Purification and properties of mycoferritin from Mortierella alpina

1972 ◽  
Vol 18 (5) ◽  
pp. 619-622 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. F. Bozarth ◽  
A. Goenaga

A culture of Mortierella alpina Peyroud isolated from soil and grown on Czapek-Dox medium was found to contain a high concentration of mycoferritin (MF). The MF was extracted from lyophilized mycelium by grinding with 0.1 M, pH 7.0, potassium-phosphate buffer and chloroform followed by differential centrifugation. Sucrose density-gradient centrifugation of the concentrated MF resulted in a brownish-yellow band in the region of 60–70 S. Following dialysis and concentration by high-speed centrifugation, the MF was compared to horse-spleen ferritin (HF). The ultraviolet (uv.) and infrared (i.r.) spectra of MF and HF were identical. Negatively stained preparations examined in the electron microscope showed particles of about 10 nm diameter. Sedimentation rates of S20,w = 66 for MF and S20,w = 56 for HF were obtained by analytical ultracentrifugation. The MF preparation contained 83% protein and 17% iron. The molecular weight of the protein subunit was determined by gel electrophoresis to be about 19 300 daltons.

1981 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-49 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Kuriyama ◽  
H. Kanatani

Centrioles from spermatozoa of the starfish, Asterina pectinifera, were isolated and partially purified by solubilization of chromatin followed by sucrose density-gradient centrifugation. The ultrastructure of the isolated centriolar complex was investigated in whole mount preparations by electron microscopy. The complex unit was composed of a pair of centrioles and a pericentriolar structure, which associated with the distal end of the distal centriole by 9 spoke-like satellites extending radially to a marginal ring. Each satellite bifurcated at a dense node forming 2 fan-like shapes with a periodic striated pattern. The tubular structure of the centrioles easily disintegrated, leaving the pericentriolar structure or axonemal microtubules intact. The distal centriole in a spermatozoon served as an initiating site for flagellar microtubule assembly; that is, a number of “9 + 2′ axonemal tubules were observed adhering just beneath the distal end of the basal body. In experiments in vitro, polymerization of microtubule proteins purified from porcine brain was initiated by the structure at the ends of both proximal and distal centrioles, but not from the satellites or the marginal ring. Also, few if any microtubules were formed from the sides of each centriole, even in the presence of a high concentration of exogenous tubulin. On the other hand, centrioles of spermatozoa, when they were in mature ooplasm, could initiate the formation of sperm asters by microtubules. Therefore, centrioles in spermatozoa seem to be able to initiate microtubules in a 2 ways. A possible explanation of the difference between the 2 types of microtubule organization in vivo, i.e. in the sperm cell itself and in the ooplasm, it discussed.


1978 ◽  
Vol 169 (2) ◽  
pp. 297-303 ◽  
Author(s):  
M J Staver ◽  
K Glick ◽  
D J Baisted

1. UDP-glucose-sterol glucosyltransferase and nucleoside diphosphatases were isolated in a particulate fraction from 7-day-old etiolated pea seedlings. The glucosyltransferase and UDPase (uridine diphosphatase) are stimulated by Ca2+ cation, less so by Mg2+ cation, and inhibited by Zn2+. 2. Each activity has a pH optimum near 8. 3. The glucosyltransferase is specific for UDP-glucose as the glucosyl donor and is inhibited by UDP. Partial recovery from UDP inhibition is effected by preincubation of the enzyme. 4. Freeze-thaw treatment and subsequent sucrose-density-gradient centrifugation of the particulate fraction shows the glucosyltransferase to be widely distributed among cell fractions but to be most active in particles with a density of 1.15 g/ml. UDPase is most active in particulate material with a density of over 1.18 g/ml but an activity peak also appears at 1.15 g/ml. Of several nucleoside diphosphatase activities, UDPase activity is most enhanced by the freeze-thaw and sucrose-density-gradient-fractionation procedures. 5. Detergent treatment with 0.1% sodium deoxycholate allows the partial solubilization of the glucosyltransferase and UDPase. The two activities are similarly distributed between pellet and supernatant after high-speed centrifugation for two different time intervals. 6. A role for UDPase in the functioning of glucosylation reactions is discussed.


