Lymphocytes, monocytes, neutrophilic granulocytes and platelets were each separated to greater than 95% purity from six normal subjects, three patients with Gaucher's disease, two heterozygotes for Gaucher's disease, and one patient with Fabry's disease. Activities of the following acid hydrolases were determined: "acid" (pH 4.0) beta-glucosidase, pH 5.0 beta-glucosidase, alpha-galactosidase, a...

A new marker system for gram-negative bacteria was developed on the basis of the celB gene from the hyperthermophilic archaeon Pyrococcus furiosus, which encodes a thermostable beta-glucosidase with a high level of beta-galactosidase activity. The celB gene is highly suitable as a marker for studying plant-bacterium interaction because endogenous background beta-glucosidase and beta-galactosida...

[14C]Lactose electroinjected into isolated rat hepatocytes is normally autophagocytosed, transferred to lysosomes and degraded by lysosomal beta-galactosidase, but at high concentrations of asparagine the transfer is inhibited and lactose accumulates in prelysosomal autophagic/endocytic vacuoles (amphisomes). The accumulation can be prevented by addition of yeast beta-galactosidase, which is tr...

Duckworth, Donna H. (Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md.), and Maurice J. Bessman. Assay for the killing properties of T2 bacteriophage and their "ghosts." J. Bacteriol. 90:724-728. 1965.-A procedure for the assay of bacteriophage and their "ghosts" which is based on their ability to kill cells is described. The method is derived from the well-known ability of phage and ghosts to prevent t...

Protein engineers can alter the properties of enzymes by directing their evolution in vitro. Many methods to generate molecular diversity and to identify improved clones have been developed, but experimental evolution remains as much an art as a science. We previously used DNA shuffling (sexual recombination) and a histochemical screen to direct the evolution of Escherichia coli beta-glucuronid...

In order to analyze the expression pattern of the 5'-nucleotidase (5nt) gene in Dictyostelium, we made a fusion construct in which the 5nt promoter directed the expression of beta-galactosidase gene. The reporter gene was not active in vegetative amoebae but was expressed during the aggregation stage. At the slug stage, 5nt was highly expressed in pstAB cells. As the slug moved along the substr...

To investigate the activity of senescence-associated beta-galactosidase (SA-beta-GAL) in the hippocampus of aging rats. Hippocampi of 6-, 18-, and 24-month-old rats were observed by histochemical staining for SA-beta-GAL and cytochemical staining for SA-beta-GAL in cultured hippocampal neurons. The activity of SA-beta-GAL doubled in hippocampal pyramidal cells of the CA3 region in rats between ...

One hundred and one young-adult female Sprague-Dawley rats were acclimatized to metabolic cages for 2 days. After that time 24-hour urine was collected at a constant cooling temperature of 0-4 degrees C. After gel filtration the enzyme activities were determined, and the resulting values were used to calculate 24-hour excretions. The following reference ranges (2.5 and 97.5 percentiles) were de...

The pneumococcus obtains its energy from the metabolism of host glycosides. Therefore, efficient degradation of host glycoproteins is integral to pneumococcal virulence. In search of novel pneumococcal glycosidases, we characterized the Streptococcus pneumoniae strain D39 protein encoded by SPD_0065 and found that this gene encodes a beta-galactosidase. The SPD_0065 recombinant protein released...