BACKGROUND Increasing global demand and reliance on petroleum-derived chemicals will necessitate alternative sources for chemical feedstocks. Currently, 99% of chemical feedstocks are derived from petroleum and natural gas. Renewable methods for producing important chemical feedstocks largely remain unaddressed. Synthetic biology enables the renewable production of various chemicals from microo...

A nonspecific NADPH-dependent carbonyl reductase from human brain (formerly designated as aldehyde reductase 1; Ris, M. M., and von Wartburg, J. P. (1973) Eur. J. Biochem. 37, 69-77) has been purified to homogeneity. The enzyme reduces a number of biologically and pharmacologically active carbonyl compounds. Quinones, e.g. menadione, ubiquinone, and tocopherolquinone are the best substrates, fo...

Background The East Asian variant of mitochondrial aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH2) exhibits significantly reduced dehydrogenase, esterase and nitroglycerin (GTN) reductase activities [1]. The small molecule Alda-1 was reported to partly restore low acetaldehyde dehydrogenase activity of this variant [2]. In the present study we compared the wild-type enzyme (ALDH2*1) with the East Asian variant ...

Tetrahydrobiopterin (BH(4)) is a cofactor for aromatic amino acid hydroxylases and nitric oxide synthase. The biosynthesis includes two reduction steps catalyzed by sepiapterin reductase. An intermediate, 6-pyruvoyltetrahydropterin (PPH(4)) is reduced to 1(')-oxo-2(')-hydroxypropyl-tetrahydropterin (1(')-OXPH(4)) or 1(')-hydroxy-2(')-oxopropyl-tetrahydropterin (2(')-OXPH(4)), which is further c...

The effect of aldehyde fixation on NADPH- and NADH-dependent diaphorase (d) histochemistry and nitric oxide synthase (NOS) immunocytochemistry in the brain was investigated by comparing the distribution of these enzymes in in situ nitrocellulose blots of unfixed brain sections with that in aldehyde-fixed brain sections. Substitution of NADPH by NADH yielded no gross differences in cellular dist...

Abscisic acid (ABA)-deficient mutants in a variety of species have been identified by screening for precocious germination and a wilty phenotype. Mutants at two new loci, aba2 and aba3, have recently been isolated in Arabidopsis fhaliana (L.) Heynh. (K.M. LCon-Kloosterziel, M. Alvarez-Gil, G.J. Ruijs, S.E. Jacobsen, N.E. Olszewski, S.H. Schwartz, J.A.D. Zeevaart, M. Koornneef [1996] Plant J 10:...

Two genes from Kluyveromyces marxianus strain DMB1, YGL039w1 and YGL039w2, encode putative uncharacterized oxidoreductases that respectively share 42 and 44% identity with the Saccharomyces cerevisiae S288c NADPH-dependent methylglyoxal reductase (EC 1.1.1.283). To determine the enzymatic characteristics of their products, the two genes were expressed in recombinant Escherichia coli cells, afte...