findings of Philandras et al. (2011), who stated that the precipitation over the Mediterranean region is inversely correlated with NAOI, especially in the western and northern regions. Similar to Shaltout and Omstedt (2012), the present work realistically reproduces the large-scale physical features of the WMB and EMB. However, several small-scale features such as deep-water convection and coastal–land interactions have not yet been included in the modelling. Instead, the present approach is based on a two-basin model that horizontally averages the sea into its western and eastern parts.

, 2009 and dos Santos et al., 2011a). Therefore, the hydrophobic channel was demonstrated to be involved in one of the steps required for Lys49-PLA2s action mechanism (dos Santos et al., 2009 and dos Santos et al., 2011a). It is also interesting to highlight that if the alternative dimer is considered as biological dimer, the myotoxic sites from both monomers are aligned at the same plane (side by side) for the complexed structures (active state) and an interchain Tyr119-Tyr119 hydrogen bond is formed (Table 3) which increasing the toxin potency (dos Santos et al., 2009). The sequence alignment of bothropic Lys49-PLA2s (Fig. 4) shows that the residues of the myotoxic site (Lys20, Lys115 check details and Arg118) and Tyr119 are

conserved in MjTX-II, however, the interchain Tyr119–Tyr119 hydrogen bond is not present in its dimeric interface (these residues are at a distance of 4.7 Å). Analyzing MjTX-II sequence (Fig. 4) it is possible to observe that the C-terminal region of this toxin presents some particularities as an insertion of a residue at position 120 and a mutation at position 121 (His→Tyr) if compared to other bothropic Lys49-PLA2s whose structures are known. Therefore, Asn120 insertion may be the responsible for a diversion of this region as evidenced by the lack of Tyr119-Tyr119 Trichostatin A cost hydrogen bond which is probably compensated by the creation of two new hydrogen bonds with the participation

of Tyr121 residue (Table 3). Then, taking into account these facts (Asn120 insertion and mutations of residues 32 and 121) and their consequences to PEG4Ks mode of binding,

it is reasonable to suggest that MjTX-II may require specific or modified inhibitors when compared to molecules that are able to inhibit bothropic Lys49-PLA2s by interaction with their hydrophobic channels. This is due to the different profile of ligand binding presented at this region MRIP (Fig. 1C.) and may have implications when considering structure-based ligand design for Lys49-PLA2s. As discussed in the last two sections, MjTX-II structure was solved in the oligomeric assembly known as “alternative dimer” given that it has higher probability of occurrence in solution due to bioinformatic analyses and also due to several experimental and functional reasons (dos Santos et al., 2011a, dos Santos et al., 2009, Fernandes et al., 2010, Marchi-Salvador et al., 2009, Murakami et al., 2005 and Murakami et al., 2007). However, as discussed in a recent review in this field (Lomonte and Rangel, 2012), this subject is still controversial for some authors. Although no experiment was able to definitively prove the correct assembly adopted by Lys49-PLA2s toxins, MjTX-II structure added an important experimental evidence for the choice of the alternative dimer as the probable quaternary assembly found in solution for these proteins. As shown in the Fig. 2, the PEG 3 binds simultaneously to both monomers of the protein.

4, Bedford, MA, USA) for lumbar spine (LS) (L1–L4), total hip and whole body (WB). All measured values were transformed into Z-scores using equipment-specific age- and sex-adjusted reference data for US Caucasian children; all subjects were of normal height. Body composition was analyzed with DXA to distinguish between lean and fat mass. Calibration

of the measurements was performed with a spine phantom; inter-CV% for the phantom BMC, BA, and BMD was 0.35%, 0.21%, and 0.41%, respectively. The reproducibility of the DXA measurement for bone, fat, and lean mass is 1.2%, 1.9% and 0.7%, respectively, in children between 10 and 18 years of age [18]. Age- and gender-specific reference values were utilized to derive Z-scores for fat percentage Selleckchem Vorinostat [19] and [20]. Volumetric BMD and bone geometry

