Cell-free extracts from phaseolotoxin-producing strains of Pseudomonas syringae pv. phaseolicola grown at 18 degrees C, the optimum temperature for phaseolotoxin production, contain an ornithine carbamoyltransferase activity that is insensitive to phaseolotoxin. Extracts from the same strains grown at 30 degrees C, a temperature at which little or no detectable phaseolotoxin is produced, and fr...

The SidA ornithine N5-monooxygenase from Aspergillus fumigatus is a flavin monooxygenase that catalyzes the NADPH-dependent hydroxylation of ornithine. Herein we report a mutagenesis study targeting four residues that contact ornithine in crystal structures of SidA: Lys107, Asn293, Asn323, and Ser469. Mutation of Lys107 to Ala abolishes activity as measured in steady-state oxygen consumption an...

Serum levels of ornithine carbamyl transferase activities were determined in the acutely ill and convalescent Reye's syndrome patients and in their parents. Acutely ill Reye's syndrome patients had elevated levels of serum ornithine carbamyl transferase activities as compared to those in controls. The convalescent Reye's syndrome patients and their parents had normal levels of serum ornithine c...

Citrulline is an amino acid synthesized in the gut and utilized for the synthesis of the conditionally essential amino acid arginine. Recently, the origin of the ornithine utilized for citrulline synthesis has become a matter of discussion. Multiple physiological factors may have contributed to the differences found among different researchers; one of these is the developmental stage of the sub...

Ornithine decarboxylase is the initial and rate-limiting enzyme in the polyamine biosynthetic pathway. Polyamines are found in all mammalian cells and are required for cell growth. We previously demonstrated that N-hydroxyarginine and nitric oxide inhibit tumor cell proliferation by inhibiting arginase and ornithine decarboxylase, respectively, and, therefore, polyamine synthesis. In addition, ...

The peripheral circadian clock is entrained by factors in the external environment such as scheduled feeding, exercise, and mental and physical stresses. In addition, recent studies in mice demonstrated that some food components have the potential to control the peripheral circadian clock during scheduled feeding, although information about these components remains limited. l-Ornithine is a typ...

Ornithine decarboxylase from the African trypanosome is an important target for antitrypanosomal chemotherapy. Despite this, the enzyme had not been previously purified or extensively characterized as it is a very low level protein. In this paper we describe the purification of Trypanosoma brucei brucei ornithine decarboxylase from bloodstream form trypomastigotes by 107,000-fold to a specific ...

Photosynthetic bacteria and blue-green algae synthesize ornithine from glutamic acid by a cyclic route in which the intermediate N-acetylglutamic acid is regenerated by a transacetylation reaction; furthermore, in these microorganisms, arginine, which is synthesized from ornithine, is a specific inhibitor of N-acetyl-,y-glutamokinase which phosphorylates N-acetylglutamic acid on its y-carboxyl ...

Plasma free amino-acids were measured in 41 patients with hereditary chorio-retinal degenerations including 26 with retinitis pigmentosa and five with gyrate atrophy of the choroid, six relatives of patients with gyrate atrophy, and 13 normal subjects. Patients with gyrate atrophy had very increased levels of ornithine and slightly decreased mean lysine values. Most relatives had slightly incre...