Purification and characterization of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii chloroplast glutamyl-tRNA synthetase, a natural misacylating enzyme

Glutamyl-tRNA synthetase from Chlamydomonas reinhardtii was purified by sequential column chromatography on DEAE-cellulose, phosphocellulose, Mono Q, and Mono S. The apparent molecular mass of the protein when analyzed under both denaturing conditions (sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis) and nondenaturing conditions (rate zonal sedimentation on glycerol gradients) was 62,000 Da; this indicates that the active enzyme is a monomer. The purified glutamyl-tRNA synthetase was identified as the chloroplast enzyme by its tRNA charging specificity. Reversed-phase chromatography of unfractionated C. reinhardtii tRNA resolved four peaks of glutamate acceptor RNA when assayed with the purified enzyme. The enzyme can also glutamylate Escherichia coli tRNA(2Glu), but not cytoplasmic tRNA(Glu) from yeast or barley. In addition, the enzyme misacylates chloroplast tRNA(Gln) with glutamate. A similar mischarging phenomenon has been demonstrated for the barley chloroplast enzyme (Sch?n, A., Kannangara, C.G., Gough, S., and S?ll, D. (1988) Nature 331, 187-190) and for Bacillus subtilis glutamyl-tRNA synthetase (Proulx, M., Duplain, L., Lacoste, L., Yaguchi, M., and Lapointe, J. (1983) J. Biol. Chem. 258, 753-759).     

Production of the glycosylphosphatidylinositol-specific phospholipase D by the islets of Langerhans.

A large number of diverse cell surface proteins are anchored to the cell membrane by a glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI) anchor. One proposed function for the GPI anchor is that it facilitates the release of the protein from the cell by acting as a target for anchor-specific phospholipases. We and others have discovered that mammalian plasma contains a GPI-specific phospholipase D (GPI-PLD) (Cardoso de Almeida, M. L., Turner, M. J., Stambuk, B. V., and Schenkman, S. (1988) Biochem, Biophys. Res. Commun. 150, 476-482; Davitz, M. A., Hereld, D., Shak, S., Krakow, J., Englund, P. T., and Nussenzweig, V. (1987) Science 238, 81-84; Low, M. G., and Prasad, A. R. S. (1988) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 85, 980-984). Because the GPI-PLD recognizes a conserved portion of the anchor, all GPI-anchored proteins are potential substrates for the enzyme. We demonstrate in this communication the production of the plasma GPI-PLD by the islets of Langerhans. GPI-PLD enzymatic activity was found in dog pancreatic microsomes, but not pancreatic juice. Both the pancreatic and plasma enzymes were divalent cation-dependent and had identical substrate specificities. Purified murine islets of Langerhans, as well as alpha and beta cells, contained and released GPI-PLD activity. A GPI-PLD DNA fragment was amplified by polymerase chain reaction from a normal human islet cDNA library; the amplified fragment hybridized with the GPI-PLD cDNA clone. These findings represent the first demonstration of the production of the plasma GPI-PLD by a specific tissue site as well as cell type.     

Purification and characterization of a new isozyme of thiol:protein-disulfide oxidoreductase from rat hepatic microsomes. Relationship of this isozyme to cytosolic phosphatidylinositol-specific phospholipase C form 1A.

Thiol:protein-disulfide oxidoreductase catalyzes the GSH reduction of protein disulfides to sulfhydryls. Chromatography of solubilized hepatic microsomes on Mono Q yielded two peaks, Q-2 and Q-5, which contained all the thiol:protein-disulfide oxidoreductase activity. These were further purified by chromatofocusing giving specific activities of 14.4 and 45.9 nmol/mg of protein/min, respectively with purifications of 45.0- and 143.6-fold. Amino acids 1-18 of Q-5 were the same as previously reported for Thiol:protein-disulfide oxidoreductase (Edman, J. C., Ellis, L., Blacher, R. W., Roth, R. A., and Rutter, W. J. (1985) Nature 317, 267-270), except amino acid 1 was leucine instead of aspartate and amino acid 6 was asparagine instead of glutamate. The N-terminal amino acid sequence of Q-2 differed markedly from Q-5 but Q-2 showed 100% identity at amino acids 25-54, 258-269, 285-310, 347-350, 412-419, and 434-463 for the reported sequence of rat, hepatic, cytosolic phosphatidylinositol-specific phospholipase C form 1a (PLC) (Bennett, C. F., Balcarek, J. M., Varrichio, A., and Crooke, S. T. (1988) Nature 334, 268-270). PLC activity was found in the elution from the Mono Q column, but none was found in purified Q-2 or Q-5. Antibodies to Q-5 reacted with Q-2, but anti-Q-2 did not react with Q-5. Anti-Q-2 antibody showed immunoreactivity with 55- and 60-kDa microsomal proteins, whereas Q-5 antibody reacted with a number of microsomal proteins. Although Q-2 was immunoreactive with a polyclonal antibody to guinea pig, uterine cytosolic PLC, partially purified PLCs from rat liver cytosol did not react to this antibody. Our data would suggest that the published sequence for PLC form 1a may actually be the sequence for Q-2.     

