scholarly journals DETERMINATION OF l-HISTIDINE IN NANOGRAM AMOUNTS AND THE QUESTION OF ITS OCCURRENCE IN MAST CELLS

1972 ◽  
Vol 20 (11) ◽  
pp. 917-922 ◽  
Author(s):  
DAVID I. WILKINSON ◽  
DAVID GLICK

In an attempt to clarify the question of whether histidine is stored in the mast cell for coversion to histamine or whether the rate of conversion is rapid enough to prevent accumulation of histidine so that the rate-limiting step is the histidine uptake, it was found that no histidine was demonstrable in rat peritoneal mast cells by either quantitative analysis or paper chromatographic detection. Microadaptation of Hassall's method, based on conversion of l-histidine by histidase to urocanic acid and measurement of the latter by its absorbance at 277 nm, was made to permit determination of histidine in nanogram amounts in the presence of histamine. This adaptation was found reliable when compared with the o-phthalaldehyde method in estimation of l-histidine in serum and in insulin hydrolysate, and then it was applied to analysis of mast cells before and after l-histidine uptake in vitro. The adaptation should be generally useful in microanalysis of l-histidine in histologically and cytologically defined samples.

Antioxidants ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (11) ◽  
pp. 153 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keisuke Yoshida ◽  
Toru Hisabori

Thiol-based redox regulation ensures light-responsive control of chloroplast functions. Light-derived signal is transferred in the form of reducing power from the photosynthetic electron transport chain to several redox-sensitive target proteins. Two types of protein, ferredoxin-thioredoxin reductase (FTR) and thioredoxin (Trx), are well recognized as the mediators of reducing power. However, it remains unclear which step in a series of redox-relay reactions is the critical bottleneck for determining the rate of target protein reduction. To address this, the redox behaviors of FTR, Trx, and target proteins were extensively characterized in vitro and in vivo. The FTR/Trx redox cascade was reconstituted in vitro using recombinant proteins from Arabidopsis. On the basis of this assay, we found that the FTR catalytic subunit and f-type Trx are rapidly reduced after the drive of reducing power transfer, irrespective of the presence or absence of their downstream target proteins. By contrast, three target proteins, fructose 1,6-bisphosphatase (FBPase), sedoheptulose 1,7-bisphosphatase (SBPase), and Rubisco activase (RCA) showed different reduction patterns; in particular, SBPase was reduced at a low rate. The in vivo study using Arabidopsis plants showed that the Trx family is commonly and rapidly reduced upon high light irradiation, whereas FBPase, SBPase, and RCA are differentially and slowly reduced. Both of these biochemical and physiological findings suggest that reducing power transfer from Trx to its target proteins is a rate-limiting step for chloroplast redox regulation, conferring distinct light-responsive redox behaviors on each of the targets.


1971 ◽  
Vol 122 (3) ◽  
pp. 267-276 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. C. N. Earl ◽  
Susan T. Hindley

1. At 3 min after an intravenous injection of radioactive amino acids into the rat, the bulk of radioactivity associated with liver polyribosomes can be interpreted as growing peptides. 2. In an attempt to identify the rate-limiting step of protein synthesis in vivo and in vitro, use was made of the action of puromycin at 0°C, in releasing growing peptides only from the donor site, to study the distribution of growing peptides between the donor and acceptor sites. 3. Evidence is presented that all growing peptides in a population of liver polyribosomes labelled in vivo are similarly distributed between the donor and acceptor sites, and that the proportion released by puromycin is not an artifact of methodology. 4. The proportion released by puromycin is about 50% for both liver and muscle polyribosomes labelled in vivo, suggesting that neither the availability nor binding of aminoacyl-tRNA nor peptide bond synthesis nor translocation can limit the rate of protein synthesis in vivo. Attempts to alter this by starvation, hypophysectomy, growth hormone, alloxan, insulin and partial hepatectomy were unsuccessful. 5. Growing peptides on liver polyribosomes labelled in a cell-free system in vitro or by incubating hemidiaphragms in vitro were largely in the donor site, suggesting that either the availability or binding of aminoacyl-tRNA, or peptide bond synthesis, must be rate limiting in vitro and that the rate-limiting step differs from that in vivo. 6. Neither in vivo nor in the hemidiaphragm system in vitro was a correlation found between the proportion of growing peptides in the donor site and changes in the rate of incorporation of radioactivity into protein. This could indicate that the intracellular concentration of amino acids or aminoacyl-tRNA limits the rate of protein synthesis and that the increased incorporation results from a rise to a higher but still suboptimum concentration.


