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T Beppu

Publications and source records attributed to T Beppu.

At least 217 records · Page 12Linked to original sources
PubMed1991

The secretion leader of Mucor pusillus rennin which possesses an artificial Lys-Arg sequence directs the secretion of mature human growth hormone by Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

The prepro-peptide of fungal aspartic proteinase, Mucor pusillus rennin, is useful as a secretion leader for efficient secretion of human growth hormone (HGH) from Saccharomyces cerevisiae. For secretion by yeast cells of HGH with the same NH2 terminus as native HGH, an artificial Lys-Arg linker, which is one of the potential KEX2 recognition sequences, was introduced at the junction between the M. pusillus rennin secretion leader and mature HGH. The HGH directed by this construction was the same size as native HGH, as determined by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, and amino acid sequencing of its NH2 terminus revealed that the secretion leader peptide was removed correctly at the COOH-terminal side of the Lys-Arg linker. On the other hand, when the same plasmid was expressed in a kex2 mutant strain, unprocessed HGH of a higher molecular weight was secreted, indicating that no proteolytic cleavage at the Lys-Arg site occurred. These results clearly showed that the leader peptide with the Lys-Arg linker was recognized and specifically cleaved by the yeast KEX2 protease. The mature HGH purified from yeast culture medium was indistinguishable from native HGH in biological activity, determined by the adipocyte conversion assay, and in secondary structure, determined by circular dichroism spectroscopy.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1991

Novel insertion sequence IS1380 from Acetobacter pasteurianus is involved in loss of ethanol-oxidizing ability.

Acetobacter pasteurianus NCI1380, a thermophilic strain isolated from the surface culture of acetic acid fermentation, showed genetic instability to produce at high frequency spontaneous mutants which were deficient in ethanol oxidation because of the loss of alcohol dehydrogenase activity. Southern hybridization experiments with the cloned alcohol dehydrogenase-cytochrome c gene cluster as the probe showed insertion of an unknown DNA fragment into a specific position in the cytochrome c gene in most of the mutant strains. Cloning and sequencing analyses revealed that the inserted sequence was 1,665 bp in length and had a terminal inverted repeat of 15 bp. In addition, this inserted sequence was found to generate a 4-bp duplication at the inserted site upon transposition. The target site specificity was not very strict, but a TCGA sequence appeared to be preferentially used. The inserted sequence contains two long open reading frames of 461 and 222 amino acids which are overlapped and encoded by different strands. Although these open reading frames showed no homology to any protein registered in the DNA data bases, the longer open reading frame contained many basic amino acids (87 of 461), as was observed with transposases of so-called insertion sequence (IS) elements. All of these characteristics are typical of IS elements, and the sequence was named IS1380. The copy number of IS1380 in a cell of A. pasteurianus NCI1380 was estimated to be about 100. Several strains of acetic acid bacteria also contained IS1380 at high copy numbers. These results suggest that IS1380 is associated with the genetic loss of ethanol-oxidizing ability as well as the genetic instability of acetic acid bacteria in general.

Acetobacter↗
PubMed1991

Phosphorylation of the AfsR product, a global regulatory protein for secondary-metabolite formation in Streptomyces coelicolor A3(2).

The AfsR protein is essential for the biosynthesis at the wild-type level of A-factor, actinorhodin, and undecylprodigiosin in Streptomyces coelicolor A3(2) and Streptomyces lividans. Because overexpression of the afsR gene caused some deleterious effect on these strains, a multicopy plasmid carrying the whole afsR gene was introduced into Streptomyces griseus, from which a crude cell lysate was prepared as a protein source. The AfsR protein was purified to homogeneity from the cytoplasmic fraction through several steps of chromatography, including affinity column chromatography with ATP-agarose and use of anti-AfsR antibody for its detection. The molecular weight of AfsR was estimated by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and by gel filtration to be 105,300, which is in good agreement with that deduced from the nucleotide sequence of afsR. The purified AfsR protein was found to be phosphorylated through the transfer of the gamma-phosphate group of ATP in the presence of the cell extracts of S. coelicolor A3(2) and S. lividans. This phosphorylation proceeded very rapidly, and no competition was observed with CTP, GTP, UTP, or cyclic AMP. In the cell extract of S. griseus, no activity phosphorylating the AfsR protein was detected, suggesting that this activity is not generally present in Streptomyces spp. but is specific to certain species. It is conceivable that the extent of phosphorylation of the AfsR protein modulates its regulatory activity which, in turn, regulates expression of some target gene(s) involved in the secondary-metabolite formation in S. coelicolor A3(2).

