Eukaryotic β-Alanine Synthases Are Functionally Related but Have a High Degree of Structural Diversity

Genetics ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 158 (3) ◽  
pp. 999-1011
Author(s):  
Zoran Gojković ◽  
Michael P B Sandrini ◽  
Jure Piškur
Keyword(s):  
Nitrogen Source ◽  
De Novo ◽  
Model Organism ◽  
Structural Diversity ◽  
Fruit Fly ◽  
Sole Nitrogen Source ◽  
Pyrimidine Catabolism ◽  
Slime Mold Dictyostelium Discoideum ◽  
Pyrimidine Degradation ◽  
High Degree

Abstract β-Alanine synthase (EC 3.5.1.6), which catalyzes the final step of pyrimidine catabolism, has only been characterized in mammals. A Saccharomyces kluyveri pyd3 mutant that is unable to grow on N-carbamyl-β-alanine as the sole nitrogen source and exhibits diminished β-alanine synthase activity was used to clone analogous genes from different eukaryotes. Putative PYD3 sequences from the yeast S. kluyveri, the slime mold Dictyostelium discoideum, and the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster complemented the pyd3 defect. When the S. kluyveri PYD3 gene was expressed in S. cerevisiae, which has no pyrimidine catabolic pathway, it enabled growth on N-carbamyl-β-alanine as the sole nitrogen source. The D. discoideum and D. melanogaster PYD3 gene products are similar to mammalian β-alanine synthases. In contrast, the S. kluyveri protein is quite different from these and more similar to bacterial N-carbamyl amidohydrolases. All three β-alanine synthases are to some degree related to various aspartate transcarbamylases, which catalyze the second step of the de novo pyrimidine biosynthetic pathway. PYD3 expression in yeast seems to be inducible by dihydrouracil and N-carbamyl-β-alanine, but not by uracil. This work establishes S. kluyveri as a model organism for studying pyrimidine degradation and β-alanine production in eukaryotes.

scholarly journals Purification of arginase from Aspergillus nidulans.

1994 ◽  
Vol 41 (4) ◽  
pp. 467-471 ◽  
Author(s):  
A Dzikowska ◽  
J P Le Caer ◽  
P Jonczyk ◽  
P Wëgleński
Keyword(s):  
Saccharomyces Cerevisiae ◽  
Neurospora Crassa ◽  
Molecular Mass ◽  
Nitrogen Source ◽  
Aspergillus Nidulans ◽  
Sole Nitrogen Source ◽  
Mass Ratio ◽  
Conserved Domains ◽  
Native Molecular Mass ◽  
High Degree

Arginase (EC 3.5.3.1) of Aspergillus nidulans, the enzyme which enables the fungus to use arginine as the sole nitrogen source was purified to homogeneity. Molecular mass of the purified arginase subunit is 40 kDa and is similar to that reported for the Neurospora crassa (38.3 kDa) and Saccharomyces cerevisiae (39 kDa) enzymes. The native molecular mass of arginase is 125 kDa. The subunit/native molecular mass ratio suggests a trimeric form of the protein. The arginase protein was cleaved and partially sequenced. Two out of the six polypeptides sequenced show a high degree of homology to conserved domains in arginases from other species.

Influence of ionic composition of the culture medium on de novo flower formation in tobacco thin cell layers

1993 ◽  
Vol 71 (3) ◽  
pp. 506-511 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alain Cousson ◽  
Kiem Tran Thanh Van
Keyword(s):  
Nicotiana Tabacum ◽  
Nitrogen Source ◽  
De Novo ◽  
Ionic Composition ◽  
Flower Formation ◽  
Sole Nitrogen Source ◽  
Thin Cell Layers ◽  
Initial Control ◽  
Cell Layers ◽  
External Ph

