Vanadium-dependent haloperoxidases belong to a class of vanadium enzymes that may have potential industrial and pharmaceutical applications due to their high stability. In this study, the 5'-flanking genomic sequence and complete reading frame encoding vanadium-dependent bromoperoxidase (GcVBPO1) was cloned from the red seaweed, Fracilaria changii, and the recombinant protein was biochemically characterized. The deduced amino acid sequence of GcVBPO1 is 1818 nucleotides in length, sharing 49% identity with the vanadium-dependent bromoperoxidases from Corralina officinalis and Cor. pilulifera, respectively. The amino acid residues associated with the binding site of vanadate cofactor were found to be conserved. The Km value of recombinant GcVBPO1 for Br(-) was 4.69 mM, while its Vmax was 10.61 μkat mg(-1) at pH 7. Substitution of Arg(379) with His(379) in the recombinant protein caused a lower affinity for Br(-), while substitution of Arg(379) with Phe(379) not only increased its affinity for Br(-) but also enabled the mutant enzyme to oxidize Cl(-). The mutant Arg(379)Phe was also found to have a lower affinity for I(-), as compared to the wild-type GcVBPO1 and mutant Arg(379)His. In addition, the Arg(379)Phe mutant has a slightly higher affinity for H2O2 compared to the wild-type GcVBPO1. Multiple cis-acting regulatory elements associated with light response, hormone signaling, and meristem expression were detected at the 5'-flanking genomic sequence of GcVBPO1. The transcript abundance of GcVBPO1 was relatively higher in seaweed samples treated with 50 parts per thousand (ppt) artificial seawater (ASW) compared to those treated in 10 and 30 ppt ASW, in support of its role in the abiotic stress response of seaweed.
Cultural differences-as well as similarities-have been found in explicit color-emotion associations between Chinese and Western populations. However, implicit associations in a cross-cultural context remain an understudied topic, despite their sensitivity to more implicit knowledge. Moreover, they can be used to study color systems-that is, emotional associations with one color in the context of an opposed one. Therefore, we tested the influence of two different color oppositions on affective stimulus categorization: red versus green and red versus white, in two experiments. In Experiment 1, stimuli comprised positive and negative words, and participants from the West (Austria/Germany), and the East (Mainland China, Macau) were tested in their native languages. The Western group showed a significantly stronger color-valence interaction effect than the Mainland Chinese (but not the Macanese) group for red-green but not for red-white opposition. To explore color-valence interaction effects independently of word stimulus differences between participant groups, we used affective silhouettes instead of words in Experiment 2. Again, the Western group showed a significantly stronger color-valence interaction than the Chinese group in red-green opposition, while effects in red-white opposition did not differ between cultural groups. Our findings complement those from explicit association research in an unexpected manner, where explicit measures showed similarities between cultures (associations for red and green), our results revealed differences and where explicit measures showed differences (associations with white), our results showed similarities, underlining the value of applying comprehensive measures in cross-cultural research on cross-modal associations.