BACKGROUND Oxidative stress plays a potential role in the pathogenesis and progression of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Glutathione S-transferases (GSTs) detoxify toxic compounds in tobacco smoke via glutathione-dependent mechanisms. Little is known about the regulation and expression of GSTs in COPD lung and their presence in airway secretions. METHODS GST alpha, pi and mu we...

BACKGROUND The Marin strain of Culex pipiens Say is a pyrethroid-resistant population that was collected in Marin County, California, in 2001 and subsequently maintained in the laboratory under regular permethrin exposure. RESULTS In this study, two cDNAs, CpGSTd1 and CpGSTd2, encoding glutathione S-transferase (GST) were cloned from Cx. pipiens Marin. Phylogenetic analysis of the deduced ami...

Background: Glutathione S-transferases (GSTs) are detoxifying enzymes that contribute to the glutathione-ascorbic acid (vitamin C) antioxidant cycle. Objective: The objective was to determine whether GST genotypes modify the association between dietary vitamin C and serum ascor-

Some ascidians accumulate vanadium in vanadocytes, which are vanadium-containing blood cells, at high levels and with high selectivity. However, the mechanism and physiological significance of vanadium accumulation remain unknown. In this study, we isolated novel proteins with a striking homology to glutathione transferases (GSTs), designated AsGST-I and AsGST-II, from the digestive system of t...

S-Crystallin is a major protein present in the lenses of cephalopods (octopus and squid). To facilitate the cloning of this crystallin gene, cDNA was constructed from the poly(A)+ mRNA of octopus lenses, and amplified by PCR for nucleotide sequencing. Sequencing of 10 of 15 positive clones coding for this crystallin revealed three distinct S-crystallin isoforms with 61-64% identity in nucleotid...

The bacterium Proteus mirabilis expresses a cytosolic class beta glutathione S-transferase (PmGST B1-1) that is part of a family of multifunctional detoxication enzymes. Like other cytosolic GSTs, PmGST B1-1 possesses two local structural motifs, an N-capping box and a hydrophobic staple motif, both of which are located between amino acids 151 and 156. The N-capping box consists of a reciprocal...

Glutathione transferases (GSTs) are part of a major family of detoxifying enzymes that can catalyze the reductive dehydrochlorination of dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT). The delta and epsilon classes of insect GSTs have been implicated in conferring resistance to this insecticide. In this study, the inactivation of Anopheles gambiae GSTε2 by epiphyllocoumarin (Tral 1) was investigated. Re...

Glutathione transferases (GSTs) are often upregulated in tumors and have been suggested to play an important role in multiple drug resistance in cancer chemotherapy. As a consequence GST-dependent pro-drugs and inhibitors are being developed. Little is known, however, on the potential role of membrane-bound GSTs in drug resistance despite the fact that detoxication of cytostatic drugs and upreg...

Glutathione S-transferases (GSTs) exist in various eukaryotes and function in detoxification of xenobiotics and in response to abiotic and biotic stresses. We have carried out a genome-wide survey of this gene family in 10 plant genomes. Our data show that tandem duplication has been regarded as the major expansion mechanism and both monocot and dicot plants may have practiced different expansi...

The ligandin activity of specific glutathione S-transferases (GSTs) is necessary for the transport of anthocyanins from the cytosol to the plant vacuole. Five GSTs were purified from Vitis vinifera L. cv. Gamay Fréaux cell suspension cultures by glutathione affinity chromatography. These proteins underwent Edman sequencing and mass spectrometry fingerprinting, with the resultant fragments align...