Floral and vegetative organogenesis in thin cell layers of Nicotiana tabacum cv. Samsun was studied in relation to the ionic composition of the medium. The control liquid medium was buffered to pH 5.5. NH4+, NO3−, K+, and Ca2+ were separately varied between 0 or 0.1 times and 2, 3 or 4 times their initial control concentration. Increasing the concentrations of NO3−, and Ca2+ above their control concentration promoted the formation of vegetative buds instead of flowers. When K+ at 80.0 mM, Na+ at 78.9 mM, and NH4+ as the sole nitrogen source used, neither flower formation nor morphogenesis were observed in 70, 100, and 100% of the explants, respectively. NH4+ as the sole nitrogen source acidified the medium to pH 4.2, whereas the other ionic conditions did not change the external pH. NO3− at 7.9 mM prevented this acidification and allowed flower formation in 75% of the explants. This acidification could increase the K+ and Na+ influxes via a possible lowering of the intracellular pH. This hypothesis corroborates the morphogenic effect of K+ and Na+. Key words: absence of morphogenesis, acidification of medium, floral and vegetative organogenesis, ionic composition of the medium, thin cell layers, Nicotiana tabacum cv. Samsun.

Cerebellotrigeminal Dermal Dysplasia (Gómez-López-Hernández Syndrome)

2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (05) ◽  
pp. 362-368 ◽  
Author(s):  
Federica Sullo ◽  
Agata Polizzi ◽  
Stefano Catanzaro ◽  
Selene Mantegna ◽  
Francesco Lacarrubba ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
De Novo ◽  
Chromosomal Rearrangements ◽  
Number Of Patients ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Visual Problems ◽  
Neurodevelopmental Abnormalities ◽  
Clinical Triad ◽  
High Degree ◽  
Motor Handicap

Cerebellotrigeminal dermal (CTD) dysplasia is a rare neurocutaneous disorder characterized by a triad of symptoms: bilateral parieto-occipital alopecia, facial anesthesia in the trigeminal area, and rhombencephalosynapsis (RES), confirmed by cranial magnetic resonance imaging. CTD dysplasia is also known as Gómez-López-Hernández syndrome. So far, only 35 cases have been described with varying symptomatology. The etiology remains unknown. Either spontaneous dominant mutations or de novo chromosomal rearrangements have been proposed as possible explanations. In addition to its clinical triad of RES, parietal alopecia, and trigeminal anesthesia, CTD dysplasia is associated with a wide range of phenotypic and neurodevelopmental abnormalities.Treatment is symptomatic and includes physical rehabilitation, special education, dental care, and ocular protection against self-induced corneal trauma that causes ulcers and, later, corneal opacification. The prognosis is correlated to the mental development, motor handicap, corneal–facial anesthesia, and visual problems. Follow-up on a large number of patients with CTD dysplasia has never been reported and experience is limited to few cases to date. High degree of suspicion in a child presenting with characteristic alopecia and RES has a great importance in diagnosis of this syndrome.

scholarly journals In Search of Species-Specific SNPs in a Non-Model Animal (European Bison (Bison bonasus))—Comparison of De Novo and Reference-Based Integrated Pipeline of STACKS Using Genotyping-by-Sequencing (GBS) Data

Animals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 2226
Author(s):  
Sazia Kunvar ◽  
Sylwia Czarnomska ◽  
Cino Pertoldi ◽  
Małgorzata Tokarska
Keyword(s):  
Reference Genome ◽  
De Novo ◽  
Bos Taurus ◽  
Model Organism ◽  
Genotyping By Sequencing ◽  
Model Organisms ◽  
European Bison ◽  
Model Animal ◽  
Pcr Duplicates ◽  
Species Specific

The European bison is a non-model organism; thus, most of its genetic and genomic analyses have been performed using cattle-specific resources, such as BovineSNP50 BeadChip or Illumina Bovine 800 K HD Bead Chip. The problem with non-specific tools is the potential loss of evolutionary diversified information (ascertainment bias) and species-specific markers. Here, we have used a genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS) approach for genotyping 256 samples from the European bison population in Bialowieza Forest (Poland) and performed an analysis using two integrated pipelines of the STACKS software: one is de novo (without reference genome) and the other is a reference pipeline (with reference genome). Moreover, we used a reference pipeline with two different genomes, i.e., Bos taurus and European bison. Genotyping by sequencing (GBS) is a useful tool for SNP genotyping in non-model organisms due to its cost effectiveness. Our results support GBS with a reference pipeline without PCR duplicates as a powerful approach for studying the population structure and genotyping data of non-model organisms. We found more polymorphic markers in the reference pipeline in comparison to the de novo pipeline. The decreased number of SNPs from the de novo pipeline could be due to the extremely low level of heterozygosity in European bison. It has been confirmed that all the de novo/Bos taurus and Bos taurus reference pipeline obtained SNPs were unique and not included in 800 K BovineHD BeadChip.

