Search PubMed⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

S Kikuchi

Publications and source records attributed to S Kikuchi.

At least 451 records · Page 25Linked to original sources

Molecular basis of plant viral virulence; the complete nucleotide sequence of an attenuated strain of tobacco mosaic virus.

The total genome sequence of L11A, an attenuated strain of tobacco mosaic virus (TMV), has been determined. This strain is able to multiply in tomato plants without inducing any remarkable symptoms, but to protect them from later infection with virulent TMV strains. When compared with the recently published total genome sequence of TMV L (the virulent ancestral strain of L11A) ten base substitutions were found in the L11A genome. Seven of these occurred in the third letters of in-phase codons and did not influence amino acids. Only three, which were in the common reading frame for both the 130K and 180K proteins, resulted in amino acid changes. Together with the result of the partial sequence of RNA of L11, an intermediate strain in sequential isolation from L to L11A, it is observed that one base at the nucleotide position 1117 is changed from L to L11 and two bases at the positions 2349 and 2754 are changed from L11 to L A11.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

Age-related changes of glucose metabolism in rat cerebral cortex with reference to glucose-derived amino acids.

The parietal cortical slices obtained from 8 week-old (young) and 78 week-old (middle-aged) male Wistar rats were incubated with D-[U-14C]glucose in oxygen-saturated Gey's balanced salt solution. Subsequently, the radioactivities of liberated CO2 and glucose-derived amino acids (alanine, aspartate, GABA, glutamate and glutamine) obtained from the slices were measured. In the middle-aged rats as compared to the young rats, the amount of radioactivity of CO2 (P less than 0.01) and glutamate (P less than 0.05) showed a significant reduction with glutamine unchanged, while that of alanine (P less than 0.01), aspartate (P less than 0.05) and GABA (P less than 0.05) increased significantly. The results indicate that with advancing age the overall glucose oxidation in the cerebral cortex declines but the metabolic pathway to form amino acids is not uniformly suppressed. Therefore, the above characteristic glucose metabolism could be related to the development of heterogeneous enzyme activities associated with aging in the brain.

Aging↗

A tubular configuration of the granular endoplasmic reticulum forming a raft-like parallel array in the pinealocytes of two species of Japanese moles (Mogera kobeae and M. wogura).

Ten or more straight tubules, each of which consists of a double unit membrane of granular endoplasmic reticulum with a cylindrical profile, are joined side by side in a raft-like configuration in the cytoplasm of the pinealocytes of Japanese moles. They measure about 60 nm and 100 nm in their inner and outer diameters, respectively, and are often partially connected to unspecialized granular endoplasmic reticulum. Cisterns held between the inner and outer unit membranes with cylindrical profiles vary from 15 nm to 30 nm in width. Ensheathed portions of the cytoplasm are contiguous with cytoplasm outside the tubular units. The inner unit membranes of the tubules bear fewer ribosomal particles than the outer ones.

Animals↗

Purification of NADPH-dependent enoyl-CoA reductase involved in the malonyl-CoA dependent fatty acid elongation system of Mycobacterium smegmatis.

NADPH-Dependent enoyl-CoA reductase [EC 1.3.1.8] was purified to homogeneity, for the first time, from the crude extract of Mycobacterium smegmatis. The molecular weight of this enzyme was estimated to be around 32,000 using sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The purified enzyme reduced 2-trans-hexadecenoyl-CoA (Km value, 100 microM) and -eicosenoyl-CoA (Km value, 83 microM) almost equally well in the presence of NADPH as a sole electron donor. The Km value for NADPH was 34.5 microM. When NADP3H was incubated with 2-eicosenoyl-CoA and the purified enzyme, the sole tritiated product was arachidate. This enzyme was almost inert to enoyl-CoAs with chains less than 12 carbon atoms long. The purified enzyme still retained FMN, which was detectable by acid ammonium sulfate and was essential for full activity of the enzyme. The enzyme was sensitive to SH-reagents such as N-ethylmaleimide and monoiodoacetamide but was not sensitive to isonicotinamide hydrazide. Anti-NADPH-dependent-enoyl-CoA-reductase rabbit serum was found to inhibit the activities of both the reductase and the malonyl-CoA dependent fatty acid elongation system, supporting the involvement of the reductase in this elongation system.

Acyl Coenzyme A↗