Adenosine Triphosphate↗
PubMed1991

Cloning and characterization of genes responsible for metabolism of nitrile compounds from Pseudomonas chlororaphis B23.

The nitrile hydratase (NHase) of Pseudomonas chlororaphis B23, which is composed of two subunits, alpha and beta, catalyzes the hydration of nitrile compounds to the corresponding amides. The NHase gene of strain B23 was cloned into Escherichia coli by the DNA-probing method with the NHase gene of Rhodococcus sp. strain N-774 as the hybridization probe. Nucleotide sequencing revealed that an amidase showing significant similarity to the amidase of Rhodococcus sp. strain N-774 was also coded by the region just upstream of the subunit alpha-coding sequence. In addition to these three proteins, two open reading frames, P47K and OrfE, were found just downstream of the coding region of subunit beta. The direction and close locations to each other of these open reading frames encoding five proteins (amidase, subunits alpha and beta, P47K, and OrfE, in that order) suggested that these genes were cotranscribed by a single mRNA. Plasmid pPCN4, in which a 6.2-kb sequence covering the region coding for these proteins is placed under control of the lac promoter, directed overproduction of enzymatically active NHase and amidase in response to addition of isopropyl-beta-D-thiogalactopyranoside. Sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of the cell extract showed that the amount of subunits alpha and beta of NHase was about 10% of the total cellular proteins and that an additional 38-kDa protein probably encoded by the region upstream of the amidase gene was also produced in a large amount. The 38-kDa protein, as well as P47K and OrfE, appeared to be important for efficient expression of NHase activity in E. coli cells, because plasmids containing the NHase and amidase genes but lacking the region coding for the 38-kDa protein or the region coding for P47K and OrfE failed to express efficient NHase activity.

Amidohydrolases↗
PubMed1991

Enhanced production of antibiotics by Pecilomyces lilacinus under alkaline conditions associated with morphological change.

The production of the group of peptide antibiotics called No. 1907 by Paecilomyces lilacinus was stabilized and enhanced by mono-spore isolation followed by strain improvement, and the production seemed to be related to a morphological change of the strain. Unstable and a low productivity (below 10 micrograms/ml) of the antibiotics No. 1907 by P. lilacinus was greatly improved up to 140 micrograms/ml by successive mono-spore isolation along with mutagenization. Alkaline conditions caused by adding Na2CO3, K2CO3, NaHCO3 or KHCO3 were essential to obtain high production of the antibiotics following simultaneous morphological change of the cells from filamentous mycelia to round arthroconidia. Resting cell experiments showed that a significant amount of antibiotics (213 micrograms/ml) was synthesized by the filamentous cells along with their morphological change to arthroconidia in the presence of glucose under the alkaline conditions.

Anti-Bacterial Agents↗
PubMed1991

Characterization of the leader peptide of an endo-type cellulase produced by an alkalophilic Streptomyces strain.

An endo-type semi-alkaline cellulase (CMCase I) produced by an alkalophilic Streptomyces strain has an extraordinarily long leader peptide of about 70 amino acids (aa), which can be grouped into four distinct regions, an NH2-terminal region (13 aa), an Arg-cluster region (13 aa), a hydrophobic region (23 aa), and an Ala/Pro-repeat region (12 aa). For identification of the function of each part of the leader peptide for secretion of the enzyme, mutation in the leader peptide were generated by site-directed mutagenesis using the cloned gene, and the mutant genes were expressed in a cellulase-negative mutant strain, Streptomyces lividans HN1. Although all the alterations in the leader peptide, except for one case, decreased secretion to various extents, in S. lividans, the following conclusions were obtained. Comparison of the intra- and extra-cellular enzyme activities of the mutants suggested that the Arg-cluster region was essential in secretion of the cellulase. Deletion of 8 amino acids rich in threonine and proline in the NH2-terminal region enhanced the secretion to a small extent. Deletion of the Ala/Pro repeat region had almost no effect on secretion.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1991

Purification and properties of thermostable tryptophanase from an obligately symbiotic thermophile, Symbiobacterium thermophilum.

