Three histidine residues of amyloid-beta peptide control the redox activity of copper and iron

Zinc, iron and copper are concentrated in senile plaques of Alzheimer disease. Copper and iron catalyze the Fenton-Haber-Weiss reaction, which likely contributes to oxidative stress in neuronal cells. In this study, we found that ascorbate oxidase activity and the intensity of ascorbate radicals measured using ESR spectroscopy, generated by free Cu(II), was decreased in the presence of amyloid-beta (Abeta), the major component of senile plaques. Specifically, the ascorbate oxidase activity was strongly inhibited (85% decrease) in the presence of Abeta1-16 or Abeta1-42, whereas it was only slightly inhibited in the presence of Abeta1-12 or Abeta25-35 (<20% inhibition). Ascorbate-dependent hydroxyl radical generation by free Cu(II) decreased in the presence of Abeta in the identical order of Abeta1-42, Abeta1-16 > Abeta1-12 and was abolished in the presence of 2-fold molar excess glycylhystidyllysine (GHK). Ascorbate oxidase activity and ascorbate-dependent hydroxyl radical generation by free Fe(III) were inhibited by Abeta1-42, Abeta1-16, and Abeta1-12. Although Cu(II)-Abeta shows a significant SOD-like activity, the rate constant for the reaction of superoxide with Cu(II)-Abeta was much slower than that with SOD. Overall, our results suggest that His6, His13, and His14 residues of Abeta1-42 control the redox activity of transition metals present in senile plaques.     

Increased production of a knotted form of plasmid pBR322 DNA in Escherichia coli DNA topoisomerase mutants

Plasmid pBR322 prepared from Escherichia coli strains carrying deletion of the DNA topoisomerase I gene (delta topA) with a compensatory mutation of the DNA gyrase gene (gyrA or gyrB) and from their TopA+ transductants was analyzed by agarose gel electrophoresis followed by electron microscopy, and compared with that from isogenic wild-type strains. It was found that about 1% of the plasmid DNA molecules was a knotted species in the topA+ gyr+ strains W3110 and DM4100, while strains DM750 (delta topA gyrA224), DM800 (delta topA gyrB225), SD275 (topA+ gyrA224) and SD108 (topA+ gyrB225) produced six to ten times as much knotted DNA as the topA+ gyr+ controls. The results suggest that the increased production of knotted pBR322 DNA is closely related to mutations of the gyrase genes.     

Analysis of mfbA alleles of the eubasidiomycete Lentinus edodes

A fruiting-body-specific mfbA cDNA derived from Lentinus edodes FMC2 has been shown to encode a high-molecular-weight protein, MFBA, containing the cell-adhesion-promoting Arg-Gly-Asp (RGD) sequence. Southern-blot analysis showed that all L. edodes strains tested have the mfbA gene (homologue). Nucleotide sequence analysis of the 1-kb mfbA fragments containing the RGD-coding sequence showed that each L. edodes strain has two types of mfbA homologues. It was found in FMC2 that two mfbA homologues are derived from different nuclei and these mfbA alleles are transcribed with similar frequencies in the fruiting bodies.     

Reaction System of Haemophilus,Superhelical DNA-relaxing Enzyme is Useful for Screening of DNA-binding Substance

Several substances with antioxidant activity were isolated from the mixture of dehydroascorbic acid and tryptophan when reacted together in ethanol. One of the main antioxidant products was obtained in crystalline form from an n-butanol extract of the reaction mixture by means of Sephadex column chromatography followed by HPLC with a reversed phase column. ¹H- and ¹³C-NMR of the product and its acetate showed its structure as a condensate of dehydroascorbic acid and tryptophan with each single molecule involving a C-spiro structure. By a POV test the activity of this substance was about two-thirds of that of BHA on a molar basis, and the activity of the reaction mixture is greatly attributable to this substance.     