Phosphodiesterase-5 Gln817 is critical for cGMP, vardenafil, or sildenafil affinity: its orientation impacts cGMP but not cAMP affinity

The side group of an invariant Gln in cGMP- and cAMP-specific phosphodiesterases (PDE) is held in different orientations by bonds with other amino acids and purportedly discriminates between guanine and adenine in cGMP and cAMP. In cGMP-specific PDE5, Gln(775) constrains the orientation of the invariant Gln(817) side chain, which forms bidentate bonds with 5'-GMP, vardenafil, sildenafil, and 3-isobutyl-1-methylxanthine (IBMX) (Sung, B. J., Hwang, K. Y., Jeon, Y. H., Lee, J. I., Heo, Y. S., Kim, J. H., Moon, J., Yoon, J. M., Hyun, Y. L., Kim, E., Eum, S. J., Park, S. Y., Lee, J. O., Lee, T. G., Ro, S., and Cho, J. M. (2003) Nature 425, 98-102; Huai, Q., Liu, Y., Francis, S. H., Corbin, J. D., and Ke, H. (2004) J. Biol. Chem. 279, 13095-13101; Zhang, K. Y., Card, G. L., Suzuki, Y., Artis, D. R., Fong, D., Gillette, S., Hsieh, D., Neiman, J., West, B. L., Zhang, C., Milburn, M. V., Kim, S. H., Schlessinger, J., and Bollag, G. (2004) Mol. Cell 15, 279-286). PDE5(Q817A) and PDE5(Q775A) were generated to test the hypotheses that Gln(817) is critical for cyclic nucleotide or inhibitor affinity and that Gln(775) immobilizes the Gln(817) side chain to provide cGMP/cAMP selectivity. Allosteric cGMP binding and the molecular mass of the mutant proteins were unchanged compared with PDE5(WT). For PDE5(Q817A), K(m) for cGMP or cAMP was weakened 60- or 2-fold, respectively. For PDE5(Q775A), K(m) for cGMP was weakened approximately 20-fold but was unchanged for cAMP. For PDE5(Q817A), vardenafil, sildenafil, and IBMX inhibitory potencies were weakened 610-, 48-, and 60-fold, respectively, indicating that Gln(817) is a major determinant of potency, especially for vardenafil, and that binding of vardenafil and sildenafil differs substantially. Sildenafil and vardenafil affinity were not significantly affected in PDE5(Q775A). It is concluded that Gln(817) is a positive determinant for PDE5 affinity for cGMP and several inhibitors; Gln(775), which perhaps restricts rotation of Gln(817) side chain, is critical for cGMP affinity but has no measurable effect on affinity for cAMP, sildenafil, or vardenafil.     

Electrostatic switches that mediate the pH-dependent conformational change of "short" recombinant human pseudocathepsin D

Human cathepsin D (hCatD) is an aspartic peptidase with a low pH optimum. X-ray crystal structures have been solved for an active, low pH (pH 5.1) form (CatD(lo)) [Baldwin, E. T., Bhat, T. N., Gulnik, S., Hosur, M. V., Sowder, R. C., Cachau, R. E., Collins, J., Silva, A. M., and Erickson, J. W. (1993) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 90, 6796-6800] and an inactive, high pH (pH 7.5) form (CatD(hi)) [Lee, A. Y., Gulnik, S. V., and Erickson, J. W. (1998) Nat. Struct. Biol. 5, 866-871]. It has been suggested that ionizable switches involving the carboxylate side chains of E5, E180, and D187 may mediate the reversible interconversion between CatD(hi) and CatD(lo) and that Y10 stabilizes CatD(hi) [Lee, A. Y., Gulnik, S. V., and Erickson, J. W. (1998) Nat. Struct. Biol. 5, 866-871]. To test these hypotheses, we generated single point mutants in "short" recombinant human pseudocathepsin D (srCatD), a model kinetically similar to hCatD [Beyer, B. M., and Dunn, B. M. (1996) J. Biol. Chem. 271, 15590-15596]. E180Q, Y10F, and D187N exhibit significantly higher kcat/Km values (2-, 3-, and 6-fold, respectively) at pH 3.7 and 4.75 compared to srCatD, indicating that these residues are important in stabilizing the CatD(hi). E5Q exhibits a 2-fold lower kcat/Km compared to srCatD at both pH values, indicating the importance of E5 in stabilizing the CatD(lo). Accordingly, full time-course "pH-jump" (pH 5.5-4.75) studies of substrate hydrolysis indicate that E180Q, D187N, and Y10F have shorter kinetic lag phases that represent the change from CatD(hi) to CatD(lo) compared to srCatD and E5Q. Intrinsic tryptophan fluorescence reveals that the variants have a native-like structure over the pH range of our assays. The results indicate that E180 and D187 participate as an electrostatic switch that initiates the conformational change of CatD(lo) to CatD(hi) and Y10 stabilizes CatD(hi) by hydrogen bonding to the catalytic Asp 33. E5 appears to play a less significant role as an ionic switch that stabilizes CatD(lo).     