were measured from nondominant radius with pQCT (XCT-2000; Stratec, Pforzheim,Germany, software version 5.50) as described previously [21] and [22]. The scans were analyzed using contour mode 2 (45%) and peel mode 1 to assess total bone (TB) and trabecular bone (Trab) parameters at the 4% site. At the 66% site, cortical bone (Cort) was detected with separation mode 1 and a threshold of 710 mg/cm3. In addition, we calculated age- and sex-specific Z-scores for total cross-sectional area (CSA), bone mineral content (BMC), Cort mineral density, TB mineral density and stress and strain index (SSI) using the published Cole’s formula, which is based on mostly Caucasian reference data [23] and [24]. Patient DNA was extracted from peripheral blood by standard methods. Primers for FGF23 BYL719 cost (hg18/uc001qmq1) were designed with Primer3

v.0.4.0 (http://frodo.wi.mit.edu/primer3/) for all three Ceramide glucosyltransferase exons, UTRs and a minimum of 30 bases of flanking introns. Due to the length of exon 3 and the 3′UTR, this segment was sequenced with four overlapping primer pairs. PCR amplification was performed with AmpliTaq Gold (Applied Biosystems, Foster City, CA, USA). The DNA fragments were then visualized with ethidium bromide on a 1.2% agarose gel, purified with ExoSAP (USB, Cleveland, OH, USA) and labeled with BigDye Terminator v3.1 Cycle Sequencing kit (Applied Biosystems). After sequencing with an ABI3730 sequencer (Applied Biosystems), chromatograms were analyzed with Sequencher v4.7 (Gene Codes Corporation, Ann Arbor, MI, USA). Primer sequences and detailed PCR protocols are available upon request from the authors. The haplotype analysis was performed with Haploview 4.2. The statistical analysis was performed on diplotypes due to the relatively small study population. Descriptive data are reported as medians and ranges or as means ± SD. Association of variables was tested with Pearson or Spearman correlation, as appropriate. Partial correlation was used to describe the association after controlling for confounding factor(s).

Symptoms caused by this microorganism, such as fever or cellulitis, resolve after 2 or 3 days of drug therapy. In some cases the symptoms disappear spontaneously and the patients becomes asymptomatic, although the microorganisms are still present in the patients and will recur [81]. The prognosis is generally good, but it should selleck chemicals be recognized that about 30–60% of patients have recurrent symptoms [24], [26], [74], [82] and [83].

The CDC recommends long-term therapy of about 2–6 weeks, rather than short-term therapy of up to 10 days [74]. Many other reports also describe long-term chemotherapy for the prevention of recurrent symptoms [22], [74] and [81]. No recommended guidelines are available for the treatment of a diagnosed infection of H. cinaedi. As an alternative guide to chemotherapy,

it may be noted that in testing for H. cinaedi in recurrent-bacteremia cases, the approach used is an interpretation of the susceptibility to clarithromycin based on the CLSI (Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute; http://clsi.org/) guidelines for H. pylori and on published reports C646 nmr for metronidazole and amoxicillin [84] and [85]. For other antibiotics, interpretation is based on CLSI guidelines for gram-negative bacilli [81]. Although such a challenging report exists, authorized guidelines for the treatment of H. cinaedi infections, including the clinical breakpoints of antimicrobial agents, have not been established. The infection route of H. cinaedi has not been clarified. However, H. cinaedi has been found in a wide range of animals,

from domestic pets to wild animals, including cats, dogs, hamsters, rats, foxes, and aminophylline rhesus monkeys [5], [86], [87] and [88]. Many reports have raised a suspicion of zoonotic transmission from animals to humans [89] and [90]. Orlicek et al. [47] reported that H. cinaedi was responsible for bacteremia and meningitis in a newborn whose mother cared for a pet hamster during her pregnancy. Lasry et al. [22] reported H. cinaedi-related septic arthritis and bacteremia in an immunocompetent patient who worked occasionally as a shepherd and had contact with cows and farm animals. Indeed, H. cinaedi is reported to be a member of the normal intestinal flora in hamsters [91]. Another report [92] describes certain enterohepatic Helicobacter species, including H. cinaedi, are located mainly in sites in the lower intestinal tract such as the cecum and colon in dogs, rather than in the upper parts such as the as duodenum, jejunum, or ileum. It is likely that contact infection has occurred from animal to human. However, there are no reports of the simultaneous isolation of H. cinaedi in human patients and close contact animals. It is noteworthy that H. cinaedi isolates from human, dog, and hamster formed distinct ribotype pattern groups according to their host source [57].

