Flow cytometry was used to monitor changes in the DNA content of the polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB)-degrading bacterium Comamonas testosteroni TK102 during growth in the presence or absence of PCBs. In culture medium without PCBs, the majority of stationary-phase cells contained a single chromosome. In the presence of PCBs, the percentage of cells containing two chromosomes increased from 12% t...

A diverse group of xenobiotics has a high binding affinity to the estrogen receptor (ER), suggesting that it can accommodate large variability in ligand structure. Relationships between xenobiotic structure, binding affinity, and estrogenic response have been suggested to be dependent on the conformational structures of the ligands. To explore the influence of conformational flexibility on ER b...

Certain phenyl-substituted hydrocarbons of environmental concern have the potential to disrupt the endocrine system of animals, apparently in association with their estrogenic properties. Competition with natural estrogens for the estrogen receptor is a possible mechanism by which such effects could occur. We used comparative molecular field analysis (CoMFA), a three-dimensional quantitative st...

Our previous study suggested that hetero-oligomer formation of guinea pig liver UDP-glucuronosyltransferases (UGTs) 2B21 and 2B22 enhances UGT2B21-catalyzed morphine-6-glucuronidation. In this work, further evidence for a functional hetero-oligomer between UGT2B21 and UGT2B22 was provided by studies of the glucuronidation of chloramphenicol with dual expression in COS-7 cells. UGT2B21 expressed...

Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) and Rhodococcus jostii RHA1 have similar cholesterol catabolic pathways. This pathway contributes to the pathogenicity of Mtb. The hsaAB cholesterol catabolic genes have been predicted to encode the oxygenase and reductase, respectively, of a flavin-dependent mono-oxygenase that hydroxylates 3-hydroxy-9,10-seconandrost-1,3,5(10)-triene-9,17-dione (3-HSA) to a ca...

The phase I and phase II drug-metabolizing capacity of freshly isolated and cryopreserved parenchymal cells (PC) from human, rat, and mouse liver held in suspension at 37 degrees C for up to 120 min after thawing was compared. Although 7-ethoxycoumarin-O-deethylase activity was strongly reduced in freshly isolated as well as in cryopreserved PC from human, rat, and mouse liver after 120 min, 7-...

The main goal of this work was the production and characterization of a novel invertase activity from Zygosaccharomyces bailii strain Talf1 for further application to biodesulfurization (BDS) in order to expand the exploitable alternative carbon sources to renewable sucrose-rich feedstock. The maximum invertase activity (163 U ml(-1)) was achieved after 7 days of Z. bailii strain Talf1 cultivat...

The crystal structures of four homologous series of rod-like molecules are reviewed, two of which form hydrogen bonds and two with a symmetric chemical constitution. Many of the compounds investigated turn into liquid crystalline phases upon temperature increase. It is of valuable interest to know possible conformations and possible packing arrangements as prerequisites to model liquid crystall...

The rabbit liver UDP-glucuronosyltransferase (UGT) cDNAs that encode the 4-hydroxybiphenyl UGT2B13 and 4-nitrophenol UGT1A6 have been cloned into baculovirus. Spodoptera frugiperda (SF-9) cells infected with the UGT recombinant baculovirus produced significant amounts of protein, which was detected by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, immunoblot analysis, and pulse chas...