Purification of rabbit platelet secretory phospholipase A2 and its characteristics

It was reported previously that rat platelets release phospholipase A2 upon in vitro stimulation by thrombin, ADP, or A23187 (Horigome, K., Hayakawa, M., Inoue, K., & Nojima, S. (1987) J. Biochem. 101, 53-61). Secretion of phospholipase A2 was also observed with rabbit platelets. Rabbit platelets seem to release phospholipase A2 upon stimulation in vivo, because the rabbit plasma taken immediately after intravenous injection of PAF contained an appreciable level of phospholipase A2 activity and fewer platelets. Rabbit platelet phospholipase A2 released in vitro was purified by column chromatography using Sepharose CL-4B conjugated with anti-rat platelet derived phospholipase A2 monoclonal antibody, followed by reversed-phase HPLC. The purified enzyme was subjected to structural analysis by HPLC peptide mapping and primary sequence determination of the separated peptides. Based on the homology with rat platelet secretory phospholipase A2 (Hayakawa, M., Kudo, I., Tomita, M., Nojima, S., & Inoue, K. (1988) J. Biochem. 104, 767-772), a partial primary structure (62 amino acid residues) of the rabbit enzyme was tentatively determined; the two sequences were highly homologous (72%). The rabbit sequence was also nearly identical to that of rabbit ascitic fluid phospholipase A2, which was determined by Forst et al. (Forst, S., Weiss, J., Elsbach, P., Maraganore, J.M., Reardon, I., & Heinrikson, R.L. (1986) Biochemistry 25, 8381-8385). Phospholipase A2 from the membrane fraction of rabbit platelets was also purified; it had the same characteristics and th same amino-terminal sequence as the purified secretory enzyme. Secretory and membrane-bound phospholipase A2 of rabbit platelets may in fact be identical.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)     

Purification and partial amino acid sequences of a phospholipase C-associated GTP-binding protein from calf thymocytes

We recently identified a phosphoinositide-specific phospholipase C (PI-PLC)-stimulating GTP-binding protein (G protein) in calf thymocyte cytosol (Wang, P., Toyoshima, S., & Osawa, T. (1987) J. Biochem. 102, 1275-1287; and (1988) 103, 137-142). In this study we completely purified a G protein whose properties are quite similar to the G protein mentioned above from the calf thymocyte membrane and determined partial amino acid sequences of it. The purification was achieved by first treating the membrane with GTP gamma S, followed by sequential column chromatographies on DEAE-Sepharose CL-6B, Sephacryl S-200, Mono Q, and Mono S. The G protein was purified in a GTP gamma S-binding form and assayed as to the radioactivity of the [35S]GTP gamma S-bound PI-PLC-associated G protein standard obtained from calf thymocyte cytosol. The purified G protein could stimulate the activity of a partially purified PI-PLC for phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate hydrolysis. From approximately 5.6 g of membrane protein we obtained about 5 micrograms of a purified sample. The purified G protein showed a molecular weight of 21 kDa on SDS-PAGE and one of 25 kDa on gel filtration. The partial amino acid sequences were determined by treating the purified sample with lysylendopeptidase, purifying the resultant peptide fragments on a HPLC-reverse phase column and then sequencing the peptide fragments with a sequencer. Comparison of the obtained sequences with those of known lower molecular weight GTP-binding proteins suggested that, although structurally similar to rho gene products, this is a novel G protein.     

Book Reviews

Craig, John F. & Kemper, J. Bryan (Eds) Regulated Streams, Advances in Ecology.
Askew, R.R. (1988) The Dragonflies of Europe.
Holdich, D.M. & Lowery, R.S. (Eds) (1988) Freshwater Crayfish, Biology, Management and Exploitation.
McDowall, R.M. (1988) Diadromy in Fishes: Migrations between Freshwater and Marine Environments.
Muir, J.E. & Roberts, R.J. (Eds) (1988) Recent Advances in Aquaculture , Vol. 3.
Dejoux, Claude (1988) La pollution des eaux continentales africaines. Experience acquise, situation actuelle et perspectives.
Burgis, M.J. & Symoens, J.J. (Eds) (1987) African Wetlands and Shallow Water Bodies: Directory ORSTOM , Paris.
Swanson, G.A., Winter, T.C., Adomaitis, V.A. & La Baugh, J.W. (1988) Chemical Characteristics of Prairie Lakes in Southcentral North Dakota - this Potential for Influencing use by Fish and Wildlife.
Drummond Sedgwick, S. (1988) Salmon Farming Handbook.     