1 ml/29 g body weight and samples of the parotid and submandibular glands were collected. The animals were then sacrificed with an overdose of the anaesthetic according to the ethical guidelines of the Brazilian College of Animal Experimentation (COBEA). The salivary gland samples were analysed by fluorescence microscopy for the observation of INS-R and ER-alpha. Frozen samples of the salivary glands

were cut into 12-μm thick sections and incubated in blocking solution for 1 h at room temperature for the blockade of nonspecific protein–protein binding sites. Next, the material was incubated for 1 h with the primary rabbit polyclonal antibody against ER-alpha (Santa Cruz Biotechnology, San Diego, CA, USA). The slides were then washed in phosphate buffered saline and incubated with the learn more fluorescent conjugated selleck screening library secondary antibody (goat anti-rabbit, Santa Cruz Biotechnology, San Diego, CA, USA). The sections were mounted in 1,4-diazabicyclo[2.2.2]-octane (Sigma, St. Louis, MO, USA). For the evaluation of insulin receptors, a similar protocol was applied using a primary antibody against INS-R (Santa Cruz Biotechnology, San Diego, CA, USA) diluted in blocking solution. After incubation

with the primary antibody, the sections were washed in phosphate buffered saline and the secondary fluorescein-conjugated antibody (goat anti-rabbit, Santa Cruz Biotechnology, San Diego, CA, USA) diluted in blocking solution was applied. The sections were then washed in phosphate buffered saline and mounted in 1,4-diazabicyclo[2.2.2]-octane (Sigma, St. Louis, MO, USA). The specimens were examined under a TNI-06T-PL fluorescence microscope at the Department of Morphology and Basic Pathology, Faculty of Medicine of Jundiaí. The images were acquired using 10× and 40× objectives. Sections in which the primary antibody was omitted served as negative controls. The intensity of staining was scored as intense, moderate and mild according

to the intensity and distribution of immunoexpression of the cellular receptors in the tissue sections.12 and 45 Leukotriene-A4 hydrolase The mean glucose levels of untreated diabetic animals (group I) were ≥500 mg/dl. There was recovery of glucose levels in animals treated with insulin alone or combined with oestrogen, with mean levels of 190 mg/dl. These levels were similar to those of control animals (170 mg/dl). There was also a decrease of glucose levels in animals undergoing only oestrogen replacement therapy, with mean levels of 280 mg/dl. Mean blood oestrogen levels of groups III and IV (89.3 ± 18.2 pg/ml) were similar to that of the control group (group V) (93.8 ± 12.4 pg/ml). Mean oestrogen levels were 21.3 ± 7.2 pg/ml in animals of groups I and II. Group V showed intense expression of INS-R, mainly close to the acini and glandular ducts (Fig. 1A). Oestrogen receptor (ER-alpha) expression was mild and was localized in the nucleus of ductal cells (Fig. 1B and Table 1).

Most proteomic quantitative analyses are thus based on isotope labeling, which consists

in the introduction of a mass tag (i.e., heavy or light) to differentiate identical peptides from various samples in MS owing to a mass shift. Isotope labeling can be done at various levels (i.e., cell, protein, peptide) on different reactive groups (i.e., cysteine, lysine containing residues) and allow sample multiplexing. During the past years, selleck screening library several methods were developed including stable isotope metabolic labeling for cultured cells (SILAC), isotope-coded affinity tags (ICAT) or isobaric tagging technologies either using tandem mass tags (TMT) [216] and [217] or isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantification (iTRAQ)

