In Japan, where a safe and secure society has been established, stab proof clothes that are suitable for police and security officers supporting are required. The current stab-protection clothing uses mainly metal plates, and there are various problems, such as weight and poor comfort. This study therefore seeks to improve the comfort of stabresistant clothing, clarify the mechanism of stab-resistant clothing, and optimize its structure to achieve low cost.The test equipment was developed in this study. We attached a knife to the tip of an air cylinder. This device penetrates a sample, and the load and displacement can be measured. A sharp instrument such as an ice pick penetrates a sample easily because it passes between the fibers of the textile. Therefore, we suggested using a textile with a nonwoven fabric structure so that the instrument would strike the fiber. Experiments revealed that non-woven fabric has considerably higher stab resistance than other fabrics.

BxlE from Streptomyces thermoviolaceus OPC-520 is a xylo-oligosaccharide (mainly xylobiose)-binding protein that serves as the initial receptor for the bacterial ABC-type xylo-oligosaccharide transport system. To determine the ligand-binding mechanism of BxlE, X-ray structures of ligand-free (open form) and ligand (xylobiose)-bound (closed form) BxlE were determined at 1.85 Å resolution. BxlE consists of two globular domains that are linked by two β-strands, with the cleft at the interface of the two domains creating the ligand-binding pocket. In the ligand-free open form, this pocket consists of a U-shaped and negatively charged groove located between the two domains. In the xylobiose-bound closed form of BxlE, both the N and C domains move to fold the ligand without conformational changes in either domain. Xylobiose is buried in the groove and wrapped by the N-domain mainly via hydrogen bond interactions and by the C-domain primarily via non-polar interactions with Trp side chains. In addition to the concave shape matching the binding of xylobiose, an inter-domain salt bridge between Asp-47 and Lys-294 limits the space in the ligand-binding site. This domain-stabilized mechanism of ligand binding to BxlE is a unique feature that is not observed with other solute-binding proteins.

BxlA from Streptomyces thermoviolaceus OPC-520, together with the extracellular BxlE and the integral membrane proteins BxlF and BxlG, constitutes a xylanolytic system that participates in the intracellular transport of xylan-degradation products and the production of xylose. To elucidate the mechanism of the hydrolytic degradation of xylooligosaccharides to xylose at the atomic level, X-ray structural analysis of BxlA was attempted. The recombinant BxlA protein (molecular weight 82 kDa) was crystallized by the hanging-drop vapour-diffusion method at 289 K. The crystals belonged to the monoclinic space group C2, with unit-cell parameters a = 142.2, b = 129.5, c = 101.4 A, beta = 119.8 degrees , and contained two molecules per asymmetric unit (V(M) = 2.47 A(3) Da(-1)). Diffraction data were collected to a resolution to 2.50 A and provided a data set with an overall R(merge) of 8.3%.

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