PRODUCTION OF CYTASES ACTIVE ON BARLEY GUM BY BACTERIA OF THE GENUS BACILLUS

1953 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 28-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. C. Blackwood
Keyword(s):  
Bacillus Subtilis ◽  
Enzymatic Activity ◽  
Nitrogen Source ◽  
Freeze Drying ◽  
Shake Flask ◽  
Sole Nitrogen Source ◽  
Genus Bacillus ◽  
Original Activity ◽  
Bacterial Cultures ◽  
Bacillus Genus

One hundred and fourteen bacterial cultures representing most of the species in the Bacillus genus were tested for the production of extracellular barley gum cytase. Assays were made on shake-flask cultures grown on a medium containing glucose and yeast extract. Although all the organisms had some enzymatic activity, certain strains of Bacillus subtilis gave the best yields of cytase. On a medium with asparagine as the sole nitrogen source even higher yields were obtained. The crude cytase preparations were stable and after freeze-drying most of the original activity remained.

scholarly journals Quantitative investigation reveals distinct phases in Drosophila sleep

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaochan Xu ◽  
Wei Yang ◽  
Binghui Tian ◽  
Xiuwen Sui ◽  
Weilai Chi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Drosophila Melanogaster ◽  
General Pattern ◽  
Model Organism ◽  
Infrared Camera ◽  
Fruit Fly ◽  
Genetic Dissection ◽  
Power Law Distribution ◽  
Quantitative Investigation ◽  
Waking Up ◽  
Set Up

AbstractThe fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, has been used as a model organism for the molecular and genetic dissection of sleeping behaviors. However, most previous studies were based on qualitative or semi-quantitative characterizations. Here we quantified sleep in flies. We set up an assay to continuously track the activity of flies using infrared camera, which monitored the movement of tens of flies simultaneously with high spatial and temporal resolution. We obtained accurate statistics regarding the rest and sleep patterns of single flies. Analysis of our data has revealed a general pattern of rest and sleep: the rest statistics obeyed a power law distribution and the sleep statistics obeyed an exponential distribution. Thus, a resting fly would start to move again with a probability that decreased with the time it has rested, whereas a sleeping fly would wake up with a probability independent of how long it had slept. Resting transits to sleeping at time scales of minutes. Our method allows quantitative investigations of resting and sleeping behaviors and our results provide insights for mechanisms of falling into and waking up from sleep.

scholarly journals Myxococcus xanthus as a Model Organism for Peptidoglycan Assembly and Bacterial Morphogenesis

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 916
Author(s):  
Huan Zhang ◽  
Srutha Venkatesan ◽  
Beiyan Nan
Keyword(s):  
De Novo ◽  
Myxococcus Xanthus ◽  
Model Organism ◽  
Life Stages ◽  
Negative Bacterium ◽  
Ideal Model ◽  
Daughter Cells ◽  
Bacterial Division ◽  
Cell Shapes ◽  
Rare Opportunity

A fundamental question in biology is how cell shapes are genetically encoded and enzymatically generated. Prevalent shapes among walled bacteria include spheres and rods. These shapes are chiefly determined by the peptidoglycan (PG) cell wall. Bacterial division results in two daughter cells, whose shapes are predetermined by the mother. This makes it difficult to explore the origin of cell shapes in healthy bacteria. In this review, we argue that the Gram-negative bacterium Myxococcus xanthus is an ideal model for understanding PG assembly and bacterial morphogenesis, because it forms rods and spheres at different life stages. Rod-shaped vegetative cells of M. xanthus can thoroughly degrade their PG and form spherical spores. As these spores germinate, cells rebuild their PG and reestablish rod shape without preexisting templates. Such a unique sphere-to-rod transition provides a rare opportunity to visualize de novo PG assembly and rod-like morphogenesis in a well-established model organism.

