1. The teichoic acid from walls of Staphylococcus lactis I3 was isolated by extraction with trichloroacetic acid and shown to contain glycerol, N-acetylglucosamine, phosphate and d-alanine in the molecular proportions 1:1:2:1. The alanine is attached to the polymer through ester linkages. 2. Hydrolysis with acid gave alanine, glucosamine and glycerol diphosphates. Under mild acid conditions a r...

Borrelia burgdorferi is an obligate parasite with a limited genome that severely narrows its metabolic and biosynthetic capabilities. Thus survival of this spirochaete in an arthropod vector and mammalian host requires that it can scavenge amino acids, fatty acids and nucleosides from a blood meal or various host tissues. Additionally, the utilization of ribonucleotides for DNA synthesis is fur...

The mechanism by which ATP-sensitive K 1 (K ATP ) channels open in the presence of inhibitory concentrations of ATP remains unknown. Herein, using a four-state kinetic model, we found that the nucleotide diphosphate UDP directed cardiac K ATP channels to operate within intraburst transitions. These transitions are not targeted by ATP, nor the structurally unrelated sulfonylurea glyburide, which...

cis-Prenyltransferase catalyzes the sequential condensation of isopentenyl diphosphate with allylic diphosphate to synthesize polyprenyl diphosphates that play vital roles in cellular activity. Despite potential significance of cis-prenyltransferase in plant growth and development, no gene of the enzyme has been cloned from higher plants. Using sequence information of the conserved region of ci...

Ribonucleoside diphosphate reductase is an allosteric enzyme consisting of two nonidentical subunits, proteins Bl and B2. Bl contains dithiols which participate in the oxidation-reduction reactions of electron transport, while B2 contains a free radical essential for activity. Ribonucleoside diphosphates are bound to Bl but not to B2. Addition of 2’-deoxy-2’-chloro ribonucleoside diphosphates t...

It was found that nucleoside 5'-diphosphates could serve as effectors of ribonucleotide reductase. ADP was an activator of CDP reduction; ADP reduction was activated by dGDP; GDP reduction was activated by dTDP. Conversely, dADP inhibited the reduction of CDP, UDP, GDP, and ADP; dGDP inhibited UDP and GDP reductions; and dTDP inhibited UDP reduction. The inhibition of UDP reduction by dADP, dTD...