BACKGROUND Trehalase, an enzyme that hydrolyzes trehalose to yield two glucose molecules, plays a pivotal role in various physiological processes. In recent years, trehalase proteins have been purified from several insect species and are divided into soluble (Tre-1) and membrane-bound (Tre-2) trehalases. However, no functions of the two trehalases in chitin biosynthesis in insects have yet been...

Many fungi, including pathogenic strains, require proper chitin metabolism to assure normal cell wall replication. Chitinase hydrolyzes chitin; inhibition of endogenous chitinases or application of extracellular chitinases can disrupt fungal division. It is possible that chitinase inhibitors could be used as antifungal agents. We have solved the X-ray structure of a class I1 chitinase from barl...

63 Chitin and β-1,3-glucan are known to play an important role in determination of fungal cell wall rigidity in Saccharomyces cerevisiae 1. Three chitin synthases participate in yeast chitin synthesis. ChS1p functions as a reparation enzyme after cell division 2 , ChS2p is responsible for the synthesis of primary septum 3, 4 and ChS3p synthesizes chitin in the lateral wall and in the ring at th...

A chitinase has been obtained in milligram amounts from wheat germ by affinity chromatography on chitin followed by chromatography on Sephadex G-50. The purified enzyme was free from wheat germ agglutinin and showed a single peak on sodium dodecyl sulfateacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Isoelectric focussing on acrylamide gel slabs gave rise, however, to several bands, with isoelectric points ra...

The morphology of three Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains, all lacking chitin synthase 1 (Chs1) and two of them deficient in either Chs3 (calR1 mutation) or Chs2 was observed by light and electron microscopy. Cells deficient in Chs2 showed clumpy growth and aberrant shape and size. Their septa were very thick; the primary septum was absent. Staining with WGA-gold complexes revealed a diffuse dis...

In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Chs4p is required for chitin synthase III (CSIII) activity and hence for chitin synthesis. This protein is transported in vesicles in a polarized fashion independently of the other Chs proteins. Its association with membranes depends not only on prenylation, but also on its interaction with other proteins, mainly Chs3p, which is the catalytic subunit of CSIII and is...