Biological Sciences

Biological Sciences

Selected Publications

See Juliet's UC Research Profile for a full list of publications.

Quaternary Structure of Proteins

  • Devenish, S.R.A. and Gerrard, J.A. 2009: The role of quaternary structure in (b/a)8-barrel proteins: evolutionary happenstance or a higher level of structure-function relationships? Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry, in press, DOI: 10.1039/b818251p.
  • Guo, B.B.B., Devenish, S.R.A., Dobson, R.C.J., Muscroft-Taylor, A.C. and  Gerrard. J.A. 2009: The C-terminal domain of Escherichia coli dihydrodipicolinate synthase (DHDPS) is essential for maintenance of quaternary structure and efficient catalysis. Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications DOI: 10.1016/j.bbrc.2009.01.169.
  • Burgess, B.R., Dobson, R.C.J., Bailey, M.F., Atkinson, S.C., Griffin, M.D.W., Jameson, G.B., Parker, M.W., Gerrard, J.A. and Perugini, M.A. 2008:. Structure and evolution of a novel dimeric enzyme from a clinically important bacterial pathogen. Journal of Biological Chemistry 283: 27598-27598.
  • Griffin, M.D.W., Dobson, R.C.J., Pearce, F.G., Antonio, L., Whitten, A.E., Liew, C.K., Mackay, J.P., Trewhella, J., Jameson, G.B., Perugini, M.A., Gerrard, J.A.  2008: Evolution of quaternary structure in a homotetrameric protein. Journal of Molecular Biology, 380: 691-703.
  • Pearce, F.G., Dobson, R.C.J., Weber, A., Lane, L.A. McCammon, M.G., Squire, M.A., Perugini, M.A. Jameson, G.B. Robinson, C.V. Gerrard , J.A. 2008: Mutating the tight dimer interface of dihydrodipicolinate synthase disrupts the enzyme quaternary structure: toward a monomeric enzyme. Biochemistry, 47: 12108-12117.
  • Gerrard, J.A., Hutton, C.A., Perugini, M.A. 2007: Inhibiting protein-protein interactions as an emerging paradigm in drug design. Mini-Reviews in Medicinal Chemistry, 7:151-157.
  • Perugini, M.P., Griffin, M.D.W., Smith, B.J., Webb, L.E., Davis, A.J., Handman, E., Gerrard, J.A. 2005: Insight into the self-association of key enzymes from pathogenic species, European Biophysics Journal, 35: 469-476.
  • Griffin, M.D.W, Gerrard, J.A. 2007: The relationship between oligomeric state and protein function, Chapter 5 of ‘Protein dimerisation and oligomerisation in biology’ Ed. J. Matthews, Landes Bioscience, http://eurekah.com/chapter/3550 (chapter published on the web; hard copy to be printed this year).

