scholarly journals Differential flux through the quinate and shikimate pathways. Implications for the channelling hypothesis

1992 ◽  
Vol 284 (1) ◽  
pp. 181-187 ◽  
Author(s):  
H K Lamb ◽  
J P T W van den Hombergh ◽  
G H Newton ◽  
J D Moore ◽  
C F Roberts ◽  
...  

The qutC gene encoding dehydroshikimate dehydratase has been constitutively overexpressed in Aspergillus nidulans from a range of 1-30-fold over the normal wild-type level. This overexpression leads to impaired growth in minimal medium which can be alleviated by the addition of aromatic amino acids to the medium. Overexpression of the qutC gene in mutant strains lacking protocatechuic acid (PCA) oxygenase leads to the build up of PCA in the medium, which can be measured by a simple assay. Measuring the rate of production of PCA in strains overproducing dehydroshikimate dehydratase and correlating this with the level of overproduction and impaired ability to grow in minimal medium lacking aromatic amino acids leads to the conclusion that (a) the metabolites 3-dehydroquinate and dehydroshikimate leak from the AROM protein at a rate comparable with the extent of flux catalysed by the AROM protein, (b) the AROM protein has a low-level channelling function probably as a result of the close juxtaposition of five active sites and (c) this channelling function is only physiologically significant under non-optimal conditions of nutrient supply and oxygenation, when the organism is in situ in its natural environment.

2009 ◽  
Vol 20 (13) ◽  
pp. 3055-3063 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raqual Bower ◽  
Kristyn VanderWaal ◽  
Eileen O'Toole ◽  
Laura Fox ◽  
Catherine Perrone ◽  
...  

To understand the mechanisms that regulate the assembly and activity of flagellar dyneins, we focused on the I1 inner arm dynein (dynein f) and a null allele, bop5-2, defective in the gene encoding the IC138 phosphoprotein subunit. I1 dynein assembles in bop5-2 axonemes but lacks at least four subunits: IC138, IC97, LC7b, and flagellar-associated protein (FAP) 120—defining a new I1 subcomplex. Electron microscopy and image averaging revealed a defect at the base of the I1 dynein, in between radial spoke 1 and the outer dynein arms. Microtubule sliding velocities also are reduced. Transformation with wild-type IC138 restores assembly of the IC138 subcomplex and rescues microtubule sliding. These observations suggest that the IC138 subcomplex is required to coordinate I1 motor activity. To further test this hypothesis, we analyzed microtubule sliding in radial spoke and double mutant strains. The results reveal an essential role for the IC138 subcomplex in the regulation of I1 activity by the radial spoke/phosphorylation pathway.


2000 ◽  
Vol 182 (19) ◽  
pp. 5479-5485 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helena I. M. Boshoff ◽  
Valerie Mizrahi

ABSTRACT A pyrazinamidase (PZase)-deficient pncA mutant ofMycobacterium tuberculosis, constructed by allelic exchange, was used to investigate the effects of heterologous amidase gene expression on the susceptibility of this organism to pyrazinamide (PZA) and related amides. The mutant was highly resistant to PZA (MIC, >2,000 μg/ml), in accordance with the well-established role ofpncA in the PZA susceptibility of M. tuberculosis (A. Scorpio and Y. Zhang, Nat. Med. 2:662–667, 1996). Integration of the pzaA gene encoding the major PZase/nicotinamidase from Mycobacterium smegmatis (H. I. M. Boshoff and V. Mizrahi, J. Bacteriol. 180:5809–5814, 1998) or the M. tuberculosis pncA gene into the pncAmutant complemented its PZase/nicotinamidase defect. In bothpzaA- and pncA-complemented mutant strains, the PZase activity was detected exclusively in the cytoplasm, suggesting an intracellular localization for PzaA and PncA. ThepzaA-complemented strain was hypersensitive to PZA (MIC, ≤10 μg/ml) and nicotinamide (MIC, ≥20 μg/ml) and was also sensitive to benzamide (MIC, 20 μg/ml), unlike the wild-type andpncA-complemented mutant strains, which were highly resistant to this amide (MIC, >500 μg/ml). This finding was consistent with the observation that benzamide is hydrolyzed by PzaA but not by PncA. Overexpression of PzaA also conferred sensitivity to PZA, nicotinamide, and benzamide on M. smegmatis (MIC, 150 μg/ml in all cases) and rendered Escherichia colihypersensitive for growth at low pH.