Also received

Alcock , J. 1988. The Kookaburra's Song, Exploring Animal Behaviour in Australia. Atwood , J.L. 1988. Speciation and Geographic Variation in Black-tailed Gnatcatchers. Ornithological Monographs no. 42. Brazil , M. 1988. A Birdwatcher's Guide to Japan. Breslina , I.P. 1987. Plants and Waterfowl of Marine Islands in the Kola Subarctic. (Russian.) Brown , V., Weston , H. JR. & Buzzell , J. 1986. Handbook of Californian Birds. Darlington , D. 1987. In Condor Country. A Portrait of a Landscape, its Denizens, and its Defenders. Dunne , P., Sibley , D. & Sutton , C. 1988. Hawks in Flight. Gerrard J.M. & Bortolotti , G.R. 1988. The Bald Eagle; Haunts and Habits of a Wilderness Monarch. Hale , W.G. & Margham , J.P. 1988. Dictionary of Biology. Hovel , H. 1987. Check-list of the Birds of Israel. Ilyichev , V.D., Butiev , V.T. & Konstantinov , V.M. 1987. The Birds of Moscow and the Moscow Area. (Russian.) Ilyichev , V.D. & Fomin , V.E. 1988. The Fauna and Environmental Changes. (Russian.) In eight chapters, the authors attempt to describe and analyse the development (over about 200 years) of the present-day avifauna of the southern Urals, an area of considerable industrial and agricultural importance. Irisov , E.A. (ed.) 1987. Endangered, Rare and Little-known Plants and Animals of the Altai Territory and Associated Conservation Problems. (Russian.) Jennings , M.C., Salama , M.I. & Felemban , H.M. 1988. Report on an Ornithological Survey of the Asir National Park, Saudi Arabia, 29 June to 18 July 1987. Johnston , R.F. (ed.) 1988. Current Ornithology Volume 5. Lint , K.C. & Lint , A.M. 1988. Feeding Cage Birds. A Manual of Diets for Aviculture. Litvinenko , N.M. (ed.) 1987. Distribution and Biology of Seabirds of the Far East. (Russian.) Mineev , Yu . N. 1987. Waterfowl of the Bol ‘shezemel’ skaya Tundra. (Russian.) Ecological study of two Gaviidae and 20 Anatidae in the extreme northeast of the European USSR, an area bounded roughly by the Pechora river in the west and Vorkuta and the Kara river in the east. Pendleton , B.A.G., Millsap , B.A., Cline , K.W. & Bird , D.M. (eds) 1987. Raptor Management Techniques Manual. Porter , R.D., Jenkins , M.A. & Gaski , A.L. 1987. Working Bibliography of the Peregrine Falcon. Scientific & Technical Series no. 9. Pulich , W.M. 1988. The Birds of North Central Texas. The W.L. Moody Jr. Natural History Series no. 9. Robinson , J.W. 1987. A Birder's Guide to Japan Shvetsov , Yu .G. (ed.) 1988. Rare Terrestrial Vertebrates of Siberia. (Russian.) Silvius , M.J., Djuharsa , E., Taufix , A.W., Steeman , A.P.J.M. & Berczy , E.T. 1987. The Indonesian Wetland Inventory. Sitters , H.P. 1988. Tetrad Atlas of the Breeding Birds of Devon. Slater , P., Slater , P. & Slater , R. 1986. The Slater Field Guide to Australian Birds. Soper , T. with the British Trust for Ornithology. 1988. Go Birding. Soule , M.E. 1986. Conservation Biology. Steadman , D.W. & Zousmer , S. 1988. Galapagos. Telleria , J.L. (ed.) 1988. Invernada de Aves en la Peninsula Iberica. Monograph no. 1. Toups , J.A. & Jackson , J.A. 1987. Birds and Birding on the Mississippi Coast. Vasil'chenko , A.A. 1987. The Birds of Khamar-Daban. (Russian.) Wilbur , S.R. 1987. Birds of Baja California. Williams , L.E. & Austin , D.H. 1988. Studies of the Wild Turkey in Florida. Woolham , F. 1987. The Handbook of Aviculture. Zaboeva , I.V. (ed.) 1986. Distribution and Numbers of Animals in the European North. ?alakevi?ius , M. (ed.) 1987. Study of Nocturnal Autumn Bird Migration by the Electric Light of Hothouses. (Russian.) Zimmerman , J.L. & Patti , S.T. 1988. A Guide to Bird Finding in Kansas and Western Missouri.     

Books

Book reviewed in this article:
A ndrle , R.F. & C arroll , J.R. (eds) 1988. The Atlas of Breeding Birds in New York State.
B ergerud , A.T. & G ratson , M.W. (eds) 1988. Adaptive Strategies and Population Ecology of Northern Grouse.
C ooper , M.E. 1987. An Introduction to Animal Law.
G oriup , P.D. (ed.) 1988. Ecology and Conservation of Grassland Birds.
H udson , P.J. & R ands , M.R. 1988. Ecology and Management of Gamebirds.
J anssen , R.B. 1987. Birds in Minnesota.
J ones , P.H. 1988. The Natural History of Bardsey.
K ondratiev , A. YA. (ed.) 1988. Bulletin of the Working Group on Waders.
L ardelli , R. 1988. Atlante degli Uccelli Nidificanti net Mendrisiotto.
M arle , J.G. van & V oous , K.H. 1988. The Birds of Sumatra. B.O.U. Check-list No. 10.
P almer , R.S. (ed.) 1988. Handbook of North American Birds; Volumes 4 & 5: Diurnal Raptors.
R ose , M.R. 1987. Quantitative Ecological Theory: an Introduction to Basic Models.
S chleidt , V.M. (ed.) 1988. Der Kreis urn Konrad Lorenz.
S ick , H. 1985. Ornitologia Brasileira. 3rd edition. Vols I and II.
S ummers -S mith , J.D. 1988. The Sparrows.
S iokhin , V.D., C hernichko , I.I., A rdamatskaya , T.B. et al. 1988. Colonial Waterbirds in the Southern Ukraine: Charadriiformes.
T emple , S.A. & C ary , J.R. 1987. Wisconsin Birds: A Seasonal and Geographical Guide.
T rounson , D. & T rounson , M. 1987. Australia Land of Birds.
W oods , R.W. 1988. Guide to Birds of the Falkland Islands.     

