scholarly journals Yeast cell-wall synthesis

1969 ◽  
Vol 115 (2) ◽  
pp. 231-240 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Sentandreu ◽  
D. H. Northcote

1. A study of wall synthesis has been made by following the incorporation of radioactive glucose and threonine into the cytoplasm and wall of yeast. 2. Both glucose and threonine are incorporated into a mannan glycopeptide. The glucose is also synthesized into a structural glucan of the wall. 3. The mannan glycopeptide contains high-molecular-weight mannan and low-molecular-weight mannose and oligosaccharide units composed of mannose. Both types of carbohydrate are attached to the peptide. The extent of radioactive incorporation into these different carbohydrate constituents of the glycopeptide remained constant during a pulse-chase experiment. No evidence of a sequential synthesis of oligosaccharides and high-molecular-weight mannan was obtained. 4. Cycloheximide inhibits the incorporation of threonine into the wall but only partially inhibits the incorporation of glucose. Thus not all the polysaccharide deposited into the wall is dependent on a simultaneous peptide synthesis and incorporation. 5. Protoplasts grown in an iso-osmotic medium secreted a mannan polymer that was probably a glycopeptide.

1968 ◽  
Vol 109 (3) ◽  
pp. 419-432 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Sentandreu ◽  
D. H. Northcote

1. Glycopeptides containing mannose were extracted from isolated yeast cell walls by ethylenediamine and purified by treatment with Pronase and fractionation on a Sephadex column. 2. A glycopeptide that appeared homogeneous on electrophoresis and ultracentrifugation had a molecular weight of 76000, and contained a high-molecular-weight mannan and approx. 4% of amino acids. 3. The amino acid composition of the peptide was determined. It was rich in serine and threonine and also contained glucosamine. No cystine and methionine were detected. 4. The glycopeptide underwent a β-elimination reaction when treated with dilute alkali at low temperatures. The reaction resulted in the release of mannose, mannose disaccharides and possibly other low-molecular-weight mannose oligosaccharides. During the β-elimination reaction the dehydro derivatives of serine and threonine were formed. One of the linkages between carbohydrate and amino acids in the glycopeptide is an O-mannosyl bond from mannose and mannose oligosaccharides to serine and threonine. 5. After the β-elimination reaction the bulk of the mannose in the form of the large mannan component was still covalently linked to the peptide. This polysaccharide was therefore attached to the amino acids by a linkage different from the O-mannosyl bonds to serine and threonine that attach the low-molecular-weight sugars. 6. Mannan was prepared from the glycopeptide and from the yeast cell wall by treatment of the fractions with hot solutions of alkali. The mannan contained aspartic acid and glucosamine and some other amino acids. The aspartic acid and glucosamine were present in equimolar amounts; the aspartic acid was the only amino acid present in an amount equivalent to that of glucosamine. Thus there is the possibility of a linkage between the mannan and the peptide via glucosamine and aspartic acid. 7. Mannose 6-phosphate was shown to be part of the mannan structure. Information about the structure of the mannan and the linkage of the glucosamine was obtained by periodate oxidation studies. 8. The glucosamine present in the glycopeptide could not be released by treatment with an enzyme preparation obtained from the gut of Helix pomatia. This enzyme released glucosamine from the intact cell wall. Thus there are probably at least two polymers containing glucosamine in the cell wall. 9. The biosynthesis of the mannan polymer in the yeast cell wall is discussed with regard to the two types of carbohydrate–amino acid linkages found in the glycoprotein.


1982 ◽  
Vol 205 (1) ◽  
pp. 129-137 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas M. Wood ◽  
Catriona A. Wilson ◽  
Colin S. Stewart

1. Most of the cellulase (CM-cellulase) elaborated by the rumen bacterium Ruminococcus albus strain SY3, which was isolated from a sheep, was cell-wall-bound. 2. The enzyme could be released readily by washing either with phosphate buffer or with water. 3. The amount of enzyme released was affected by the pH and ionic strength of the phosphate buffer. 4. The cell-wall-bound enzyme was of very high molecular weight (»1.5×106) as judged by its chromatographic behaviour on Sephacryl S-300. 5. The molecular weight of the extracellular enzyme was variable and depended on the culture conditions. 6. When cellobiose was used as the energy source and the medium contained rumen fluid (30%), the extracellular enzyme was, in the main, of high molecular weight. 7. When cellulose replaced the cellobiose, the cell-free culture filtrate contained only low-molecular-weight enzyme (Mr approx. 30000) in late-stationary-phase cultures (7 days). 8. Cultures that did not contain rumen fluid contained mainly low-molecular-weight enzyme. 9. Under some conditions the high-molecular-weight enzyme could be broken down to some extent into low-molecular-weight enzyme by treatment with dissociating agents. 10. Cell-free and cell-wall-bound enzymes showed the same relationship when the change in fluidity effected by them on a solution of CM-cellulose was plotted against the corresponding increase in reducing sugars, suggesting that the enzymes were the same. 11. It is possible that R. albus cellulase exists as an aggregate of low-molecular-weight cellulase components on the bacterial cell wall and in solution under certain conditions.


1961 ◽  
Vol 06 (01) ◽  
pp. 015-024 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sven Erik Bergentz ◽  
Oddvar Eiken ◽  
Inga Marie Nilsson

Summary1. Infusions of low molecular weight dextran (Mw = 42 000) to dogs in doses of 1—1.5 g per kg body weight did not produce any significant changes in the coagulation mechanism.2. Infusions of high molecular weight dextran (Mw = 1 000 000) to dogs in doses of 1—1.5 g per kg body weight produced severe defects in the coagulation mechanism, namely prolongation of bleeding time and coagulation time, thrombocytopenia, pathological prothrombin consumption, decrease of fibrinogen, prothrombin and factor VII, factor V and AHG.3. Heparin treatment of the dogs was found to prevent the decrease of fibrinogen, prothrombin and factor VII, and factor V otherwise occurring after injection of high molecular weight dextran. Thrombocytopenia was not prevented.4. In in vitro experiments an interaction between fibrinogen and dextran of high and low molecular weight was found to take place in systems comprising pure fibrinogen. No such interaction occurred in the presence of plasma.5. It is concluded that the coagulation defects induced by infusions of high molecular weight dextran are due to intravascular coagulation.


Author(s):  
Giulia Maria Pires dos Santos ◽  
Gustavo Ramalho Cardoso dos Santos ◽  
Mariana Ingrid Dutra da Silva Xisto ◽  
Rodrigo Rollin-Pinheiro ◽  
Andréa Regina de Souza Baptista ◽  
...  

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