We studied the effects of a 38-day endurance exercise training program on leucine turnover and substrate metabolism during a 90-min exercise bout at 60% peak O(2) consumption (VO(2 peak)) in 6 males and 6 females. Subjects were studied at both the same absolute (ABS) and relative (REL) exercise intensities posttraining. Training resulted in a significant increase in whole body VO(2 peak) and sk...

After exploring evolutionary aspects of branched-chain amino acid biosynthesis, the review focuses on the extended leucine biosynthetic pathway as it operates in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. First, the genes and enzymes specific for the leucine pathway are considered: LEU4 and LEU9 (encoding the alpha-isopropylmalate synthase isoenzymes), LEU1 (isopropylmalate isomerase), and LEU2 (beta-isopropylm...

Homology-based modeling of phenylalanine dehydrogenases (PheDHs) from various sources, using the structures of homologous enzymes Clostridium symbiosum glutamate dehydrogenase and Bacillus sphaericus leucine dehydrogenase as a guide, revealed that an asparagine residue at position 145 of B. sphaericus PheDH was replaced by valine or alanine in PheDHs from other sources. This difference was prop...

Rat aortic endothelium is differentiated regionally for three signal pathways capable of regulating the cGMP content of the underlying smooth muscle. Formation of nitric oxide (NO) from L-arginine and of glutamate from L-leucine increase cGMP; however, formation of prostaglandin H2 (PGH2) decreases cGMP. All three have peak activity in the windkessel area just distal to the aortic arch and decr...

The aim of the project was to investigate the turnover of proteins in growing fowls; to thi^end, the fate of leucine in muscle was studied. Following the injection of Cor N-labelled leucine into growing broiler chickens, the specific content of this aminoacid was measured in plasma, total muscle protein, sarcoplasmic proteins and myofibrillar proteins, and in the separated enzymes aldolase, cre...

Catabolite repression (CCR) regulates amino acid permeases in Saccharomyces cerevisiae via a TOR-kinase mediated mechanism. When glucose, the preferred fuel in S. cerevisiae, is substituted by galactose, amino acid uptake is increased. Here we have assessed the contribution and metabolic significance of this surfeit of amino acid in yeast undergoing catabolite derepression (CDR). L-[U-(14)C]leu...

Exposure to phospholipase C increased the incorporation of [32P]Pi into phosphatidate, CMP-phosphatidate and phosphatidylinositol in rat adipose tissue and isolated adipocytes. A similar effect was observed in response to insulin and oxytocin. Theophylline, 3-isobutyl-1-methylxanthine and adenosine deaminase decreased [32P]Pi incorporation, and adenosine and N6-phenylisopropyladenosine reversed...

The fusel alcohols 3-methyl-1-butanol, 2-methyl-1-butanol, and 2-methyl-propanol are important flavor compounds in yeast-derived food products and beverages. The formation of these compounds from branched-chain amino acids is generally assumed to occur via the Ehrlich pathway, which involves the concerted action of a branched-chain transaminase, a decarboxylase, and an alcohol dehydrogenase. Pa...

For the measurement of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) isoenzyme biosynthesis a new method is presented which is based on the quantitative hybridization of isoenzyme MI with isoenzyme Hq. After reversible dissociation the formation of active LDH M4 was more rapid and occurred to a greater extent than the formation of LDH Hq. The formation of hybrid isoenzymes from the two subunits resulted in an in...