Resistance to organophosphates in Culex mosquitoes is typically associated with increased activity of non-specific esterases. The commonest phenotype involves two elevated esterases, A2 and B2, while some strains have elevation of esterase B1 alone. Overexpression of the two B esterase electromorphs is due to gene amplification. Full-length cDNAs coding for amplified esterase B genes from a res...

Specific esterase activity, a property generally ascribed to cells of granulocytic origin, was found in abnormal erythroid precursors obtained from the bone marrows of six patients with untreated erythroleukemia. These erythroblasts also showed nonspecific esterase activity. Neither specific nor nonspecific esterase activity was detected in erythroid precursors obtained from the bone marrows of...

The mechanism of lysis by in vivo-induced cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) was examined with virus-specific CTL from mice infected with lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV). LCMV-induced T cells were shown to have greater than 10 times the serine esterase activity of T cells from normal mice, and high levels of serine esterase were located in the LCMV-induced CD8+ cell population. Serine este...

The cellulolytic system of the wood-rotting fungus Schizophyllum commune contains an esterase that hydrolyzes methyl ester of 4-O-methyl-d-glucuronic acid. The enzyme, called glucuronoyl esterase, was purified to electrophoretic homogeneity from a cellulose-spent culture fluid. Its substrate specificity was examined on a number of substrates of other carbohydrate esterases such as acetylxylan e...

Previous electrophysiological and behavioural studies implicate esterase 6 in the processing of the pheromone cis-vaccenyl acetate and various food odorants that affect aggregation and reproductive behaviours. Here we show esterase 6 has relatively high activity against many of the short-mid chain food esters, but negligible activity against cis-vaccenyl acetate. The crystal structure of estera...

Carboxylesterases constitute a large enzyme family in insects, which is involved in diverse functions such as xenobiotic detoxification, lipid metabolism and reproduction. Phylogenetically, many insect carboxylesterases are represented by multienzyme clades, which are encoded by evolutionarily ancient gene clusters such as the α-Esterase cluster. Much in contrast to the vital importance attribu...

Human esterase D (carboxylesterase; carboxylic-ester hydrolase, EC 3.1.1.1), a genetic marker of retinoblastoma, was purified to biochemical homogeneity from erythrocytes. The purification scheme including carboxymethylcellulose, phenyl-Sepharose, chromatofocusing, and hydroxylapatite chromatographies resulted in a 10,000-fold purification of the enzyme with 15% recovery of total activity. The ...

Purified human milk lipoamidase was digested with endoproteinase Lys-C and the digested peptides were subjected to gasphase microsequence analysis. The sequencing of three isolated peptides of human milk lipoamidase revealed the identity of this protein with human milk bile salt-stimulated lipase (pancreatic cholesterol esterase). The identity of the cholesterol esterase with lipoamidase was co...

Screening GenBank indicated that an esterase from Pseudomonas fluorescens had high sequence similarity with bacterial non-haem haloperoxides. However, this homology was limited to two distinct domains of the published esterase sequence. As errors in the published sequence were suspected, the esterase gene was sequenced again. The revised sequence displayed between 40 and 50% identical amino aci...

angioedema is characterized by recurrent, circumscribed, solitary or multiple subcutaneous and mucosal swelling, involving the extremities, face, larynx, bowel wall. angioedema is due to hereditary or acquired varieties of c1 esterase inhibitor (c1inh) deficiency. a case of atypical acquired angioedema in a 49-year old man, responding favourably to cinnarizine and alcohol abstinence, is present...