In extracts from the youngest leaves of Avena sativa, Hordeum vulgare, Zea Mays, Pisum sativum, Phaseolus vulgaris, Lactuca sativa, and four pyrrolizidine alkaloid-bearing species of Heliotropium, the activities of ornithine decarboxylase, close to V(max), ranged between traces and 1.5 nanomoles per hour per gram fresh weight when based on putrescine formed during incubation with labeled ornith...

The asymmetric decarboxylation of prochiral a-disubstituted malonic acids is an attractive route to produce homochiral asubstituted carboxylic acids. Various metal-catalysed and organocatalytic methods have been explored for related enantioselective decarboxylative protonation (EDP) reactions. However, the synthetic EDPmethods can only deliver chiral carboxylic acids or esters with moderate ena...

Glutamate decarboxylase (GAD, EC 4.1.1.15) catalyses the alpha-decarboxylation of glutamate to produce gamma-aminobutyrate (GABA). The nucleotide sequences of two divergent GADs (designated GAD1 and GAD3) were isolated from a Nicotiana tabacum L. cv. Samsun NN leaf cDNA library. Open reading frames indicated that GAD1 encodes a polypeptide of 496 amino acids and has greater than 99% identity wi...

A rapid biochemical method for the determination of ornithine and lysine decarboxylase (EC 4.1.1.18) activity has been developed for use in the routine clinical laboratory. It is based on the detection of the amine end product produced in response to the single key amino acid added to a synthetic medium. A modified ninhydrin reagent is used to detect the amine after a chloroform extraction. Thi...

Abstract ?-Alanine (3-aminopropionic acid) is the only naturally occurring ?-amino acid and an important precursor for synthesis of a variety nitrogen-containing chemicals. Fermentative production ?-alanine from renewable feedstocks such as glucose has attracted significant interest in recent years. Methanol become emerging promising feedstock biomanufacturing alternative to glucose. In this wo...

BACKGROUND Decarboxylation of α-ketoisovalerate to isobutyraldehyde is a key reaction in metabolic engineering of Saccharomyces cerevisiae for isobutanol production with published studies relying on overexpression of either the native ARO10 gene or of the Lactococcus lactis kivD decarboxylase gene resulting in low enzymatic activities. Here, we compare relevant properties for isobutanol product...