Mechanism of aluminium tolerance in Cyanidium caldarium

Cyanidium caldarium, an acidophilic, thermophilic red alga, specifically tolerates Al. The tolerance increases at lower culture temperatures. The intracellular Al concentration is kept at low levels, especially when the cells are cultured at lower temperatures. Lower Al incorporation accounts for the Al tolerance in this alga. Fe incorporation antagonizes the Al incorporation, implying that Fe transporters incorporate Al ions. Treatment with an uncoupler, carbonylcyanide m-chlorophenylhydrazone, increases the intracellular concentration of Al. These results support the hypothesis that Al ions taken up by the algal cells are exported by an energy-dependent mechanism.     

Evolutionary conservation of the substrate-binding cleft of phosphoglycerate kinases

The primary structures of six phosphoglycerate kinases (PGKs) are known: three from mammals, one from yeast, and two from trypanosomes. Comparison of the amino acid sequence of these enzymes reveals 154 invariant positions out of 392 positions in the aligned sequences. Most of the conserved positions fall into the twelve beta-sheets and adjacent peptide regions that form the inner loops surrounding the ATP and 3-phosphoglycerate-binding cleft. The homology between mammalian and yeast PGKs is greater than 94% for the inner-loop region, even though the overall homology is less than 65%. Trypanosome PGK has only 44% overall homology with the mammalian enzyme, but shows 74% homology in the inner-loop region. Trypanosome PGK contains a polypeptide segment in its N-terminal domain that is transposed in comparison with the other species.     

Induction of refractoriness of cyclic AMP responses to prostaglandin E1 and epinephrine by prior exposure of guinea pig macrophages to lipopolysaccharide

Prior exposure of guinea pig macrophages to LPS (lipopolysaccharide) resulted in reduced cAMP-generating responses to prostaglandin E1 and epinephrine. LPS-induced refractoriness was diminished when LPS treatment was carried out in the presence of an inhibitor of prostaglandin synthesis, hydrocortisone, or indomethacin, or an inhibitor of protein synthesis, cycloheximide. The release of arachidonic acid and its metabolites, especially prostaglandin E2 and thromboxane B2, increased during incubation of macrophages with LPS. These increases were efficiently antagonized by hydrocortisone, indomethacin, or cycloheximide. Preincubation of macrophages with prostaglandin E1 greatly reduced the subsequent responses of cAMP generation to prostaglandin E1 and unexpectedly also to epinephrine. Thus, increased production of prostaglandins during the LPS treatment is likely to be responsible for decreased cAMP responses to subsequent addition of prostaglandin E1 and epinephrine.     

The nucleotide sequence of a cDNA clone containing the entire coding region for mouse X-chromosome-linked phosphoglycerate kinase

A clone containing cDNA for X chromosome-linked phosphoglycerate kinase (PGK-1) was isolated from a mouse myeloma cDNA library. The nucleotide (nt) sequence of the cDNA has been determined, and the amino acid (aa) sequence of the enzyme thereby deduced. At the nt level, the coding region of mouse PGK cDNA has 93% homology with human X-linked cDNA and 60% homology with the yeast gene. Mouse PGK-1 protein contains 416 aa and is 98%, 96% and 64% homologous with human, horse, and yeast enzyme sequences, respectively.     

Hyaluronic acid in rabbit pericardial fluid and its production by pericardium

High-Mr (greater than 2 X 10(6)) hyaluronic acid (about 82 micrograms/ml) was found for the first time in rabbit pericardial fluid. Biosynthetic experiments with minced pericardium from rabbit showed that the high-Mr hyaluronic acid in the pericardial fluid was actively synthesized by the pericardium from [3H]glucosamine.     

Biochemical characterization of hemorrhagic toxins with fibrinogenase activity isolated from Crotalus ruber ruber venom

Three hemorrhagic toxins with proteolytic activity were isolated from the venom of Crotalus ruber ruber (red rattlesnake). Molecular weights of HT-1, HT-2, and HT-3 were 60,000, 25,000, and 25,500, respectively. Although HT-3 was a basic protein, HT-1 and HT-2 were slightly acidic proteins. Total amino acid residues were 482,207, and 221 for HT-1, HT-2, and HT-3, respectively. Protease activity of all the toxins was inhibited in the presence of EDTA or o-phenanthroline, suggesting that the toxins are metalloproteins. Analyses for various metals by inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectrometry indicated that sodium, potassium, zinc, and calcium atoms were present in significant quantities. With all three toxins, there was roughly 1 mol of zinc to 1 mol of protein; the results for calcium were not consistent. All three hemorrhagic toxins degraded the A alpha chain of fibrinogen, while HT-1 also degraded the B beta chain. Although fibrinogen was degraded by the three toxins, no clots were observed, indicating that the proteolytic specificities of the three toxins were different from those of thrombin. The hemorrhagic toxins increased creatine kinase activity in mice serum, indicating muscle damage, which was substantiated by histological examination.     

Phosphodiesterase from the venom of Crotalus ruber ruber

Phosphodiesterase was isolated from the venom of Crotalus ruber ruber from the U.S.A. using the gel filtration on a Sephadex G-75 column, followed by anion or cation exchange chromatography. Phosphodiesterase was homogeneous as established by a single band on acrylamide gel electrophoresis and isoelectric focusing electrophoresis. Phosphodiesterase activity was inhibited by ethylenediamine tetraacetic acid (EDTA), o-phenanthroline, thioglycolic acid or p-chloromercuribenzoate (PCMB), but not by soybean trypsin inhibitor (SBTI) or benzamidine. The molecular weight of this enzyme was determined to be approx. 98,000 and the isoelectric point was found to be pH 10.5 by isoelectric focusing with carrier ampholyte. This enzyme contained 1.04 mol zinc per mol. The Michaelis constant (Km) of this enzyme for p-nitrophenyl thymidine-5'-phosphate and inhibition constant (Ki) for PCMB were found to be 8.3 X 10(-3) and 1.2 X 10(-2) M, respectively.