A strain of Aerobacter aerogenes PRL-R3 has been isolated which utilizes d-apiose as its sole source of carbon. A new enzyme, d-apiose reductase, was discovered in this strain. The enzyme was not present when the strain was grown on d-glucose. d-Apiose reductase catalyzes the nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide-dependent interconversion of d-apiose and d-apiitol. The enzyme is specific for d-apio...

Several studies have documented that formation of oxidant mediators may induce apoptosis in nucleated and anucleated cells by modulating intracellular signalling pathways. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) play a very important role in the platelet function. γ-Glutamyltransferase (GGT), a novel source of cellular production of oxidants in ...

The effect of total parenteral nutrition on nutrients absorption and glycoprotein changes of brush border membrane was examined in rat small intestine. In total parenteral nutrition rats, a marked decrease in activity of brush border enzymes was observed mainly in the proximal and middle segments of the intestine. Galactose perfusion of jejunal segment showed that hexose absorption was signific...

We report a simple, enzymatic method for determining angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE; EC 3.4.15.1) in serum. The proposed method features coupling an established reaction catalyzed by gamma-glutamyltransferase (GGT; EC 2.3.2.2) to the ACE reaction, which releases glycylglycine from the artificial substrate hippuryl-glycyl-glycine. The glycyl-glycine released by the ACE reaction becomes rate-...

The protonation constants of glycine, L-alanine, glycyl-glycine, glycyl-glycyl-glycine and glycyl-L-alanine have been determined in 10-80% (v/v) ethanol-water mixtures at 25 °C and constant ionic strength (0.1 mol L-1 sodium perchlorate), by potentiometric technique and calculated using a suitable computer program, which employs a nonlinear least-squares method. The effect of solvent compositio...

The Plasmodium falciparum genome encodes a single calpain. By generating P. falciparum clones expressing C-terminally tagged calpain, we localized this protein to the nucleolus. Pf_calpain possesses an unusual and long N-terminal domain in which we identified three subregions that are highly conserved among Plasmodium species. Two have putative targeting signals: a myristoylation motif and a nu...

We have studied the metabolism of diglycine and triglycine in the isolated non-filtering rat kidney. Kidneys from adult male Wistar Kyoto rats weighing 250-350 g were perfused with Krebs-Henseleit solution containing either 1 mM diglycine or triglycine. The analysis of the peptide residues and their components was performed using an amino acid microanalyzer utilizing ion exchange chromatography...