Wheat-germ agglutinin mimics metabolic effects of insulin without increasing receptor autophosphorylation

Expression of insulin metabolic effects can be obtained by anti-receptor antibodies without activation of the tyrosine kinase activity [O'Brien R. M., Soos M. A. and Siddle K. (1987) EMBO J. 6, 4003-4010; Forsayeth J. R., Caro J. F., Sinha M. K., Maddux B. A. and Goldfine I. D. (1987) Proc. natn. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 84, 34,448-34,514; Ponzio G., Contreres J. O., Debant A., Baron V., Gautier N., Dolais-Kitabgi J. and Rossi B. (1988) EMBO J. 7, 4111-4117; Hawley D. M., Maddux B. A., Patel R. G., Wong K. Y., Mamula P. W., Firestone G. L., Brunetti A., Verspohl E. and Goldfine I. D. (1989) J. biol. Chem. 264, 2438-2444; Soos M. A., O'Brien R. M., Brindle N. P. J., Stigter J. M., Okamoto A. K., Whittaker J. and Siddle K. (1989) Proc. natn. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 86, 5217-5221.]. Recently, we have proposed that receptor cross-linking is sufficient in itself to stimulate glycogen synthesis, even if aggregation was performed on receptors mutated on Tyr 1162 and Tyr 1163 and thus devoid of tyrosine kinase activity [Debant A., Ponzio G., Clauser E., Contreres J. O. and Rossi B. (1989) Biochemistry 28, 14-17]. The aim of this study was to gain information on the involvement of receptor clustering in the expression of the different insulin biological effects. To this end, we studied the mimetic effects of wheat-germ agglutinin, which is likely to induce receptor aggregation without interacting with the receptor protein moiety. Wheat-germ agglutinin failed to promote DNA synthesis, whereas the lectin behaved as a potent mimicker of insulin on tyrosine aminotransferase activity and amino-acid transport. However, this stimulatory effect did not parallel the activation of receptor autophosphorylation. Our data reinforce the idea that the expression of the metabolic effects of insulin are not strictly dependent on a general tyrosine kinase activation.     

Two forms of the bovine brain Go that stimulate the inositol trisphosphate-mediated Cl- currents in Xenopus oocytes. Distinct guanine nucleotide binding properties.

Heterotrimeric GTP-binding proteins from bovine brain were resolved by fast protein liquid chromatography chromatography using Mono Q columns. Two distinct forms of the protein Go were identified. Both forms had stochiometric amounts of alpha- and beta gamma-subunits. The a-subunits of both forms were recognized by an alpha o-specific antiserum, but not by any of the alpha i-specific antisera. The two forms showed distinct migration patterns on 9% sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gels containing 4-8 M urea gradients. Neither form comigrated with the recombinant alpha o1. Both the recombinant alpha o1 and the most abundant form of Go were recognized by an antiserum, H-660, against a peptide encoding amino acids 3-17 of alpha i2. H-660 has been shown previously to recognize alpha o and alpha i (Mumby, S. M., Pang, I. K., Gilman, A. G., and Sternweis, P. C. (1988) J. Biol. Chem. 263, 2020-2026). This more abundant form is called Go A most likely corresponds to the cloned alpha o1. The less abundant form, Go B, was not recognized by H-660. However, both forms of bovine brain Go were recognized by GC/2, an antiserum against the N-terminal region of alpha o1. Hence alpha oA and alpha oB may be different in their N terminus regions. Neither form of bovine brain Go was recognized by an antisera made to a peptide encoding the unique regions of the cloned alpha o2 from HIT cells (Hsu W. H., Rudolph, U., Sanford, J., Bertrand, P., Olate, J., Nelson, C., Moss, L.E., Boyd, A. E., III, Codina, J., and Birnbaumer, L. (1990) J. Biol. Chem. 265, 11220-11226). Go A and Go B have similar guanine nucleotide binding and release properties. Both release GDP within 1 min in the absence of added Mg2+. Both bind guanosine (GTP gamma S) rapidly as well. However Go A binds GTP gamma S about 2.5-fold faster than Go B, in the absence of added Mg2+ ion. Both forms of Go as well as the recombinant alpha o (alpha o1) can increase muscarinic stimulation of inositol trisphosphate-mediated Cl- current in Xenopus oocytes. These data indicate that we have identified two structurally distinct forms of Go that have different guanine nucleotide binding properties and are capable of functioning in the receptor-regulated phospholipase C pathway in Xenopus oocytes.     

