Put through the pincer: A recent study revealed the structure of the Ni-containing active site of lactate racemase. The Ni is coordinated by a SCS pincer ligand derived from a nicotinic acid mononucleotide.

Adaptive frameshift mutations in the lacZ gene of Escherichia coli are, unusually, nearly all short deletions, perhaps caused by slipped-strand mispairings in mononucleotide runs. But are they directed?

We describe here a surface-bound, oxide-based procedure for the photooxidation of a family of aromatic hydrocarbons by a phosphate-bearing flavin mononucleotide (FMN) photocatalyst on high surface area metal-oxide films.

Axonal degeneration occurs in many neurodegenerative diseases and after traumatic injury and is a self-destructive program independent from programmed cell death. Previous studies demonstrated that overexpression of nicotinamide mononucleotide adenylyltransferase 1 (Nmnat1) or exogenous application of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) can protect axons of cultured dorsal root ganglion (DR...

Axonal degeneration often leads to the death of neuronal cell bodies. Previous studies have demonstrated the crucial role of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) biosynthesis in axonal protection of motor neurons, but the role of nicotinamide mononucleotide adenylyltransferase 1 and NAD in optic nerve degeneration is unclear. Intravitreal injection of tumor necrosis factor (TNF) induces opti...

The nonenzymatic reduction of methemoglobin by the reduced form of flavin mononucleotide was studied under various conditions by following the reaction with a stopped flow apparatus. The reaction was very fast, compared with the reduction of the flavin by NADPH-flavin reductase of human erythrocytes, and followed a second order rate law: the rate constant (K) for the reduction of methemoglobin ...

A simple method for selective phosphorylation of ribityl containing starting materials to afford FMN derivatives is presented. The method is in particular valuable for the synthesis of labile FMN derivatives.

Mitochondrial reactive oxygen species (ROS) have emerged as an important mechanism of disease and redox signaling in the cardiovascular system. Under basal or pathological conditions, electron leakage for ROS production is primarily mediated by the electron transport chain and the proton motive force consisting of a membrane potential (ΔΨ) and a proton gradient (ΔpH). Several factors controllin...

Small insertions or deletions that alter the reading frame of a gene typically occur in simple repeats such as mononucleotide runs and are thought to reflect spontaneous primer-template misalignment during DNA replication. The resulting extrahelical repeat is efficiently recognized by the mismatch repair machinery, which specifically replaces the newly replicated strand to restore the original ...