1984 ◽  
Vol 30 (12) ◽  
pp. 1500-1506 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. W. Greer ◽  
W. Yaphe

An ι-carrageenase has been purified from the cell-free culture medium of a marine bacterium grown in ι-carrageenan. The enzyme hydrolyzes the β1 → 4 linkages in ι-carrageenan; the major end products, as identified by 13C nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, are ι-neocarratetraose sulfate and ι-neocarrahexaose sulfate. The enzyme was purified by fractionation on Sephacryl S-200 in 2.0 M NaCl and hydrophobic interaction chromatography on Phenyl-Sepharose CL-4B. The purified enzyme had an apparent molecular weight of 57 000, and optimum activity was expressed at pH 8.0, 40 °C, in 0.1 M Na+. The enzyme was stable for at least 6 months at 4 °C in 1.0 M NaCl. Removal of the salt, freezing, or lyophilization destroyed enzyme activity. Membrane fractions, prepared by discontinuous sucrose density gradient centrifugation, also exhibited ι-carrageenase activity. Properties of ι-carrageenase suggest an association with cell wall components.


1972 ◽  
Vol 128 (4) ◽  
pp. 817-831 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Anne Malcolm ◽  
M. G. Shepherd

1. Glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase was isolated and partially purified from a thermophilic fungus, Penicillium duponti, and a mesophilic fungus, Penicillium notatum. 2. The molecular weight of the P. duponti enzyme was found to be 120000±10000 by gelfiltration and sucrose-density-gradient-centrifugation techniques. No NADP+- or glucose 6-phosphate-induced change in molecular weight could be demonstrated. 3. Glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase from the thermophilic fungus was more heat-stable than that from the mesophile. Glucose 6-phosphate, but not NADP+, protected the enzyme from both the thermophile and the mesophile from thermal inactivation. 4. The Km values determined for glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase from the thermophile P. duponti were 4.3×10−5m-NADP+ and 1.6×10−4m-glucose 6-phosphate; for the enzyme from the mesophile P. notatum the values were 6.2×10−5m-NADP+ and 2.5×10−4m-glucose 6-phosphate. 5. Inhibition by NADPH was competitive with respect to both NADP+ and glucose 6-phosphate for both the P. duponti and P. notatum enzymes. The inhibition pattern indicated a rapid-equilibrium random mechanism, which may or may not involve a dead-end enzyme–NADP+–6-phosphogluconolactone complex; however, a compulsory-order mechanism that is consistent with all the results is proposed. 6. The activation energies for the P. duponti and P. notatum glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenases were 40.2 and 41.4kJ·mol−1 (9.6 and 9.9kcal·mol−1) respectively. 7. Palmitoyl-CoA inhibited P. duponti glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase and gave an inhibition constant of 5×10−6m. 8. Penicillium glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase had a high degree of substrate and coenzyme specificity.


1980 ◽  
Vol 189 (3) ◽  
pp. 581-590 ◽  
Author(s):  
Etsuo Okuno ◽  
Yohsuke Minatogawa ◽  
Masayuki Nakamura ◽  
Naoki Kamoda ◽  
Junko Nakanishi ◽  
...  