Books

C ollar , N.J. & A ndrew , P. 1988. Birds to Watch: The ICBP Check-list of Threatened Birds.
D allmann , M. 1987. Der Zaunkönig.
F iuczynski , D. 1987. Der Baumfalke. Die Neue Brehm-Bücherei No. 575.
F ry , C.H., K eith , S. & U rban , E.K. 1988. The Birds of Africa, Vol. III.
F urness , R.W. 1987. The Skuas.
H ölzinger , J. 1987. Die Vögel Baden-Württembergs 1 (Parts 1–3).
J ohnson , T.H. 1988. Biodiversity and Conservation in the Caribbean: Profiles of Selected Islands.
K laus , S., A ndreev , A.V., B ergmann , H.-H., M üller , F., P orkert , J. & W iesner , J. 1986. Die Auerhiihner. Die Neue Brehm-Biicherei No. 86.
P yle , P., H owell , S.N.G., Y unick , R.P. & D e S ante , D.F. 1987. Identification Guide to North American Passerines.
S now , D. & B. 1988. Birds and Berries.
SOVON 1987 (eds. J. B ekhuis (et al.). Atlas van de Nederlandse Vogels.
Nederlandse Broedvogels (1979). A long English summary at the end enables readers unfamiliar with Dutch to extract the maximum possible amount of information from this impressive work.
T oivanen , A. & T oivanen , P. (eds) Avian Immunology: Basis and Practice. 2 volumes.     

Purification and characterization of the nickel-containing multicomponent urease from Klebsiella aerogenes

Klebsiella aerogenes urease was purified 1,070-fold with a 25% yield by a simple procedure involving DEAE-Sepharose, phenyl-Sepharose, Mono Q, and Superose 6 chromatographies. The enzyme preparation was comprised of three polypeptides with estimated Mr = 72,000, 11,000, and 9,000 in a alpha 2 beta 4 gamma 4 quaternary structure. The three components remained associated during native gel electrophoresis, Mono Q chromatography, and Superose 6 chromatography despite the presence of thiols, glycols, detergents, and varied buffer conditions. The apparent compositional complexity of K. aerogenes urease contrasts with the simple well-characterized homohexameric structure for jack bean urease (Dixon, N. E., Hinds, J. A., Fihelly, A. K., Gazzola, C., Winzor, D. J., Blakeley, R. L., and Zerner, B. (1980) Can. J. Biochem. 58, 1323-1334); however, heteromeric subunit compositions were also observed for the enzymes from Proteus mirabilis, Sporosarcina ureae, and Selemonomas ruminantium. K. aerogenes urease exhibited a Km for urea of 2.8 +/- 0.6 mM and a Vmax of 2,800 +/- 200 mumol of urea min-1 mg-1 at 37 degrees C in 25 mM N-2-hydroxyethylpiperazineN'-2-ethanesulfonic acid, 5.0 mM EDTA buffer, pH 7.75. The enzyme activity was stable in 1% sodium dodecyl sulfate, 5% Triton X-100, 1 M KCl, and over a pH range from 5 to 10.5, with maximum activity observed at pH 7.75. Two active site groups were defined by their pKa values of 6.55 and 8.85. The amino acid composition of K. aerogenes urease more closely resembled that for the enzyme from Brevibacter ammoniagenes (Nakano, H., Takenishi, S., and Watanabe, Y. (1984) Agric. Biol. Chem. 48, 1495-1502) than those for plant ureases. Atomic absorption analysis was used to establish the presence of 2.1 +/- 0.3 mol of nickel per mol of 72,000-dalton subunit in K. aerogenes urease.     

Rat liver polysome N alpha-acetyltransferase: isolation and characterization

Rat liver polysome N alpha-acetyltransferase has been purified to homogeneity by a four-step procedure that utilizes ammonium sulfate precipitation, gel filtration, hydroxylapatite chromatography, and Mono Q ion exchange chromatography. The enzyme is greatly stabilized by the inclusion of EDTA and 0.01% deoxycholate in the isolation buffers. The purified enzyme has a native molecular weight of 190,000 and a subunit molecular weight of 95,000, suggesting that it is a homodimer. The enzyme shows a pH optimum of 8.0 and is strongly inhibited by Cl-, I-, SCN-, and ClO4- and to a lesser degree by sulfate and acetate. It is unaffected by phosphate, citrate, and F- and by Na+ and K+; NH4+ is partially inhibitory. The enzyme is also sensitive to iodoacetic acid. It is generally more similar to yeast N alpha-acetyltransferase [Lee, F.-J. S., Lin, L.-W., & Smith, J. A. (1988) J. Biol. Chem. 263, 14948-14955] than to the hen oviduct enzyme, which contains a 7S RNA subunit [Kamitani, K., & Sakiyama, F. (1989) J. Biol. Chem. 264, 13194-13198], although the amino acid compositions are quite different.     

