Multiple forms of Acanthamoeba myosin I.
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to H Maruta.
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Extracts of Acanthamoeba castellanii contain four myosin-like ATPases (Maruta, H., Gadasi, H., Collins, J.H., and Korn, E.D. (1979) J. Biol. Chem. 254, 3624-3630): double-headed Acanthamoeba myosin II and single-headed Acanthamoeba myosins IA, IB, and IC, which have heavy chains of 170,000, 130,000, 125,000, and 130,000 daltons, respectively, as well as different light chains. In the accompanying paper, evidence is presented that suggests that Acanthamoeba myosin IC is the same molecule as Acanthamoeba myosin IA plus a regulatory 20,000-dalton peptide. This conclusion is confirmed by the identity of the peptide maps obtained by limited proteolysis of the heavy chains of Acanthamoeba myosins IA and IC by Staphylococcus aureus V8 protease. However, peptide maps of the heavy chains of Acanthamoeba myosins IA, IB, and II obtained by limited proteolysis by the Staphylococcus protease and chymotrypsin and by chemical cleavage by cyanogen bromide and cyanylation have few, if any, peptides in common. From this evidence, and the enzymatic and subunit data in the accompanying paper, it is concluded that the three Acanthamoeba myosin isoenzymes, IA (IC), IB, and II, are products of different genes.
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Acanthamoeba myosin IB is a single-headed enzyme containing one heavy chain of 125,000 daltons, one light chain of 27,000 daltons, and one light chain of 14,000 daltons. The 125,000- and 27,000-dalton polypeptides are consistently found in a molar ratio of 1:1. The content of the 14,000-dalton peptide is usually only 0.1 to 0.2, and always less than 0.5, relative to the other two chains and might be a contaminant or a degradation product of one of the other chains. The specific activities of the Ca2+-ATPase, (K+, EDTA)-ATPase, and (after phosphorylation of its heavy chain by a specific kinase) actin-activated Mg2+-ATPase of Acanthamoeba myosin IB are similar to those of rabbit skeletal muscle myosin. After treatment of the enzyme with 2 M LiCl, the 125,000-dalton heavy chain of Acanthamoeba myosin Ib can be obtained, by chromatography on Sephadex G-200, essentially free of the 14,000-dalton peptide and more than 90% free of the 27,000-dalton peptide. This isolated heavy chain has the same specific ATPase activities as the original enzyme. Therefore, the heavy chain of Acanthamoeba myosin IB contains the ATPase catalytic site, the actin-binding site, and the phosphorylation site and is fully active enzymatically in the absence of light chains.
Three immunogenic parts have so far been identified in the carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) molecule. These are: determinants cross-reactint with the normal fecal antigen (NFA) (NFA determinant); determinants cross-reacting antigen (NCA) (NCA determinant); and determinants which appear to be more cancer-specific (cancer determinant). The chemical nature of these parts of the CEA molecule was investigated by digestion with proteolytic enzymes together with anti-CEA preparations with which these three immunogenic parts of CEA molecule could be identified. The CEA digest obtained with pepsin did not react in immunodiffusion and radioimmunoassay, indicating that pepsin completely destroyed all the antigenic parts. Digestion by pronase E destroyed only the cancer determinant and liberated two antigenic fragments corresponding to the NFA determinant and the NCA determinant, respectively. These results suggest that the cancer determinant may reside in a protein or a peptide part of the molecule. The chemical nature of the NFA and NCA determinant remains to be clarified.
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We have purified a cofactor protein previously shown (Pollard, T. D., and Korn, E. D. (1973) J. Biol. Chem. 248, 4691-4697) to be required for actin activation of the Mg2+-ATPase activity of Acanthamoeba myosin I. The purified cofactor protein is a novel myosin kinase that phosphorylates the single heavy chain, but neither of the two light chains, of Acanthamoeba myosin I. Phosphorylation of Acanthamoeba myosin I by the purified cofactor protein requires ATP and Mg2+ but is Ca2+-independent. The Mg2+-ATPase activity of phosphorylated Acanthamoeba myosin I is highly activated by F-actin in the absence of cofactor protein. Actin-activated Mg2+-ATPase activity is lost when phosphorylated Acanthamoeba myosin I is dephosphorylated by platelet phosphatase. Phosphorylation and dephosphorylation have no effect on the (K+,EDTA)-ATPase and Ca2+-ATPase activities of Acanthamoeba myosin I. These results show that cofactor protein is an Acanthamoeba myosin I heavy chain kinase and that phosphorylation of the heavy chain of this myosin is required for actin activation of its Mg2+-ATPase activity.
