Chemical modifications of actin: effects on interaction with deoxyribonuclease I

Maleylation of lysine residues, nitration of tyrosine residues or modification with 2,3-butanedione or 1,2-cyclohexanedione of arginine residues on actin resulted in a loss of polymerizability of the modified actin. However, only lysine modification produced a complete loss of the deoxyribunuclease I inhibitory ability of actin at low degrees of modification. By the level of one modified lysine per actin monomer, the samples completely lost polymerizability and lost 65% of their inhibitory power against deoxyribonuclease I-catalysed hydrolysis of DNA. By two lysines modified per actin, all inhibitory activity was lost. One lysine residue on actin apparently overlaps both an actin action contact site and an actin-deoxyribnuclease 1 contact site, offering a suggestion as to how deoxyribonuclease I blocks actin polymerization.     

Urinary excretion of a novel hexasaccharide and glycopeptide analogue in fucosidosis.

Repeated Biogel P6 chromatography of the urine from a patient with fucosidosis yielded several fractions containing fucosyloligosaccharides and glycopeptides. Two of these were shown by ¹H nuclear magnetic resonance (¹H-n.m.r.) spectroscopy and permethylation analysis to have the following structures respectively: (I) αfuc (1→3) [βgal (1→4)] βglcNAc (1→2) αman ($\text{1→}\text{3}\text{6}$) βman (1→4) glcNAc and (II) αfuc (1→3) [βgal (1→4)] βglcNAc (1→2) αman ($\text{1→}\text{3}\text{6}$) βman (1→4) βglcNAc (1→4) [αfuc ($\text{1→}\text{3}\text{6}$)] βglcNAc-Asn.     

A spectrofluorimetric investigation of calf thymus DNA modified by BP diolepoxide and 1-pyrenyloxirane

7β,8α-Dihydroxy-9α,10α-epoxy-7,8,9,10-tetrahydrobenzo[a]pyrene (BP diolepoxide, $\text{1}$) and 1-pyrenyloxirane ($\text{2}$) bind chemically to calf thymus DNA. The fluorescence efficiency of pyrenyl groups in mutagen modified DNA varies appreciably with its conformation and decreases in the order: pyrenees, modified denatured DNA and modified native DNA. A particularly interesting observation is that the fluorescence efficiency of mutagen modified DNA intensifies substantially upon denaturation. Our results suggest that the pyrenyl groups in mutagen modified DNA are intercalated between the base pairs of DNA. Since both $\text{1}$ and $\text{2}$ are powerful frame-shifting mutagens for S. typhimurium TA-98, the intercalative covalent binding of these compounds to DNA may provide a molecular basis for their mutagenic activity.     

Partial amino acid sequence of the preprotein form of the alpha subunit of human choriogonadotropin and identification of the site of subsequent proteolytic cleavage

Messenger RNA isolated from first trimester placentae was translated using radiolabeled amino acids in both the wheat germ and the ascites cell-free systems. The choriogonadotropin α subunit product was purified by immunoprecipitation with a subunit specific antiserum. Its amino acid sequence was partially determined by automated Edman degradation analysis. An NH₂-terminal extension of 24 amino acids was found and its partial sequence is:

The preprotein form of the subunit was cleaved by the addition of microsomal membranes resulting in a homogeneous NH₂-terminal product. Hence, it is unlikely that this processing step accounts for the heterogeneity that has been observed previously in the structure of this region of the subunit.     

Halogenated monoterpenes of the red alga Microcladia

The red marine algae Microcladia borealis, M. californica and M. coulteri produce several unusual halogenated monoterpenes including violacene, plocamene-B, plocamene-C, and plocamane-D. The isolation of these terpenes along with a study of their variation in each Microcladia at different locations are described.     

Death of Staphylococcus aureus in Liquid Whole Egg Near pH 8

Incubating and shaking Staphylococcus aureus in liquid whole egg causes a decline in viability. During the period of agitation, the natural pH of the egg rises from about 7.2 to between 8.0 and 8.2 as a result of a loss of carbon dioxide. However, if the pH of the egg is prevented from rising, either by not shaking or by addition of a buffer, S. aureus will grow. The cause of death is traced to the presence of lysozyme of egg white. Interestingly, the action of lysozyme is not attributable to its bacterial lytic property but, instead, to the basicity of the lysozyme molecule. This conclusion is supported by the fact that the lytic property of lysozyme is known to have its optimal activity near neutrality and by the finding that protamine sulfate, a nonenzymatic basic polypeptide, also caused death of S. aureus at pH 8.0 but not at 7.0. It was postulated that the rise in pH renders the bacterial cells more negatively charged, so that in the presence of positively charged molecules like lysozyme or protamine sulfate a complex is formed, agglutinating the cells.     

Purification and regulatory properties of pyruvate kinase from Veillonella parvula.