Enzymology of lysine biosynthesis

  • Devenish, S.R.A., Huisman, F.H., Parker, E.J., Hadfield, A.D., Gerrard, J.A.: 2009: Cloning and characterisation of dihydrodipicolinate synthase from the pathogen Neisseria meningitidis. Biochimica et Biophysica Acta - Proteins and Proteomics, in press.
  • Voss, J.E., Scally, S.W., Taylor, N.L., Dogovski, C.,
    Alderton, M.R., Hutton, C.A., Gerrard, J.A., Parker, M.W., Dobson, R.C.J. and Perugini, M.A. 2009: Expression, purification, crystallization and preliminary X-ray diffraction analysis of dihydrodipicolinate synthase from Bacillus anthracis in the presence of pyruvate. Acta Crystallographica Section F Structural Biology and Crystallization Communications, F64: 1092-1095.
  • Devenish, S.R.A., Gerrard, J.A., Jameson, G.B., Dobson, R.C.J. 2008: The high resolution structure of dihydrodipicolinate synthase from Escherichia coli bound to its first substrate, pyruvate. Acta Crystallographica Section F Structural Biology and Crystallization Communications F64: doi:10.1107/S1744309108033654
  • Boughton, B.A., Griffin, M.D.W., O’Donnel, P., Perugini, M.A., Gerrard, J.A. Hutton, C.A. 2008: Irreversible Inhibition of Dihydrodipicolinate Synthase by 4-Oxoheptenedioic Acid Analogues Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry
  • Dobson, R.C.J., Griffin, M.D.W., Devenish, S.R.A., Pearce, F.G. Jameson, G.B., Gerrard. J.A. and Perugini, M.A. 2008: Conserved main-chain peptide distortions: a proposed role forIle203 in catalysis by dihydrodipicolinate synthase. Protein Science, 17: 2080-2090.
  • Pearce, F.G., Sprissler, C., Gerrard, J.A. 2008: Characterisation of dihydrodipicolinate reductase from Thermotoga maritima reveals evolution of substrate binding kinetics. Journal of Biochemistry 143, 617–623.
  • Kafela, G., Evans, G., Griffin, M.D.W., Devenish, S.R.A, Pearce, F.G., Perugini, M.A., Gerrard, J.A., Weiss, M.S., and Dobson, R.C.J. 2008: Crystal structure and kinetic study of dihydrodipicolinate synthase (Rv2753c) from Mycobacterium tuberculosis: an essential gene and protein drug target. Biochemical Journal 411:351-360.
  • Mitsakos, V., Dobson, R.C.J., Pearce, F.G., Devenish, S.R., Evans, G.L., Burgess, B.R., Perugini, M.A., Gerrard, J.A., and Hutton C.A. 2008: Inhibiting dihydrodipicolinate synthase across species: towards specificity for pathogens? Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry Letters 18: 842-844.
  • Boughton, B.A., Renwick C. J. Dobson, R.C.J., Gerrard, J.A. and Hutton, C.A. 2008: Conformationally constrained diketopimelic acid analogues as inhibitors of dihydrodipicolinate synthase Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry Letters 18: 460-463.
  • Hutton, C.A., Perugini, M.A., and Gerrard, J.A. 2007: Inhibition of lysine biosynthesis: an emerging antibiotic strategy. Molecular BioSystems 3: 458-465.
  • Dobson, R.C.J., Devenish, S.R.A., Turner, L.A., Clifford, V.R., Pearce, F.G., Jameson, G.B., Gerrard, J.A. 2005: The role ofarginine138 in the catalysis and regulation of Escherichia coli dihydrodipicolinate synthase, Biochemistry, 44: 13007-13013.
  • Dobson, R.C.J., Griffin, M.D.W., Jameson, G.B., Gerrard, J.A. 2005: The crystal structures of native and (S)-lysine bound dihydrodipicolinate synthase from Escherichia coli with improved resolution shows new features of biological significance.  Acta Crystallographica D, 61: 1116-1124.
  • Turner, J.J., Healy, J.P, Dobson, R.C.J., Gerrard, J.A., Hutton, C.A. 2005: Two new irreversible inhibitors of dihydrodipicolinate synthase: diethyl (E,E)-4-oxohepta-2,5-dienedioate and diethyl 4-oxo-(E)-heptenedioate, Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry Letters, 15: 995-998.
  • Turner, J.J., Gerrard, J.A., Hutton, C.A. 2005: Heterocyclic inhibitors of dihydrodipicolinate synthase are not competitive. Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry, 13: 2133-2140.


Studies of amyloid fibril formation and biomaterials

  • Garvey, M., Gras, S. L., Meehan, S., Meade, S.J., Carver, J.A. and Gerrard, J.A. 2009: Protein nanofibres of defined morphology prepared from mixtures of crude crystallins. International Journal of Nanotechnology, 6: 258-273.
  • Mackintosh, S.H., Susie J. Meade, S.J., Healy, J.P., Sutton, K.H., Larsen, N.G., Squires, A.M., Gerrard, J.A. 2009: Wheat glutenin proteins assemble into a nanostructure with unusual structural features. Journal of Cereal Science 49: 157-162.
  • Paton, L.N., Gerrard, J.A. and Bryson, W.G. 2008: Two-dimensional gel electrophoresis of wool intermediate filament proteins. Journal of Proteomics 71: 439-447.
  • Paton, L.N., Gerrard, J.A., Bryson, W.G. 2008: Investigations into charge heterogeneity of wool Intermediate filament proteins. Journal of Proteomics 71: 513-529.
  • Pearce F.G., Mackintosh S.H., Gerrard J.A. 2007: Formation of amyloid-like fibrils by ovalbumin and related proteins under conditions relevant to food processing. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 55: 318-322.

Protein crosslinking in foods using enzymes or Maillard Chemistry

  • Fayle, S.E. and Gerrard, J.A. 2002: The Maillard Reaction, Research Monograph, commissioned by the Royal Society of Chemistry (London).  2005: This book was printed as a Spanish edition.
  • Yasir S.B., Sutton K.H., Newberry M.P., Andrews, N.R., Gerrard, J.A. 2007: The impact of transglutaminase on soy proteins and tofu texture Food Chemistry 104: 1491-1501.
  • Yasir, S. Bin Md, Sutton, K. H., Newberry, M.P., Andrews, N.R., Gerrard, J.A. 2007:  The impact of Maillard cross-linking on soy proteins and tofu texture, Food Chemistry, 104: 1502-1508.
  • Gerrard, J.A. 2006: The Maillard reaction in food: progress made, challenges ahead - conference report from the 8th International Symposium on the Maillard reaction. Trends in Food Science and Technology, 17: 324-330.
  • Meade, S.J., Reid, E.A. and Gerrard, J.A. 2005: Chapter 5, ‘The impact of food protein processing on the nutritional quality of food proteins’. Invited contribution to a Special Edition of JAOAC International, ed Paul Moughan, 88: 904-922.
  • Gerrard, J.A., Sutton, K.H. 2005: Addition of Transglutaminase to Cereal Products may Generate the Epitope Responsible for Coeliac Disease. Trends in Food Science and Technology, 16:510-512.