From Acanthamoeba castellanii, we have purified four proteins each of which alone causes a solution of F-actin to gel. The four active proteins have subunit molecular weights of about 23,000, 28,000, 32,000 and 38,000, respectively; the last three may be dimers in their native proteins. Together, these four proteins account for about 97% of the gelation activity of the whole extract; not more than about 3% of the total activity of the unfractionated extract can be due to a 250,000-dalton polypeptide. Another protein fraction, purified by agarose chromatography, induces shrinking (syneresis) of gels formed from F-actin and any of the gelation factors. That fraction contains a high Ca2+-, low (K+,EDTA)-ATPase and a major polypeptide of 170,000 daltons both of which bind to actin in the shrunken gel pellet. The active fraction does not contain the previously described Acanthamoeba myosin (Pollard, T. D., and Korn, E. D. (1973) J. Biol. Chem. 248, 4682-4690).
A 46-year-old housewife was treated orally with 5-fluorocytosine (5-FC). She was almost cured at 15 weeks after the administration. Under histological and electron microscopical examination, spores in the lesions were observed to be markedly decreased in number, and all of them had suffered a change of shape or had been destroyed. At the end of 33 weeks, however, the patient had a complete relapse.
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Gentamicin (GM) was intramuscularly administrated to 25 patients with complicated urinary tract infections in doses of 20-120 mg a day for 4-16 days. The results obtained are as follows: 1. The clinical results of GM were excellent in 4, good in 3, fair in 1, poor in 3 and indeterminate in 14 patients out of 25 patients. The effective percentage was 63.6% (7/11). 2. The clinical results of GM against 20 isolates were excellent in 4, good in 3, fair in 1, poor in 3 and indeterminate in 9 isolates. The effective percentage was 63.6% (7/11). 3. In laboratory examinations, BUN elevation was noted in 1 patient, GOT elevation in 2 patients and GPT elevation in 1 patient during GM therapy. No other abnormal findings were observed in this clinical study.
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The synthesis and behavior of Amoeba proteus nuclear envelope (NE) phospholipids were studied. Most NE phospholipid synthesis occurs during G2 and little during mitosis or S. (A. proteus has no G1 phase). Autoradiographic observations after implantation of [3-H] choline nuclei into unlabeled cells reveal little turnover of NE phospholipid during interphase but during mitosis all the label is dispersed through the cytoplasm. Beginning at telophase all the label is dispersed through the cytoplasm. Beginning at telophase all the NE phospholipid label returns to the daughter NEs. This observation, along with the finding that no NE phospholipid synthesis occurs during mitosis or S, indicates that no de novo NE phospholipid production is required for newly forming NEs. Similarlyemetine, at concentrations that inhibit 97 percent of protein synthesis, does not prevent the post mitotic formation of NEs, suggesting that previously manufactured proteins are used in making new NEs. If a nucleus containing labeled NE phospholipids is transplanted into an unlabeled nucleate cell and the cell is allowed to grow and divide, the resultant four nuclei are equally labeled. This finding supports, but does not prove (see next paragraph), the conclusion that there probably is no continuity of the A. proteus NE during mitosis. When a phospholipid-labeled nucleus is implanted into a cell in mitosis, the grafted nucleus is not induced to enter mitosis. There is, however, a marked increase in the turnover of that nucleus's NE phospholipids with no apparent breakdown of the NE; this indicated that the mitotic cytoplasm possesses a factor that stimulates NE phospholipid exchange with the cytoplasm. That enhanced turnover is not accompanied by visible structural alteration makes less certain the earlier conclusion that no NE continuity exists during mitosis. Perhaps the most important finding in this study is that there are present, at restricted times in the cell cycle, factors capable of inducing accelerated exchange of structural components without microscopically detectable disruptions of structure.
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