All organisms, including humans, possess a huge number of uncharacterized enzymes. Here we describe a general cell-based screen for enzyme substrate discovery by untargeted metabolomics and its application to identify the protein α/β-hydrolase domain-containing 3 (ABHD3) as a lipase that selectively cleaves medium-chain and oxidatively truncated phospholipids. Abhd3(-/-) mice possess elevated m...

A set of new quaternary ammonium compounds based on pyridine-4-aldoxime was synthesized, characterized with analytical data (NMR, EA, HPLC, MS) and tested for in vitro antimicrobial activity (antibacterial, antifungal) and cytotoxicity. Quaternary pyridinium-4-aldoxime salts with length of alkyl side chain from C8 to C20 and belonging to the group of cationic surfactants were investigated in th...

The effect of a single injection of a therapeutic level of either 4-aminopyrazÃ3lo(3,4rf)pyrimidine or l-methyl-4-aminopyrazolo(3,4-¿)pyrimidine on the incorporation of glycine-C14, adenine-C14, or guanine-C14 into RNA and DNA adenine and guanine during the 12-hour period after drug administration has been studied in the Ehrlich ascites carcinoma, which is sensitive to both drugs, and in Sarco...

In response to pathogen attack, plant cells secrete antimicrobial molecules at the site of infection. However, how plant pathogens interfere with defense-related focal secretion remains poorly known. Here we show that the host-translocated RXLR-type effector protein AVRblb2 of the Irish potato famine pathogen Phytophthora infestans focally accumulates around haustoria, specialized infection str...

Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans is a strict acidophilic chemolithoautotrophic bacterium that obtains its energy from reduced inorganic sulfur species or ferrous iron oxidation under aerobic conditions. Carbon felt electrodes were pre-colonized by A. ferrooxidansATCC 23270T using ferrous iron or sulfur as electron donors, via the addition (or not) of a mixture of C14 acyl-homoserine lactones (C14...

All eukaryotic and prokaryotic organisms are thought to synthesize fatty acids using a type I or type II synthase. In addition, eukaryotes extend pre-existing long chain fatty acids using microsomal elongases (ELOs). We have found that Trypanosoma brucei, a eukaryotic human parasite that causes sleeping sickness, uses three elongases instead of type I or type II synthases for the synthesis of n...

The metabolism of pyruvic acid in the light and dark by Scenedesmus has been examined with two aims: to study the relationship of its metabolism to that of the intermediates of C1402 fixation and to compare its metabolic fate with that of hydroxypyruvate. The metabolism of hydroxypyruvic acid was compared with that of C1402 fixation in order to ascertain whether it might be a photosynthetic int...