A thermostable tryptophanase was extracted from a thermophilic bacterium, Symbiobacterium thermophilum strain T, which is obligately symbiotic with the thermophilic Bacillus strain S. The enzyme was purified 21-fold to homogeneity with 19% recovery by a series of chromatographies using anion-exchange, hydroxylapatite, hydrophobic interaction, and MonoQ anion-exchange columns. The molecular weight of the purified enzyme was estimated to be approximately 210,000 by gel filtration, while the molecular weight of its subunit was 46,000 by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, which indicates that the native enzyme is composed of four homologous subunits. The isoelectric point of the enzyme was 4.9. The tryptophanase was stable to heating at 65 degrees C for 20 min and the optimum temperature for the enzyme activity for 20 min reaction was 70 degrees C. The optimum pH was 7.0. The NH2-terminal amino acid sequence of this tryptophanase shows similarity to that of Escherichia coli K-12, despite a great difference in the thermostability of these two enzymes. The purified enzyme catalyzed the degradation (alpha, beta-elimination) of L-tryptophan into indole, pyruvate, and ammonia in the presence of pyridoxal-5'-phosphate. The Km value for L-tryptophan was 1.47 mM. 5-Hydroxy-L-tryptophan, 5-methyl-DL-tryptophan, L-cysteine, S-methyl-L-cysteine, and L-serine were also used as substrates and converted to pyruvate. The reverse reaction of alpha, beta-elimination of this tryptophanase produced L-tryptophan from indole and pyruvate in the presence of a high concentration of ammonium acetate.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1991

Molecular mechanisms of the A-factor-dependent control of secondary metabolism in Streptomyces.

A-factor, 2-isocapryloyl-(3R)-hydroxymethyl-gamma-butyrolactone, is a microbial hormone controlling secondary metabolism and morphogenesis of Streptomyces griseus. The A-factor-receptor protein present in the cytoplasm is a repressor-type regulator; it plays a role in repressing streptomycin production and sporulation while the binding of A-factor to the receptor protein releases its repression. Thus, secondary metabolism and sporulation of S. griseus involve a step of hormonal regulation by A-factor. The afsR gene codes for a global regulatory protein of 993 amino acids controlling positively secondary metabolic formation in Streptomyces coelicolor A3(2), probably at the transcriptional level. This protein comprises two domains, i.e., an ATP-binding domain at its NH2-terminal portion and a DNA-binding domain with a helix-turn-helix motif at its COOH-terminal portion. The AfsR protein is found to be phosphorylated. It is assumed that the extent of phosphorylation-dephosphorylation of the AfsR protein modulates the expression of genes responsible for secondary metabolic formation.

4-Butyrolactone↗
PubMed1990

Primary structure of AfsR, a global regulatory protein for secondary metabolite formation in Streptomyces coelicolor A3(2).

The afsR gene of Streptomyces coelicolor A3(2) complements afsB mutations affecting production of pigmented antibiotics. It also directs pigment production in Streptomyces lividans when carried on a plasmid vector. Nucleotide sequencing of the afsR gene revealed that it codes for a 993-amino acid protein (Mr 105,600) with A- and B-type ATP-binding consensus sequences at its N-terminal portion and two DNA-binding consensus sequences with a helix-turn-helix motif at its C-terminal portion. Each of the N- and C-terminal halves was capable of conferring pigment production, to some extent, in S. lividans, when carried separately on a multicopy plasmid. In addition, expression in trans of the two regions on the same plasmid conferred pigment production to almost the same extent as did the intact afsR gene. Mutations at the two ATP-binding consensus sequences, that were generated by in vitro site-directed mutagenesis, revealed their functional importance. Disruption of the S. coelicolor A3(2) chromosomal afsR gene in either the N- or C-terminal half using phage phi C31 KC515 resulted in significant, but not complete, loss of pigment production. These data suggest that the AfsR protein comprises two domains, viz., an ATP-binding and a DNA-binding domain, each of which could function as a positive regulator for pigment production. These afsR mutants sporulate normally. In addition to an internal promoter, which we previously detected in the middle of the AfsR coding region, S1 nuclease mapping revealed two tandem transcriptional start points, separated by 64 bp, upstream from a putative ATG start codon of the AfsR product.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1990

Potent and specific inhibition of mammalian histone deacetylase both in vivo and in vitro by trichostatin A.

