Search PubMedSearch

Biomedical subjects

C R Hipkin

Publications and source records attributed to C R Hipkin.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

Evidence that the glutamine-stimulated loss of nitrate reductase protein from the yeast Candida nitratophila is not the result of inducer exclusion.

Synthesis of nitrate reductase protein and increases in nitrate reductase activity occurred in cultures of the yeast Candida nitratophila when they were incubated in medium containing ammonium nitrate. Similar treatment with glutamine plus nitrate resulted in little increase in nitrate reductase activity, in cultures grown previously with reduced nitrogen compounds, and decreases in enzyme activity, in cultures adapted to nitrate. Labelling studies conducted in vivo revealed a rapid cessation of de novo nitrate reductase synthesis when glutamine was supplied to nitrate-adapted cultures in the presence of nitrate. Intracellular glutamine concentrations increased rapidly under these conditions and these cultures exhibited high glutamine: glutamate ratios. As nitrate was taken up in the presence of glutamine in these experiments, it is concluded that the glutamine-stimulated inhibition of nitrate reductase synthesis is a consequence of repression and rapid turnover of nitrate reductase mRNA and not inducer (nitrate) exclusion.

Candida

Purification of the pro-phenol oxidase enzyme from haemocytes of the cockroach Blaberus discoidalis.

Pro-phenol oxidase was purified from the haemocytes of the cockroach Blaberus discoidalis by Blue Sepharose chromatography, hydrophobic-interaction chromatography on a Phenyl-Superose column and, finally, gel filtration on a Superose 6 column. Results suggest that the molecule exists as a polymer of identical 76 kDa monomeric units. The enzyme is a glycoprotein with pI of 5.2 and can be converted by trypsin into phenol oxidase.

Animals

Further characterization of the assimilatory nitrate reductase from the yeast Candida nitratophila.

Nitrate reductase from the yeast Candida nitratophila was found to contain one molecule of cytochrome b557 and one atom of molybdenum per subunit. FAD/haem-dependent diaphorase activity (haem domain) was associated with a 40 kDa tryptic fragment of the subunit. The 50 amino-terminal residues of this fragment were determined, and the sequence did not show significant similarity to deduced sequences of other nitrate reductases previously published. Increasing ionic strength in vitro had a stimulatory effect on enzymic activity via stimulation of the molybdenum-dependent terminal nitrate-reducing activity. Stimulation of activity by exogenous protein (bovine serum albumin or casein) also appeared to be an ionic effect. Stimulation of catalytic activity by phosphate was a separate effect.

Amino Acid Sequence

Spectroscopic, thermodynamic and kinetic properties of Candida nitratophila nitrate reductase.

Visible spectra of oxidized and reduced Candida nitratophila assimilatory NAD(P)H:nitrate reductase yielded absorbance maxima of 413 nm and 423 nm, and 525 nm and 555 nm respectively, characteristic of a b5-type cytochrome. E.p.r. spectra of the partially reduced enzyme revealed a single Mo(V) species (g1 = 1.9957, g2 = 1.9664 and g3 = 1.9658) exhibiting superhyperfine coupling to a single proton [A(1H)av. = 1.4 mT]. Oxidation-reduction midpoint potentials (E'0) (25 degrees C, pH 7) for the haem and Mo-pterin prosthetic groups were determined by visible and e.p.r. potentiometric titrations and yielded values of E'0 = -174 mV (n = 1) for the haem and E'0 = -3 mV and E'0 = -27 mV for the Mo(VI)/Mo(V) and Mo(V)/Mo(IV) couples respectively. Comparison of initial rates of the NADH-oxidizing and nitrate-reducing partial activities at various ionic strengths indicated electron transfer from reduced haem to Mo was rate-limiting during turnover. These results suggest a close similarity between Candida nitratophila and Chlorella vulgaris nitrate reductases.

Candida

Evidence for the transcriptional control of nitrate reductase in Candida nitratophila from in vitro translation studies.

In vivo labelling and in vitro translation studies were used to study the regulation of the synthesis of nitrate reductase in the yeast Candida nitratophila. These studies showed that synthesis of the enzyme subunit took place when ammonium-grown cells were nitrogen-starved and this was stimulated by subsequent addition of nitrate. Ammonium-grown cultures did not contain mRNA that could be translated into the nitrate reductase subunit in an in vitro system. Nitrate reductase mRNA could be extracted from nitrogen-starved and nitrate cultures. Synthesis of the enzyme is apparently controlled at the level of transcription in this yeast.

Candida