scholarly journals Lipid Acyl Chain Remodeling in Yeast

2015 ◽  
Vol 8s1 ◽  
pp. LPI.S31780 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mike F. Renne ◽  
Xue Bao ◽  
Cedric H. De Smet ◽  
Anton I. P. M. De Kroon
Keyword(s):  
Intracellular Transport ◽  
De Novo ◽  
Acyl Chain ◽  
Model Organism ◽  
Lipid Synthesis ◽  
Membrane Lipid ◽  
Lipid Homeostasis ◽  
Synthetic Process ◽  
Acyl Chains ◽  
Phospholipid Acyl Chain

Membrane lipid homeostasis is maintained by de novo synthesis, intracellular transport, remodeling, and degradation of lipid molecules. Glycerophospholipids, the most abundant structural component of eukaryotic membranes, are subject to acyl chain remodeling, which is defined as the post-synthetic process in which one or both acyl chains are exchanged. Here, we review studies addressing acyl chain remodeling of membrane glycerophospholipids in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, a model organism that has been successfully used to investigate lipid synthesis and its regulation. Experimental evidence for the occurrence of phospholipid acyl chain exchange in cardiolipin, phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylinositol, and phosphatidylethanolamine is summarized, including methods and tools that have been used for detecting remodeling. Progress in the identification of the enzymes involved is reported, and putative functions of acyl chain remodeling in yeast are discussed.

scholarly journals Monomethylamine as a Nitrogen Source for a Nonmethylotrophic Bacterium, Agrobacterium tumefaciens

2010 ◽  
Vol 76 (12) ◽  
pp. 4102-4104 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yin Chen ◽  
Kathryn L. McAleer ◽  
J. Colin Murrell
Keyword(s):  
Agrobacterium Tumefaciens ◽  
Carbon Source ◽  
Nitrogen Source ◽  
Sole Nitrogen Source ◽  
Key Enzymes ◽  
Genes Encoding

ABSTRACT Monomethylamine can be used by nonmethylotrophs as a sole nitrogen source but not as a carbon source; however, little is known about the genes and enzymes involved. The γ-glutamylmethylamide/N-methylglutamate pathway for monomethylamine utilization by methylotrophs has recently been resolved. We have identified genes encoding key enzymes of this pathway in nonmethylotrophs (e.g., Agrobacterium tumefaciens) and demonstrated that this pathway is also involved in the utilization of monomethylamine as a nitrogen source by nonmethylotrophs.

scholarly journals Mutants affecting histidine utilization inAspergillus nidulans

1975 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 119-135 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meryl Polkinghorne ◽  
M. J. Hynes
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Source ◽  
Nitrogen Source ◽  
Sole Carbon Source ◽  
Nitrogen Sources ◽  
Limiting Factor ◽  
Sole Nitrogen Source ◽  
Wild Type ◽  
Exogenous Substrate ◽  
Growth Properties ◽  
Type Strains

SUMMARYWild-type strains ofAspergillus nidulansgrow poorly onL-histidine as a sole nitrogen source. The synthesis of the enzyme histidase (EC. 4.3.1.3) appears to be a limiting factor in the growth of the wild type, as strains carrying the mutantareA102 allele have elevated histidase levels and grow strongly on histidine as a sole nitrogen source.L-Histidine is an extremely weak sole carbon source for all strains.Ammonium repression has an important role in the regulation of histidase synthesis and the relief of ammonium repression is dependent on the availability of a good carbon source. The level of histidase synthesis does not respond to the addition of exogenous substrate.Mutants carrying lesions in thesarA orsarB loci (suppressor ofareA102) have been isolated. The growth properties of these mutants on histidine as a sole nitrogen source correlate with the levels of histidase synthesized. Mutation at thesarA andsarB loci also reduces the utilization of a number of other nitrogen sources. The data suggest that these two genes may code for regulatory products involved in nitrogen catabolism. No histidase structural gene mutants were identified and possible explanations of this are discussed.

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