1965 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 445-460 ◽  
Author(s):  
David J. L. Luck

The chemical composition of mitochondria obtained from exponentially growing Neurospora can be varied by addition of choline or amino acids to the culture medium. The variation affects the phospholipid to protein ratio, and the density of mitochondria as determined by isopycnic centrifugation in sucrose gradients. These variations have been observed in biochemical mutant strains as well as wild type cultures. In a choline-requiring strain, two levels of choline supplementation to the medium have been defined: a low choline concentration just adequate to support maximal logarithmic growth, and a high choline concentration which permits maximal incorporation of radioactive choline into cellular lipids. Mitochondria isolated from cultures growing at the low choline concentration have one-half the phospholipid to protein ratio of those from high choline cultures, and their density is significantly higher. Artificial mixtures of the two types of mitochondria can be resolved into two populations by isopycnic centrifugation. The concentration of cytochromes (measured by mitochondrial difference spectra) and of malate and succinate dehydrogenases (measured by enzyme activity) were the same in both types of mitochondria, on a protein basis. The results suggest that during growth of the mitochondrial mass, the incorporation of phospholipid and protein components can vary independently. Direct kinetic measurements did indeed show that choline, added to a culture growing at low choline concentration, was incorporated into mitochondrial lipids at a rate faster than the incorporation of protein. The mitochondrial phospholipid to protein ratio can also be influenced by the level of leucine supplementation to a leucine-requiring mutant, so that with leucine concentrations above those required for maximal exponential growth, mitochondria of increasing density and decreasing phospholipid to protein ratio are produced. Additions of choline or amino acids to the minimal medium of wild type cultures influence mitochondrial composition in a manner directly comparable to that observed in biochemical mutant strains. The results suggest that mitochondrial composition, in general, is determined by rates of incorporation of the two major components, phospholipid and protein; that these rates can vary independently in response to precursor concentration in the culture medium; and that they normally operate at a precursor (substrate) concentration below saturation level.


2012 ◽  
Vol 78 (24) ◽  
pp. 8595-8600 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiuzhen Gao ◽  
Xi Chen ◽  
Weidong Liu ◽  
Jinhui Feng ◽  
Qiaqing Wu ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTmeso-Diaminopimelate dehydrogenase (meso-DAPDH) is an NADP+-dependent enzyme which catalyzes the reversible oxidative deamination on thed-configuration ofmeso-2,6-diaminopimelate to producel-2-amino-6-oxopimelate. In this study, the gene encoding ameso-diaminopimelate dehydrogenase fromSymbiobacterium thermophilumwas cloned and expressed inEscherichia coli. In addition to the native substratemeso-2,6-diaminopimelate, the purified enzyme also showed activity towardd-alanine,d-valine, andd-lysine. This enzyme catalyzed the reductive amination of 2-keto acids such as pyruvic acid to generated-amino acids in up to 99% conversion and 99% enantiomeric excess. Sincemeso-diaminopimelate dehydrogenases are known to be specific tomeso-2,6-diaminopimelate, this is a unique wild-typemeso-diaminopimelate dehydrogenase with a more relaxed substrate specificity and potential ford-amino acid synthesis. The enzyme is the most stablemeso-diaminopimelate dehydrogenase reported to now. Two amino acid residues (F146 and M152) in the substrate binding sites ofS. thermophilum meso-DAPDH different from the sequences of other knownmeso-DAPDHs were replaced with the conserved amino acids in othermeso-DAPDHs, and assay of wild-type and mutant enzyme activities revealed that F146 and M152 are not critical in determining the enzyme's substrate specificity. The high thermostability and relaxed substrate profile ofS. thermophilum meso-DAPDH warrant it as an excellent starting enzyme for creating effectived-amino acid dehydrogenases by protein engineering.