The nonglycolytic, anaerobic organism Veillonella parvula M4 has been shown to contain an active pyruvate kinase. The enzyme was purified 126-fold and was shown by disc-gel electrophoresis to contain only two faint contaminating bands. The purified enzyme had a pH optimum of 7.0 in the forward direction and exhibited sigmoidal kinetics at varying concentrations o-f phosphoenol pyruvate (PEP), adenosine 5'-monophosphate (AMP), and Mg-2+ ions with S0.5 values of 1.5, 2.0, and 2.4 mM, respectively. Substrate inhibition was observed above 4 m PEP. Hill plots gave slope values (n) of 4.4 (PEP), 2.8 (adenosine 5'-diphosphate), and 2.0 (Mg-2+), indicating a high degree of cooperativity. The enzyme was inhibited non-competitively by adenosine 5'-triphosphate (Ki = 3.4 mM), and this inhibition was only slightly affected by increasing concentration of Mg-2+ ions to 30 mM. Competitive inhibition was observed with 3-phosphoglycerate, malate, and 2,3-diphosphoglycerate but only at higher inhibitor concentrations. The enzyme was activated by glucose-6-phosphate (P), fructose-6-P, fructose-1,6-diphosphate (P2), dihydroxyacetone-P, and AMP; the Hill coefficients were 2.2, 1.8, 1.5, 2.1, and 2.0, respectively. The presence of each these metabolites caused substrate velocity curves to change from sigmoidal to hyperbolic curves, and each was accompanied by an increase in the maximum activity, e.g., AMP greater than fructose-1,6-P2 greater than dihydroxyacetone-P greater than glucose-6-P greater than fructose-6-P. The activation constants for fructose-1,6-P2, AMP, and glucose-6-P were 0.3, 1.1, and 5.3 mM, respectively. The effect of 5 mM fructose-1,6-P2 was significantly different from the other compounds in that this metabolite was inhibitory between 1.2 and 3 mM PEP. Above this concentration, fructose-1,6-P2 activated the enzyme and abolished substrate inhibition by PEP. The enzyme was not affected by glucose, glyceraldehyde-3-P, 2-phosphoglycerate, lactate, malate, fumerate, succinate, and cyclic AMP. The results suggest that the pyruvate kinase from V. parvula M4 plays a central role in the control of gluconeogenesis in this organism by regulating the concentration of PEP.     

NMR study of in vivo RIF-1 tumors: Analysis of perchloric acid extracts and identification of 1H, 31P and 13C resonances

Perchloric acid extracts of radiation-induced fibrosarcoma (RIF-1) tumors grown in mice have been analyzed by multinuclear NMR spectroscopy and by various chromatographic methods. This analysis has permitted the unambiguous assignment of the ³¹P resonances observed in vivo to specific phosphorus-containing metabolites. The region of the in vivo spectra generally assigned to sugar phosphates has been found in RIF-1 tumors to contain primarily phosphorylethanolamine and phosphorylcholine rather than glycolytic intermediates. Phosphocreatine was observed in extracts of these tumor cells grown in culture as well as in the in vivo spectra, indicating that at least some of the phosphocreatine observed in vivo arises from the tumor itself and not from normal tissues. In the ³¹P-NMR spectra of the perchloric acid extract, resonances originating from purine and pyrimidine nucleoside di- and triphosphate were resolved. HPLC analyses of the nucleotide pool indicate that adenine derivatives were the most abundant components, but other nucleotides were present in significant amounts. The ¹H and ¹³C resonance assignments of the majority of metabolites present in RIF-1 extracts have also been made. Of particular importance is the ability to observe lactate, the levels of which may provide a noninvasive measure of glycolysis in these cells in both the in vivo and in vitro states. In addition, the aminosulfonic acid, taurine, was found in high levels in the tumor extracts.     

Herbal remedies improve the strength of repairing ligament in a rat model.

Herbal remedies have been reported to be effective in controlling inflammation for acute soft tissue injuries. There exist, however, no reports of their effects on collagen production and remodeling; thus mechanical strength studies of the tissues have not been reported. This study tested the effects of a herbal remedy on the strength of healing medial collateral ligaments (MCL) in rats. Sixteen rats receiving surgical transection to their right MCLs and eight receiving sham operation were tested. Eight of the MCL-injured animals were treated with an adhesive herbal plaster application to their right knees, while the other eight in the MCL injured group and the sham group were treated with plain adhesive plaster to their right knees. The MCLs were harvested and tested at either 3 or 6 weeks post-operation. The ultimate tensile strength (UTS) and stiffness normalized to the uninjured side of each animal of the herb and sham groups were significantly larger than those of the control at both 3 and 6 weeks (p = 0.001). No significant difference was found in stiffness between the herb and sham groups (p > 0.05). We concluded that the herbal remedy improves the UTS and stiffness of repairing MCLs at 3 and 6 weeks after injury.