There is a significant need for new antibiotics due to the rise in drug resistance. Drugs such as methicillin and vancomycin target bacterial cell wall biosynthesis, but methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and vancomycin-resistant Enterococci (VRE) have now arisen and are of major concern. Inhibitors acting on new targets in cell wall biosynthesis are thus of particular interest ...

This report gives an insight into the specific changes in the transcription of four key carotenogenic genes [encoding geranylgeranyl diphosphate synthase (crtE), phytoene desaturase (crtI), phytoene synthase lycopene cyclase (crtYB), and astaxanthin synthase (ast), respectively] in Xanthophyllomyces dendrorhous cultures, with regard to dissolved oxygen (DO) contents of 10%, 25%, and 40% air sat...

The essential enzyme 2C-methyl-D-erythritol-2,4-cyclodiphosphate (MECP) synthase, found in most eubacteria and the apicomplexan parasites, participates in isoprenoid-precursor biosynthesis and is a validated target for the development of broad-spectrum antimicrobial drugs. The structure and mechanism of the enzyme have been elucidated and the recent exciting finding that the enzyme actually bin...

The present invention relates to the isolation, puri?cation, sequencing, and functional characterization of the class I and II terpene sequences OsCPSlem, OsCPS2em, OsCPS4Syn, and OsDTS2. Transcriptional control of OsCPSlem provides a means of regulating production of gibberellin phytohormone, While transcriptional control of OsCPS2em, OsDTS2, and OsCPS4Syn provides a means of regulating defens...

The stereochemical course of the cyclisation reaction catalysed by the bacterial 1,8-cineol synthase from Streptomyces clavuligerus was investigated using stereospecifically deuterated substrates. In contrast to the well investigated plant enzyme from Salvia officinalis, the reaction proceeds via (S)-linalyl diphosphate and the (S)-terpinyl cation, while the final cyclisation reaction is in bot...

Starch accumulation and the seven metabolic enzyme activities in sorghum grains with different starch contents were investigated under field conditions Shenyang Agricultural University. The results indicated that Tieza17 (high content variety) Liaoza11 (low could be fitted logistic equation. of sucrose synthase (SS), soluble (SSS) uridine diphosphate glucose pyrophosphorylase (UGPase) similar t...

Through site-directed mutagenesis targeted at identification of the catalytic base in the rice (Oryza sativa) syn-copalyl diphosphate synthase OsCPS4, changes to a single residue (H501) were found to induce rearrangement rather than immediate deprotonation of the initially formed bicycle, leading to production of the novel compound syn-halimadienyl diphosphate. These mutational results are comb...

Acetohydroxyacid synthase (Ec 2.2.1.6) catalyses the thiamine diphosphate-dependent reaction between two molecules of pyruvate yielding 2-acetolactacte and CO2. The enzyme will also utilise hydroxypyruvate with a k(cat) value that is 12% of that observed with pyruvate. When hydroxypyruvate is the substrate, the enzyme undergoes progressive inactivation with kinetics that are characteristic of s...

We found in the Escherichia coli genome sequence a homologue of RER2, a Saccharomyces cerevisiae gene required for proper localization of an endoplasmic reticulum protein, and designated it rth (RER2 homologue). The disruption of this gene was lethal for E. coli. To reveal its biological function, we isolated temperature-sensitive mutants of the rth gene. The mutant cells became swollen and bur...