Nitric oxide (NO)-sensitive guanylyl-cyclase (GC) is the most important receptor for the signaling molecule NO. Activation of the enzyme is brought about by binding of NO to the prosthetic heme group. By monitoring NO-binding and catalytic activity simultaneously, we show that NO activates GC only if the reaction products of the enzyme are present. NO-binding in the absence of the products did ...

Guanylyl cyclase A (GCA) and soluble guanylyl cyclase (sGC) encode GCs in Dictyostelium and have a topology similar to 12-transmembrane and soluble adenylyl cyclase, respectively. We demonstrate that all detectable GC activity is lost in a cell line in which both genes have been inactivated. Cell lines with one gene inactivated were used to characterize the other guanylyl cyclase (i.e. GCA in s...

Atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) and B-type natriuretic peptide decrease blood pressure and cardiac hypertrophy by activating natriuretic peptide receptor A (NPR-A), a transmembrane guanylyl cyclase also known as guanylyl cyclase A. Inactivation of NPR-A is a potential mechanism for the renal hyporesponsiveness observed in congestive heart failure (CHF) but direct data supporting this hypothesi...

Soluble guanylyl cyclases are typically obligate heterodimers, composed of a single alpha and a single beta subunit. MsGC-beta3, identified in the tobacco hornworm Manduca sexta, was the first example of a soluble guanylyl cyclase that exhibited enzyme activity without the need for coexpression with additional subunits. Subsequent studies have revealed that the mammalian beta2 subunit also shar...

Adenosine 3', 5'-cyclic monophosphate (cAMP) and guanosine 3', 5'-cyclic monophosphate (cGMP) are well-studied second messengers that transmit extracellular signals into mammalian cells, with conserved functions in various other species such as Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans). cAMP is generated by adenylyl cyclases, and cGMP is generated by guanylyl cyclases, respectively. Studies using C. ...

Guanylyl cyclases (GC) catalyze the formation of the intracellular signal molecule cyclic GMP from GTP. For some years it has been known that the heme-containing soluble guanylyl cyclase (sGC) is stimulated by NO and NO-containing compounds. The sGC enzyme consists of two subunits (a and b ). In the present study, the a and b -subunits were identified in the guinea pig cochlea at the electron 1...