(R)-Trichostatin A (TSA) is a Streptomyces product which causes the induction of Friend cell differentiation and specific inhibition of the cell cycle of normal rat fibroblasts in the G1 and G2 phases at the very low concentrations. We found that TSA caused an accumulation of acetylated histone species in a variety of mammalian cell lines. Pulse-labeling experiments indicated that TSA markedly prolonged the in vivo half-life of the labile acetyl groups on histones in mouse mammary gland tumor cells, FM3A. The partially purified histone deacetylase from wild-type FM3A cells was effectively inhibited by TSA in a noncompetitive manner with Ki = 3.4 nM. A newly isolated mutant cell line of FM3A resistant to TSA did not show the accumulation of the acetylated histones in the presence of a higher concentration of TSA. The histone deacetylase preparation from the mutant showed decreased sensitivity to TSA (Ki = 31 nM, noncompetitive). These results clearly indicate that TSA is a potent and specific inhibitor of the histone deacetylase and that the in vivo effect of TSA on cell proliferation and differentiation can be attributed to the inhibition of the enzyme.

Acetates↗
PubMed1990

Effects of glycosylation on the secretion and enzyme activity of Mucor rennin, an aspartic proteinase of Mucor pusillus, produced by recombinant yeast.

The Mucor rennin gene encoding a prepro form of the fungal aspartic proteinase from Mucor pusillus was expressed under the control of the yeast GAL7 promoter in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The mature M. pusillus rennin secreted efficiently by yeast was a highly glycosylated protein. Analysis by a combination of site-directed mutagenesis of each of the three possible glycosylation sites and treatment of the secreted M. pusillus rennins with endo-beta-N-acetylglucosaminidase H revealed that the mature yeast M. pusillus rennin contained two asparagine-linked glycosylation sites among the three possible glycosylation sites. A mutation of the 2 glycosylated asparagine residues of M. pusillus rennin resulted in significant decreases in the level of secretion by yeast cells. In addition, the extent of glycosylation of M. pusillus rennin was found to affect the enzyme properties such as milk-clotting and proteolytic activities.

Acetylglucosaminidase↗
PubMed1990

Bile acid profile and decrement rate of serum total bilirubin after biliary drainage.

Non-esterified (non-sulfated and non-glucuronidated) bile acid profile in the serum and bile was assessed using mass fragmentation spectrometry in relation to the decrement rate of the serum total bilirubin after relief of the biliary obstruction by external biliary drainage in fourteen patients. Biliary excretion of the total bile acid was decreased and the serum ratio of cholic to cenodeoxycholic acid was low in the patients with refractory jaundice. An unusual bile acid, 3 beta,7 alpha-dihydroxy-5 beta-cholan-24-oic acid, was detected in the sera of all patients early after biliary drainage. Disappearance of this bile acid from the serum was delayed in refractory jaundice. These findings suggested that extremely prolonged jaundice after biliary drainage resulted from profound liver cell damage secondary to biliary obstruction.

Bile↗
PubMed1990

Effects of leptomycin B on the cell cycle of fibroblasts and fission yeast cells.

An antifungal antibiotic, leptomycin B (LMB), which induced cell elongation of fission yeast, Schizosaccharomyces pombe, was found to be a unique inhibitor of the cell cycle of mammalian and fission yeast cells. Proliferation of rat 3Y1 fibroblasts was reversibly blocked by LMB in both the G1 and G2 phases and the treated cells were presumably introduced into the resting state (GO). After removal of LMB, proliferative tetraploid cells were produced from the cells which had been arrested by LMB at the G2 phase, as a result of DNA replication without passage through the M phase. LMB also inhibited the proliferation of S. pombe in both the G1 and G2 phases. These results suggest that the molecular target of LMB is one of the components necessary for progression of both G1 and G2 in the eukaryotic cell cycle.