Kynurenine–glyoxylate aminotransferase, alanine–glyoxylate aminotransferase and serine–pyruvate aminotransferase were co-purified and crystallized as yellow cubes from human liver particulate fraction. The crystalline enzyme was homogeneous by the criteria of electrophoresis, isoelectric focusing, gel filtration, sucrose-density-gradient centrifugation and analytical ultracentrifugation. The molecular weight of the enzyme was calculated as approx. 90000, 89000 and 99000 by the use of gel filtration, analytical ultracentrifugation and sucrose-density-gradient centrifugation respectively, with two identical subunits. The enzyme has a s20,w value of 5.23S, an isoelectric point of 8.3 and a pH optimum between 9.0 and 9.5. The enzyme solution showed absorption maxima at 280 and 420nm. The enzyme catalysed transamination between several l-amino acids and pyruvate or glyoxylate. The order of effectiveness of amino acids was alanine>serine>glutamine>glutamate>methionine>kynurenine = phenylalanine = asparagine>valine>histidine>lysine>leucine>isoleucine>arginine>tyrosine = threonine>aspartate, with glyoxylate as amino acceptor. The enzyme was active with glyoxylate, oxaloacetate, hydroxypyruvate, pyruvate, 4-methylthio-2-oxobutyrate and 2-oxobutyrate, but showed little activity with phenylpyruvate, 2-oxoglutarate and 2-oxoadipate, with kynurenine as amino donor. Kynurenine–glyoxylate aminotransferase activity was competitively inhibited by the addition of l-alanine or l-serine. From these results we conclude that kynurenine–glyoxylate aminotransferase, alanine–glyoxylate aminotransferase and serine–pyruvate aminotransferase activities of human liver are catalysed by a single protein. Kinetic parameters for the kynurenine–glyoxylate aminotransferase, alanine–glyoxylate aminotransferase, serine–pyruvate aminotransferase and alanine–hydroxypyruvate aminotransferase reactions of the enzyme are presented.


1968 ◽  
Vol 109 (1) ◽  
pp. 149-154 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Anthony Verity ◽  
R. Caper ◽  
W. Jann Brown

1. A partially purified lysosomal preparation was obtained from mouse liver sucrose homogenates by differential and discontinuous gradient centrifugation. 2. Triton X-100 or repeated freezing and thawing of the lysosomal suspension (subfraction B) allowed comparison of free and activated values for acid phosphohydrolase, β-glucuronidase and N-acetylglucosaminidase in the presence and absence of ascorbate. 3. The distribution of hydrolase activities between supernatant and pellet after high-speed centrifugation was measured and the percentages of total enzyme found in the supernatant were: acid phosphohydrolase, 40·7; β-glucuronidase, 51; N-acetylglucosaminidase, 39·4. 4. Differential rates of elution of the three hydrolases from the membrane fraction occurred with increasing Na+ and K+ concentrations, whereas complex biphasic elution curves were obtained as a function of bivalent cation concentration with Ca2+ and Mg2+. 5. Sucrose-density-gradient centrifugation of frozen-and-thawed subfraction B demonstrated highly significant changes in the protein gradient profile in the presence of a low concentration of bivalent cation, indicating membrane aggregation and enzyme–membrane association. 6. The data provide further evidence for the nature of lysosomal enzyme binding and indicate the presence of different enzyme–membrane bonds conferring structure-linked latency upon individual lysosomal enzymes.


1993 ◽  
Vol 105 (2) ◽  
pp. 433-444 ◽  
Author(s):  
C.F. Chou ◽  
C.L. Riopel ◽  
L.S. Rott ◽  
M.B. Omary

We studied the solubility of keratin polypeptides 8 and 18 (K8/18), which are the predominant intermediate filaments in the human colonic epithelial cell line HT29. We find that asynchronously growing cells (G0/G1 stage of the cell cycle) have a substantial pool of soluble keratin that constitutes approx. 5% of total cellular keratin. This soluble keratin pool was observed after immunoprecipitation of K8/18 from the cytosolic fraction of cells disrupted using three detergent-free methods. Several other cell lines showed a similar significant soluble cytosolic K8/18 pool. Arrest of HT29 cells in G2/M stage of the cell cycle was associated with a concurrent increase in keratin solubility. Comparison of K8/18 obtained from the soluble cytosolic fraction and the insoluble high-speed pellet fraction showed similar levels of phosphorylation and glycosylation and similar tryptic radiolabeled phospho- and glycopeptide patterns. Soluble K8/18 can form characteristic 10 nm filaments in vitro as determined by electron microscopy. Cross-linking of soluble K8/18 followed by immunoprecipitation resulted in dimeric and tetrameric forms, based on migration in SDS-polyacrylamide gels. In addition, cross-linked and native soluble K8/18 showed similar migration on nondenaturing gels and similar sedimentation after sucrose density gradient centrifugation. Our results indicate that simple epithelial keratins are appreciably more soluble than previously recognized. The soluble keratin form is assembly competent and appears to be primarily tetrameric. Although K8/18 solubility was found to increase during mitotic arrest, glycosylation and phosphorylation did not play an obvious role in generating the soluble fraction, suggesting an alternate mechanism for keratin solubility.