Sensors ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (5) ◽  
pp. 1330
Author(s):  
Ranran Du ◽  
Dingtian Yang ◽  
Guangjia Jiang ◽  
Youren Song ◽  
Xiaoqing Yin

Amino acids are the material basis of almost all life activities. An improved understanding of the source, state, and cycle of amino acids is essential for determining the energy flow and material circulation of marine ecosystems. In the present study, an in situ rapid detection method of ultraviolet (UV; 266 nm) laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) technology was used to detect three natural, aromatic amino acids in the seawater. The laser-induced fluorescence peaks of aromatic amino acids tryptophan, tyrosine, and phenylalanine were located at 350 nm, 300 nm, and 280 nm, respectively. High, linear correlations between the concentrations of the aromatic amino acids and the fluorescence peak heights were observed, and the lowest detectable concentrations of tryptophan, tyrosine, and phenylalanine were 4.70 × 10−9 mol/L, 2.76 × 10−8 mol/L, and 6.05 × 10−7 mol/L, respectively, which allowed us to quantify their concentrations by using laser-induced fluorescence. This paper not only provides a practical method for the detection of aromatic amino acids in seawater, but a new means to further understand the biogeochemical processes of carbon cycles in the deep sea.


2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 1521
Author(s):  
Huimei Wang ◽  
Yongfeng Shi ◽  
Xiaobo Zhang ◽  
Xia Xu ◽  
Jian-Li Wu

The leaf blade is the main photosynthetic organ and its morphology is related to light energy capture and conversion efficiency. We isolated a novel rice Dynamic Narrow-Rolled Leaf 1 (dnrl1) mutant showing reduced width of leaf blades, rolled leaves and lower chlorophyll content. The narrow-rolled leaf phenotype resulted from the reduced number of small longitudinal veins per leaf, smaller size and irregular arrangement of bulliform cells compared with the wild-type. DNRL1 was mapped to chromosome 7 and encoded a putative 3-deoxy-7-phosphoheptulonate synthase (DAHPS) which catalyzes the conversion of phosphoenolpyruvate and D-erythrose 4-phosphate to DAHP and phosphate. Sequence analysis revealed that a single base substitution (T–A) was detected in dnrl1, leading to a single amino acid change (L376H) in the coding protein. The mutation led to a lower expression level of DNRL1 as well as the lower activity of DAHPS in the mutant compared with the wild type. Genetic complementation and over-expression of DNRL1 could rescue the narrow-rolled phenotype. DNRL1 was constitutively expressed in all tested organs and exhibited different expression patterns from other narrow-rolled leaf genes. DNRL1-GFP located to chloroplasts. The lower level of chlorophyll in dnrl1 was associated with the downregulation of the genes responsible for chlorophyll biosynthesis and photosynthesis. Furthermore, dnrl1 showed significantly reduced levels of aromatic amino acids including Trp, Phe and Tyr. We conclude that OsDAHPS, encoded by DNRL1, plays a critical role in leaf morphogenesis by mediating the biosynthesis of amino acids in rice.


1985 ◽  
Vol 230 (3) ◽  
pp. 569-578 ◽  
Author(s):  
J M Dothie ◽  
J R Giglio ◽  
C B Moore ◽  
S S Taylor ◽  
B S Hartley

Evidence is presented for the sequence of 249 amino acids in ribitol dehydrogenase-A from Klebsiella aerogenes. Continuous culture on xylitol yields strains that superproduce ‘wild-type’ enzyme but mutations appear to have arisen in this process. Other strains selected by such continuous culture produce enzymes with increased specific activity for xylitol but without loss of ribitol activity. One such enzyme, ribitol dehydrogenase-D, has Pro-196 for Gly-196. Another, ribitol dehydrogenase-B, has a different mutation.


FEBS Letters ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 584 (20) ◽  
pp. 4357-4360 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthieu Graindorge ◽  
Cécile Giustini ◽  
Anne Claire Jacomin ◽  
Alexandra Kraut ◽  
Gilles Curien ◽  
...  

2008 ◽  
Vol 190 (24) ◽  
pp. 8238-8243 ◽  
Author(s):  
Takashi Koyanagi ◽  
Takane Katayama ◽  
Hideyuki Suzuki ◽  
Hidehiko Kumagai

ABSTRACT The transcriptional regulator TyrR is known to undergo a dimer-to-hexamer conformational change in response to aromatic amino acids, through which it controls gene expression. In this study, we identified N316D as the second-site suppressor of Escherichia coli TyrRE274Q, a mutant protein deficient in hexamer formation. N316 variants exhibited altered in vivo regulatory properties, and the most drastic changes were observed for TyrRN316D and TyrRN316R mutants. Gel filtration analyses revealed that the ligand-mediated oligomer formation was enhanced and diminished for TyrRN316D and TyrRN316R, respectively, compared with the wild-type TyrR. ADP was substituted for ATP in the oligomer formation of TyrRN316D.


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