The yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae is able to use para-aminobenzoic acid (pABA) in addition to 4-hydroxybenzoic acid as a precursor of coenzyme Q, a redox lipid essential to the function of the mitochondrial respiratory chain. The biosynthesis of coenzyme Q from pABA requires a deamination reaction at position C4 of the benzene ring to substitute the amino group with an hydroxyl group. We show ...

Deamination of deoxycytidylate, deoxyguanylate, and deoxyadenylate, as well as deoxyadenosine and deoxyguanosine, by rat liver and several hepatomas was studied by a method based on the determination by a Conway diffusion technic of the am monia formed. Several factors affecting the enzyme reactions were considered, and the application of the method to the estimation of deaminase activity in ti...

APOBEC3G (A3G) is a host-encoded protein that potently restricts the infectivity of a broad range of retroviruses. This can occur by mechanisms dependent on catalytic activity, resulting in the mutagenic deamination of nascent viral cDNA, and/or by other means that are independent of its catalytic activity. It is not yet known to what extent deamination-independent processes contribute to the o...

amino acid dehydrogenases (l-amino acid: oxidoreductase deaminating ec 1.4.1.x) are members of the wider superfamily of oxidoreductases that catalyze the reversible oxidative deamination of an amino acid to its keto acid and ammonia with the concomitant reduction of either nad+, nadp+ or fad. these enzymes have been received much attention as biocatalysts for use in biosensors or diagnostic kit...

G x C-->A x T transitions within T-C or C-C bipyrimidine sequences are by far the most frequent class of mutation induced by 254-nm UV irradiation in most genes and species investigated, but the reason for the high degree of mutability and specificity at these sites is uncertain. Some data implicate the deamination of cytosine to uracil as a possible cause, but other results appear to indicate ...

In a previous publication from this laboratory (l), it was mentioned that cell-free extracts of Neurospora mycelium form considerable amounts of pyruvate and ammonia from m-serine. It was also reported that pyridoxal phosphate stimulates the activity of this system. Results similar to these have recently been obtained by Reissig (2). On further examination of the Neurospora system, it has been ...

A new continuous fluorimetric assay for AMP deaminase activity is described. The method makes use of a fluorescent analog of 5'-AMP, formycin-5'-phosphate (5'-FMP), which undergoes deamination to formycin B-5'-phosphate, not fluorescent at neutral pH. The pH-dependence for deamination of 5'-FMP is similar to that for 5'-AMP, but shifted about 0.2 units to more acidic pH. Deamination of 5'-FMP m...

It is well established that the cytosine deaminase APOBEC3G can restrict HIV-1 virions in the absence of the virion infectivity factor (Vif) by inducing genome mutagenesis through deamination of cytosine to uracil in single-stranded HIV-1 (-)DNA. However, whether APOBEC3G is able to restrict HIV-1 using a deamination-independent mode remains an open question. In this report we use in vitro prim...