Bending of DNA segments with Saccharomyces cerevisiae autonomously replicating sequence activity, isolated from basidiomycete mitochondrial linear plasmids

Summary Previous studies have indicated that DNA bending is a general structural feature of sequences (ARSs) from cellular DNAs of yeasts and nuclear and mitochondrial genomic DNAs of other eukaryotes that are capable of autonomous replication in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Here we showed that bending activity is also tightly associated with S. cerevisiae ARS function of segments cloned from mitochondrial linear DNA plasmids of the basidiomycetes Pleurotus ostreatus and Lentinus edodes. Two plasmids, designated pLPO2-like (9.4 kb), and pLPO3 (6.6 kb) were isolated from a strain of P. ostreatus. A 1029 by fragment with high-level ARS activity was cloned from pLPO3 and it contained one ARS consensus sequence (A/T)TTTAT(A/G)TTT(A/T) indispensable for activity and seven dispersed ARS consensus-like (10/11 match) sequences. A discrete bent DNA region was found to lie around 500 by upstream from the ARS consensus sequence (T-rich strand). Removal of the bent DNA region impaired ARS function. DNA bending was also implicated in the ARS function associated with a 1430 by fragment containing three consecutive ARS consensus sequences which had been cloned from the L. edodes plasmid pLLE1 (11.0 kb): the three consecutive ARSs responsible for high-level ARS function occurred in, and immediately adjacent to, a bent DNA region. A clear difference exists between the two plasmid-derived ARS fragments with respect to the distance between the bent DNA region and the ARS consensus sequence(s).     

Isolation of a tetracycline-resistance plasmid excised from a chromosomal DNA sequence in Bacillus subtilis

When Bacillus subtilis GSY908 (recE4-) (H. C. Spatz and T. A. Trautner, 1971, Mol. Gen. Genet. 113, 174-190) protoplasts were infected with Staphylococcus aureus plasmid pNS1 specifying tetracycline resistance (Tcr) (N. Noguchi et al., 1983, Gene 21, 105-112), which was modified such that it either could not replicate or did not carry a functional Tcr gene, a plasmid with a molecular weight of 3.1 X 10(6) (4.9 kb) was generated in Tcr phenotypes. This plasmid, named Tcr pNS1981, exhibited completely different restriction endonuclease cleavage patterns to pNS1 and showed only negligible sequence homology in hybridization experiments. Southern hybridization experiments revealed that pNS1981 arises by excision of a B. subtilis chromosomal DNA sequence. No sequence corresponding to pNS1 was detectable on the chromosome of pNS1981-maintaining B. subtilis. The production of pNS1981 was also observed in B. subtilis RM125 (r-Mm-Mrec+) (T. Uozumi et al., 1977, Mol. Gen. Genet. 152, 65-69.) with almost the same frequency as B. subtilis GSY908. Since the recipient B. subtilis Marburg 168 derivatives stated above are sensitive to Tc, the results indicate that information essential for Tcr is under negative regulatory control in the integrated state on the chromosome. Restriction endonuclease analysis suggested that pNS1981 is essentially the same as pBC16, formerly found in B. cereus (K. Bernhard, H. Schrempf, and W. Goebel, 1978, J. Bacteriol. 133, 897-903).     

Correlation of enzyme-induced cleavage sites on negatively superhelical DNA between prokaryotic topoisomerase I and S1 nuclease

Negatively superhelical pNS1 DNA with a molecular weight of 2.55 MDa (4 kbp) was found to contain 13 specific, unbasepaired sites that are sensitive to a single-strand-specific S₁ nuclease cleavage. The S₁-cleavage occurred once at these sites. In the absence of added Mg²⁺, the topoisomerase I purified from Haemophilus gallinarum formed a complex with the superhelical pNS1 DNA which has a hidden strand cleavage. Extensive proteinase K digestion of the complex led to cleavage of the DNA chain. Then the proteinase K-cleaved product was digested with S₁, which can cut the opposite strand at the preexisting strand cleavage to generate unit-length linear DNA. Restriction endonuclease analysis of the linear DNA shows that the topoisomerase-induced cleavage occurred once at ten specific sites on the DNA. The topoisomerase caused mainly single-strand cleavage at these sites, but infrequently also caused double-strand cleavage at the same sites. Of interest is the fact that these sites considerably coincide with the S₁-cleavable, unbasepaired sites.