An enzyme which promotes the degradation of insulin has been isolated from beef liver (2, 3). This enzyme, which has been designated glutathione-insulin transhydrogenase (4), catalyzes the reductive cleavage of the disulfide bonds of insulin by a simple sulfhydryl compound such as glut,athione (4, 5). Because the process of degradation may be important in the etiology of diabetes mellitus, expe...

An Arthrobacter protophormiae strain RKJ100, isolated by selective enrichment, was capable of utilizing o-nitrobenzoate (ONB(+)) as the sole carbon, nitrogen, and energy source. The degradation of ONB proceeds through an oxygen insensitive reductive route as shown by the release of ammonia in the culture medium aerobically rather than nitrite ions. Thin-layer chromatography, gas chromatography,...

6-Hydroxynicotinic acid was demonstrated to be the first intermediate in the degradation of nicotinic acid by a clostridium. In the presence of pyruvate, other intermediates accumulated; two of these were identified, one as 1,4,5,6tetrahydro-6-oxonicotinic acid, and the other as a!-methyleneglutaric acid. The pathways for nicotinic acid degradation may be considered as involving successive oxid...

The structure of carbohydrate units of rat colonic mucus glycoproteins was investigated. Alkaline borohydride reductive cleavage of the glycoprotein resulted in the release of a series of reduced oligosaccharides. Eight of the oligosaccharides (1 to 8), ranging in length from 2 to 12 sugar units, have been purified to homogeneity and their structures determined. Based on the results of immunolo...

Long-term bacterial endosymbionts typically exhibit reduced genomes, lack genes encoding recombination functions and transposable elements, such as insertion sequences (ISs). In sharp contrast, I found that ISs constitute 2.4% of the genome of the obligate mutualistic endosymbiont Wolbachia wBm. Although no IS copy is transpositionally functional, I show that ISs persist in wBm because of frequ...