Animals↗
PubMed1990

Site-directed mutagenesis reveals functional contribution of Thr218, Lys220 and Asp304 in chymosin.

The functional contributions of amino acid residues Thr218 and Asp304 of chymosin, both of which are highly conserved in the aspartic proteinases, are analysed by means of site-directed mutagenesis. The optimum pH values, milk-clotting (C) and proteolytic (P) activities and kinetic parameters for synthetic oligopeptides as substrates were examined for the mutant enzymes. The mutation Thr218Ser caused a marked increase in the C/P ratio, which seemed to be due to a change in substrate recognition. Although the negative charge of Asp304 had been expected to play a role in lowering the optimum pH values in the aspartic proteinases, this turned out not to be the case in chymosin because both the mutations Asp304Ala and Asp304Glu caused a similar shift of the optimum pH towards the acidic side. In addition, the mutation Lys220Leu, which we generated previously, was found to cause a decrease in the C/P ratio, mainly due to the increase in the proteolytic activity.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1990

The prepro-peptide of Mucor rennin directs the secretion of human growth hormone by Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

An aspartic proteinase, Mucor pusillus rennin (MPR), of filamentous fungus Mucor pusillus, is efficiently secreted from a transformant of Saccharomyces cerevisiae containing the intact MPR gene. To test the usefulness of the MPR leader peptide in secretion of heterologous proteins from yeast cells, several plasmids encoding the fusion proteins composed of different parts of the NH2-terminal region of prepro-MPR and human growth hormone (hGH) were constructed. The parts of the leader peptide upstream of hGH were the whole prepro-peptide following the NH2-terminal region of mature MPR in JGH1, the intact pre-sequence and a part of the pro-sequence in JGH2, and the putative signal sequences of the NH2-terminal 18 and 22 amino acids in JGH3 and JGH7, respectively. When the hGH genes fused to these leader sequences were expressed in yeast cells under the control of the yeast GAL7 promoter, proteins of various sizes immunoreactive with the anti-hGH antibody were secreted into the medium. Among the plasmids mentioned above, JGH2 directed the greatest secretion of the protein of 23 kilodaltons in size, which contained the expected NH2-terminal amino acid sequence of an additional eight amino acids derived from the pro-peptide of MPR. The addition of the GAL10 terminator downstream of the hGH gene in JGH2 resulted in a greater than three- to fivefold increase in the secretion, whereas the insertion of the GAL4 gene, which is a positive regulator for the GAL system, had no significant effect. The improved yield of the total protein of hGH secreted into the medium reached approximately 10 mg/liter.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1990

Cloning of genes responsible for acetic acid resistance in Acetobacter aceti.

Five acetic acid-sensitive mutants of Acetobacter aceti subsp. aceti no. 1023 were isolated by mutagenesis with N-methyl-N'-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine. Three recombinant plasmids that complemented the mutations were isolated from a gene bank of the chromosome DNA of the parental strain constructed in Escherichia coli by using cosmid vector pMVC1. One of these plasmids (pAR1611), carrying about a 30-kilobase-pair (kb) fragment that conferred acetic acid resistance to all five mutants, was further analyzed. Subcloning experiments indicated that a 8.3-kb fragment was sufficient to complement all five mutations. To identify the mutation loci and genes involved in acetic acid resistance, insertional inactivation was performed by insertion of the kanamycin resistance gene derived from E. coli plasmid pACYC177 into the cloned 8.3-kb fragment and successive integration into the chromosome of the parental strain. The results suggested that three genes, designated aarA, aarB, and aarC, were responsible for expression of acetic acid resistance. Gene products of these genes were detected by means of overproduction in E. coli by use of the lac promoter. The amino acid sequence of the aarA gene product deduced from the nucleotide sequence was significantly similar to those of the citrate synthases (CSs) of E. coli and other bacteria. The A. aceti mutants defective in the aarA gene were found to lack CS activity, which was restored by introduction of a plasmid containing the aarA gene. A mutation in the CS gene of E. coli was also complemented by the aarA gene. These results indicate that aarA is the CS gene.

Acetates↗