2008 ◽  
Vol 190 (7) ◽  
pp. 2607-2610 ◽  
Author(s):  
Teymur Kazakov ◽  
Gaston H. Vondenhoff ◽  
Kirill A. Datsenko ◽  
Maria Novikova ◽  
Anastasia Metlitskaya ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT The heptapeptide-nucleotide microcin C (McC) targets aspartyl-tRNA synthetase. Upon its entry into a susceptible cell, McC is processed to release a nonhydrolyzable aspartyl-adenylate that inhibits aspartyl-tRNA synthetase, leading to the cessation of translation and cell growth. Here, we surveyed Escherichia coli cells with singly, doubly, and triply disrupted broad-specificity peptidase genes to show that any of three nonspecific oligopeptidases (PepA, PepB, or PepN) can effectively process McC. We also show that the rate-limiting step of McC processing in vitro is deformylation of the first methionine residue of McC.


2018 ◽  
Vol 201 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Priya Bariya ◽  
Linda L. Randall

ABSTRACTIn all cells, a highly conserved channel transports proteins across membranes. InEscherichia coli, that channel is SecYEG. Many investigations of this protein complex have used purified SecYEG reconstituted into proteoliposomes. How faithfully do activities of reconstituted systems reflect the properties of SecYEG in the native membrane environment? We investigated by comparing threein vitrosystems: the native membrane environment of inner membrane vesicles and two methods of reconstitution. One method was the widely used reconstitution of SecYEG alone into lipid bilayers. The other was our method of coassembly of SecYEG with SecA, the ATPase of the translocase. For nine different precursor species we assessed parameters that characterize translocation: maximal amplitude of competent precursor translocated, coupling of energy to transfer, and apparent rate constant. In addition, we investigated translocation in the presence and absence of chaperone SecB. For all nine precursors, SecYEG coassembled with SecA was as active as SecYEG in native membrane for each of the parameters studied. Effects of SecB on transport of precursors faithfully mimicked observations madein vivo. From investigation of the nine different precursors, we conclude that the apparent rate constant, which reflects the step that limits the rate of translocation, is dependent on interactions with the translocon of portions of the precursors other than the leader. In addition, in some cases the rate-limiting step is altered by the presence of SecB. Candidates for the rate-limiting step that are consistent with our data are discussed.IMPORTANCEThis work presents a comprehensive quantification of the parameters of transport by the Sec general secretory system in the threein vitrosystems. The standard reconstitution used by most investigators can be enhanced to yield six times as many active translocons simply by adding SecA to SecYEG during reconstitution. This robust system faithfully reflects the properties of translocation in native membrane vesicles. We have expanded the number of precursors studied to nine. This has allowed us to conclude that the rate constant for translocation varies with precursor species.


1975 ◽  
Vol 30 (7-8) ◽  
pp. 438-441
Author(s):  
Klaus Brendel ◽  
Rubin Bressler ◽  
Miguel A. Alizade

Abstract An isotope effect of the dehydrogenation of (R) Carnitine [(R) 3-hydroxy-4-trimethylamino-butyric acid hydrochloride] catalyzed by (R) carnitine dehydrogenase [(R) carnitine: NAD oxido-reductase E.C. 1.1.1.108] from Pseudomonas aeruginosa was measured at different temperatures. It was found that k1H/k3H does not vary greatly with changes of temperature. The value of 3 for k1H/k3H measured at small initial conversions strongly indicated that the rate limiting step of the oxidation of (R) carnitine is the cleavage of the C-H bond at C3.


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