Background Lignocellulosic biomass is an attractive raw material for bioethanol production since it is an abundant and renewable feedstock that does not compete with food and feed production [1]. Xylose is the most abundant pentose present on these feedstocks, and although S. cerevisiae cannot readily ferment this sugar, the overexpression of the genes for xylose reductase (XR) and xylitol dehi...

Thirty-six isogenic D. melanogaster strains that differed only in the chromosomal location of a 7.2 or an 8.1 kb DNA segment containing the (autosomal) rosy gene were constructed by P-element-mediated gene transfer. Since the flies were homozygous for a rosy- allele, rosy gene function in these indicated the influence of flanking sequences on gene expression. The tissue distribution of XDH acti...

Seasonal genetic variation was assessed in the common house fly Musca domestica. Allozymes at six gene enzyme system viz., ACPH, EST, G6PD, ME, AO and XDH were analyzed. Fourteen loci with twenty seven alleles were unraveled. The genetic variations were found to be affected to a great extent by environmental influence .F statistics has been used to calculate genetic variation which revealed tha...

Few loci have been measured for DNA polymorphism and divergence in several species. Here we report such data from the protein-coding region of xanthine dehydrogenase (Xdh) in 22 species of Drosophila. Many of our samples were from closely related species, allowing us to confidently assign substitutions to individual lineages. Surprisingly, Xdh appears to be fixing more A/T mutations than G/C mu...

Phenylpropanoid glycoside acteoside was extracted from the traditional Chinese medicine Scrophularia ningpoenis Hemsl. In the present study, we investigated the effects of acteoside administration on serum uric acid levels in mice rendered hyperuricemic with the uricase inhibitor potassium oxonate. When administered orally for 3 days at doses of 50, 100 and 150 mg/kg, acteoside reduced serum ur...

Background Any factor like diabetes that changes the oxidant/antioxidant balance in favor of oxidants could possibly disrupt the physiologic function of ovaries. So, we have investigated the effect of vitamin E and Se supplements on antioxidant defense in ovaries of diabetic rats with focus on Xanthine dehydrogenase/oxidase (XDH/XO) and Aldehyde oxidase (AO) activities. MaterialsAndMethods This...

Conversion of xanthine dehydrogenase into oxidase and its role in reperfusion injury T. Nishino*. S. Nakanishi*, K. Okamoto*, J. Mizushima*, H. Hori*, T. Iwasaki*, T. Nishinot, K. Ichimori* and H. NakazawaS *Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Nippon Medical School, I 1-5 Sendagi, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo I 13, Japan, +Department of Biochemistry, Yokohama City University School of Medicin...

Acrylamide gel electrophoresis was performed on the enzyme xanthine dehydrogenase in sixty isochromosomal lines of Drosophila persimilis from three geographic populations. Sequential electrophoretic analysis using varied gel concentrations and buffers revealed twenty-three alleles in this species where only five had been described previously. These new electrophoretic techniques also detected a...