ElaC encodes a novel binuclear zinc phosphodiesterase

ElaC is a widespread gene found in eubacteria, archaebacteria, and mammals with a highly conserved sequence. Two human ElaC variants were recently associated with cancer (Tavtigian, S. V., Simard, J., Teng, D. H., Abtin, V., Baumgard, M., Beck, A., Camp, N. J., Carillo, A. R., Chen, Y., Dayananth, P., Desrochers, M., Dumont, M., Farnham, J. M., Frank, D., Frye, C., Ghaffari, S., Gupte, J. S., Hu, R., Iliev, D., Janecki, T., Kort, E. N., Laity, K. E., Leavitt, A., Leblanc, G., McArthur-Morrison, J., Pederson, A., Penn, B., Peterson, K. T., Reid, J. E., Richards, S., Schroeder, M., Smith, R., Snyder, S. C., Swedlund, B., Swensen, J., Thomas, A., Tranchant, M., Woodland, A. M., Labrie, F., Skolnick, M. H., Neuhausen, S., Rommens, J., and Cannon-Albright, L. A. (2001) Nat. Genet. 27, 172-180; Yanaihara, N., Kohno, T., Takakura, S., Takei, K., Otsuka, A., Sunaga, N., Takahashi, M., Yamazaki, M., Tashiro, H., Fukuzumi, Y., Fujimori, Y., Hagiwara, K., Tanaka, T., and Yokota, J. (2001) Genomics 72, 169-179). Analysis of the primary sequence indicates homology to an arylsulfatase and predicts a metallo-beta-lactamase fold. At present, no ElaC gene product has been investigated. We cloned the Escherichia coli ElaC gene and purified the recombinant gene product. An enzymatic analysis showed that ElaC does not encode an arylsulfatase but rather encodes a phosphodiesterase that hydrolyzes bis(p-nitrophenyl)phosphate with a k(cat) of 59 s(-1) and K' of 4 mm. Kinetic analysis of the dimeric enzyme revealed positive cooperativity for the substrate bis(p-nitrophenyl)phosphate with a Hill coefficient of 1.6, whereas hydrolysis of the substrate thymidine-5'-p-nitrophenyl phosphate followed Michaelis-Menten kinetics. Furthermore, the enzyme is capable of binding two zinc or two iron ions. However, it displays phosphodiesterase activity only in the zinc form. The metal environment characterized by zinc K-edge x-ray absorption spectroscopy was modeled with two histidine residues, one carboxylate group, and 1.5 oxygen atoms. This corresponds to the coordination found in other metallo-beta-lactamase domain proteins. Phosphodiesterase activity is strongly dependent on the presence of zinc. These results identify the currently unassigned gene product ElaC to be a novel binuclear zinc phosphodiesterase.     

Recent advances in the molecular analysis of inherited disease

Many important human genes have been cloned during the last ten years. In some cases, using reverse genetic techniques [Orkin, S. H. (1986) Cell 47, 845-850], disease-causing genes have been isolated whose product was previously unknown. Important examples include the dystrophin protein which, when mutated, gives rise to either Duchenne or Becker muscular dystrophy [Koenig, M., Hoffman, E. P., Bertelson, C. J., Monaco, A. P., Feener, C. and Kunkel, L. M. (1987) Cell 50, 509-517; Monaco, A. P., Bertelson, C. J., Liechti-Gallati, S. & Kunkel, L. M. (1988) Genomics 2, 90-95; Koenig, M., Monaco, A. P. & Kunkel, L. M. (1988) Cell 53, 219-228] and the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) [Riordan, J. R., Rommens, J. M., Kerem, B.-S., Alon, N., Rozmahel, R., Grzelczak, Z., Zielenski, J., Lok, S., Plavsic, N., Chou, J.-L., Drumm, M. L., Ianuzzi, M. C., Collins, F. S. & Tsui, L.-C. (1989) Science 245, 1066-1073]. Recently the technology for systematically detecting single base-pair changes by chemical methods, enzymatic methods or direct DNA sequencing has greatly expanded and simplified. In addition to providing structural information about these clinically important genes and information on disease-causing mutations, these studies have led to an increased understanding of mechanisms of mutation, to the discovery of novel genetic mechanisms and to important clinical applications of carrier detection and pre-natal diagnosis. The recent rapid progress has been made possible by the development of DNA amplification using the polymerase chain reaction (pcr) invented by Saiki and colleagues [Saiki, R. K., Chang, C-A., Levenson, C. H., Warren, T. C., Boehm, C. D., Kazazian, H. H. & Ehrlich, H. A. (1988) N. Engl. J. Med. 319, 537-541].     

Characterization of a phospholipase C activity regulated by the purified Gh in reconstitution systems.