[218] and [219]. In isobaric labeling, the total mass of the tag is kept constant owing to a mass normalizer group, and identical peptides from different samples sharing the same chromatographic properties co-elute in the mass spectrometer. Labeled peptides thus appear at the same mass in an MS scan, but give rise to low mass reporter signature ions upon CID fragmentation in MS/MS mode (i.e., between 126 and 131 m/z for TMT-6). This robust approach has been one of the most beneficial for the analysis of body fluids and tissues as it allows the simultaneous peptide identification and quantification of up to 10 samples in a single MS/MS experiment. The comprehensive RGFP966 in vitro analysis of specific PTMs known to be important for PD, such as oxidation, nitration, phosphorylation, glycosylation or ubiquitination of can also be addressed. Generally, proteomes of interest are specifically enriched before being analyzed by MS quantitative techniques. Alternatively, peptides with defined PTMS can be targeted based on their MS

fragmentation characteristics (i.e., neutral loss, multiple reaction monitoring MS modes). Selected Reaction Monitoring (SRM) allows the targeting and measurement of selected signature peptides from molecules of interest (reviewed in [220]). Given its unique potential to quantify reliably low abundant analytes in complex mixtures, SRM may represent an alternative to ELISA for clinical validation measurements which are dependent on antibody availability. Importantly, absolute quantification can be obtained through AQUA method, with the spiking of a known quantity of an isotope- labeled peptide as an internal standard, followed by SRM MS analysis [221]. To date, the clinical management of PD patients is still hampered by the lack of reliable diagnostic and therapeutic biomarkers which might pave the way for the development of better options and PD treatment and prevention. Traditional candidate-based studies have assessed the potential of specific targets typically associated to PD pathophysiology as biomarkers of PD, for example the CSF level of α-SYN.

The latter two complexes were inactive. RG7420 The kinetic study using the LD technique showed that the cleavage of dsDNA by the Cu(bpy)2 complex consists of two first order reactions. The first is proposed to reflect the scission of one strand, whereas the slow reaction is due to the cleavage of the complementary strand near the first cleaved site. The reactive oxygen species is the oxygen radical which is produced by oxidation of the central Cu(II) ion. This study was supported by the National Research Foundation (grant nos. 2012-008875 conferred to S.K. Kim and SRC program 2011-0001335 to J. Kim).

“
“Current Opinion in Chemical Biology 2014, 19:25–33 This review comes from a themed issue on Biocatalysis and biotransformation Edited by Jeffrey C Moore and Uwe T Bornscheuer For a complete overview see the Issue and the Editorial Available online 4th January 2014 1367-5931/$ – see front matter, © 2013 The

Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cbpa.2013.12.010 The formation of carbon-carbon bonds is central to organic chemistry and the aldol condensation [1, 2, 3 and 4], the reaction of two carbonyl compounds to generate a new β-hydroxyl carbonyl compound, is an important tool in building up complexity of organic molecules, Ipilimumab ic50 since up to two new stereogenic centres are made during the formation of the new C–C bond. Aldol structural units HSP90 are found in many naturally occurring molecules and are the result of reactions catalysed by the aldolase family of enzymes. These enzymes convert their substrates into the aldol products in high yield with high specificity under mild conditions,

but also with great control over the relative and absolute configurations of the new stereogenic centres created. These properties make aldolase-catalysed routes attractive for the production of biologically significant compounds, as these tend to contain multiple functional groups and are often water-soluble making conventional synthetic routes more difficult [5]. However, naturally occurring aldolases do not exist for many industrially important reactions and protein engineering, directed evolution and de novo enzyme design [ 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10] have all been used to alter properties such as stability, substrate specificity and stereoselectivity to produce tailor made aldolases for use as biocatalysts. Since we reviewed this area in 2008 [ 11] it is pleasing to see an increasing use of protein engineering to manipulate aldolases as new biocatalysts, both in their own right and as part of chemical cascade reactions leading to important products (see Table 1 for a summary of recent examples of engineering aldolases).