1979 ◽  
Vol 183 (3) ◽  
pp. 539-545 ◽  
Author(s):  
M Paulsson ◽  
D Heinegård

Proteoglycans were extracted from bovine tracheal cartilage by high-speed homogenization, the use of dissociative solvents being avoided. The homogenate was fractionated by gel chromatography, sucrose-density-gradient centrifugation and ion-exchange chromatography. A previously unrecognized protein, cartilage matrix protein, was identified by sodium dodecyl sulphate/polyacrylamide-gel electrophoresis. It cofractionated with the proteoglycans in all systems, indicating an interaction. The cartilage matrix protein-proteoglycan complex was dissociated by treatment with 4M-guanidinium chloride. The complex again formed when the guanidine was removed. The cartilage matrix protein has a mol.wt. of more than 200000. On reduction it yields subunits with a mol.wt. of approx. 60000.


1965 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 383-393 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. A. Hadjiolov ◽  
Z. S. Tencheva ◽  
A. G. Bojadjieva-Mikhailova

A rapid detergent method for the isolation of nuclei from cat brain cortex is described. It involves the homogenization of the tissue in buffered 0.34 M sucrose with the addition of the non-ionic detergent Cemulsol NPT 12 and the subsequent low speed centrifugal sieving of the nuclei through two layers of sucrose (0.68 M and 1.0 M). The final purification is achieved by high speed centrifugation (40,000 g) of the nuclear suspension layered over 1.8 M sucrose. Observations by light microscopy indicate that highly purified and well preserved nuclei are obtained from neurons and glial cells. Electron microscopy reveals some microsomal contaminants adhering to the nuclear membrane. According to an analysis of the nuclear size distribution, a considerable loss of smaller nuclei (10 to 20µ2), mainly from glial cells, occurs during the purification procedure. The action of different detergents is compared, the best results being obtained with Cemulsol NPT 12 or Triton X-100. Chemical analyses of the purified nuclear fraction give the following content expressed in picograms per nucleus: DNA, 6.54; RNA, 2.94; cholesterol, 1.50; and protein, 97.5. The sucrose density gradient centrifugation of nuclei isolated from cat brain cortex shows that their density is equal to or higher than that of 2.2 M sucrose and is thus similar to the density of nuclei from other tissues. The observation of a varying influence of different suspending media on the density of brain cell nuclei resolves the conflicting data in the literature on the density of these nuclei.


1983 ◽  
Vol 50 (04) ◽  
pp. 848-851 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marjorie B Zucker ◽  
David Varon ◽  
Nicholas C Masiello ◽  
Simon Karpatkin

SummaryPlatelets deprived of calcium and incubated at 37° C for 10 min lose their ability to bind fibrinogen or aggregate with ADP when adequate concentrations of calcium are restored. Since the calcium complex of glycoproteins (GP) IIb and IIIa is the presumed receptor for fibrinogen, it seemed appropriate to examine the behavior of these glycoproteins in incubated non-aggregable platelets. No differences were noted in the electrophoretic pattern of nonaggregable EDTA-treated and aggregable control CaEDTA-treated platelets when SDS gels of Triton X- 114 fractions were stained with silver. GP IIb and IIIa were extracted from either nonaggregable EDTA-treated platelets or aggregable control platelets with calcium-Tris-Triton buffer and subjected to sucrose density gradient centrifugation or crossed immunoelectrophoresis. With both types of platelets, these glycoproteins formed a complex in the presence of calcium. If the glycoproteins were extracted with EDTA-Tris-Triton buffer, or if Triton-solubilized platelet membranes were incubated with EGTA at 37° C for 30 min, GP IIb and IIIa were unable to form a complex in the presence of calcium. We conclude that inability of extracted GP IIb and IIIa to combine in the presence of calcium is not responsible for the irreversible loss of aggregability that occurs when whole platelets are incubated with EDTA at 37° C.


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