Recently, we have reported that the isolated guanine nucleotide-binding regulatory protein, Gh, couples to the alpha 1-adrenergic receptor (Im, M.-J., and Graham, R. M. (1990) J. Biol. Chem. 265, 18944-18951 and Im, M.-J., Riek, R.P., and Graham, R. M. (1990) J. Biol. Chem. 265, 18952-18960) and has a molecular mass of approximately 74 kDa, and the approximately 50-kDa protein which is copurified probably regulates guanine nucleotide binding of the 74-kDa GTP-binding protein. In this paper, we describe the role of purified Gh in the regulation of phospholipase C in the reconstitution system. The stimulation of phospholipase C activity by Gh effectively occurred at a low calcium concentration (less than or equal to 2 microM), but the phospholipase C (PLC) itself required at least 50-100 times more calcium to become fully activated. The characteristic nature of phospholipase C stimulation by Gh is its response to the calcium concentration. Thus, the enzyme activity changes in narrow submicromolar ranges and reaches maximal stimulation, but it does not extend to the levels above those stimulated by calcium alone. The calcium concentrations for the maximal stimulation of phospholipase C activity were 10-20 microM with phospholipid vesicles and 100-200 microM with detergent solution. These calcium concentrations were further decreased when Gh and phospholipase C were co-reconstituted into the phospholipid vesicles or in the detergent solution. The maximal stimulations of the PLC activity were reached at less than 5 microM calcium in both the vesicles and the detergent solution. The changes of calcium concentration for the activation of PLC are quite different from those obtained by reconstituting PLC-beta 1 with Gq-like G-proteins (Smarcka, A. V., Hepler, J. R., Brown, K. O., and Sternweis, P. C. (1991) Science 251, 804-807 and Taylor, S. J., Chae, H. Z., Rhee, S. G., and Exton, J. H. (1991) Nature 350, 516-518). The phospholipase C activity was stimulated in a Gh concentration-dependent manner in the presence of GTP gamma S. The phospholipase C activity was activated by Gh alpha in the presence of aluminum fluoride, but not by Gh beta. Furthermore, a Gh.PLC complex can be induced by incubation with aluminum fluoride in a detergent solution and partially purified without the dissociation of related proteins. Thus, our reconstitution studies show that the pattern of stimulation of PLC by AIF-4-activated Gh in the ternary complex is similar to the stimulation of PLC activated by Gh in both detergent solution and phospholipid vesicles.     

Decay products of the S(3) state of the oxygen-evolving complex of photosystem II at cryogenic temperatures. Pathways to the formation of the S = 7/2 S(2) state configuration

The water-oxidizing complex of photosystem II cycles through five oxidation states, denoted S(i)() (i = 0-4), during water oxidation to molecular oxygen, which appears at the (transient) S(4) state. The recent detection of bimodal EPR signals from the S(3) state [Matsukawa, T., Mino, H., Yoneda, D., Kawamori, A. (1999) Biochemistry 38, 4072-4077] has drawn significant attention to this critical state. An interesting property of the S(3) state is the sensitivity to near-IR (NIR) light excitation. Excitation of the S(3) state by near-IR light at cryogenic temperatures induces among other signals a derivative-shaped EPR signal at g= 5 [Ioannidis, N., and Petrouleas, V. (2000) Biochemistry 39, 5246-5254]. The signal bears unexpected similarities to a signal observed earlier in samples that had undergone multiple turnovers and subsequently had been stored at 77 K for a week or longer [Nugent, J. H. A., Turconi, S., and Evans, M. C. W. (1997) Biochemistry 36, 7086-7096]. Recently, both signals were assigned to an S = 7/2 configuration of the Mn cluster [Sanakis, Y., Ioannidis, N., Sioros, G., and Petrouleas, V. (2001) J. Am. Chem. Soc. 123, 10766-10767]. In the present study, we employ bimodal EPR spectroscopy to investigate the pathways of formation of this unusual state. The following observations are made: (i) The g = 5 signal evolves in apparent correlation with the diminution of the S(3) state signals during the slow (tens of hours to several days range) charge recombination of S(3) with Q(A)(-) at 77 K. The tyrosyl radical D* competes with S(3) for recombination with Q(A)(-), the functional redox couple at cryogenic temperatures inferred to be D*/D(-). Transfer to -50 degrees C and above results in the relaxation of the g = 5 to the multiline and g = 4.1 signals of the normal S(2) state. (ii) The transition of S(3) to the state responsible for the g = 5 signal can be reversed by visible light illumination directly at -30 degrees C or by illumination at 4.2 K followed by brief (2 min) transfer to -50 degrees C in the dark. The latter step is required in order to overcome an apparent thermal activation barrier (charge recombination appears to be faster than forward electron transfer at 4.2 K). (iii) The "g = 5" state can be reached in a few tens of minutes at 4.2 K by near-IR light excitation of the S(3) state. This effect is attributed to the transfer of the positive hole from the Mn cluster to a radical (probably tyr Z), which recombines much faster than the Mn cluster with Q(A)(-). (iv) The above properties strongly support the assignment of the configuration responsible for the g = 5 signal to a modified S(2) state, denoted S(2)'. Evidence supporting the assignment of the S(2)' to a proton-deficient S(2) configuration is provided by the observation that the spectrum of S(2) at pH 8.1 (obtained by illumination of the S(1) state at -30 degrees C) contains a g = 5 contribution.