The Abl and Arg tyrosine kinases play fundamental roles in the development and function of the central nervous system. Arg is most abundant in adult mouse brain, especially in synapse-rich regions. arg(-/-) mice develop normally but exhibit multiple behavioral abnormalities, suggesting that arg(-/-) brains suffer from defects in neuronal function. Embryos deficient in both Abl and Arg suffer fr...

Novokinin (RPLKPW), LPYPR, and rubiscolin (YPLDLF) are bioactive peptides with respective hypotensive, hypocholesterolemic, and memory-enhancing activities. We generated transgenic soybean lines that expressed modified forms of the alpha' subunit of seed storage protein beta-conglycinin containing tandem repeats of these bioactive peptides. The modified alpha' subunits constituted up to 0.2% of...

Mutations in arg-13 result in slow growth in minimal medium and can suppress mutations in carbamyl phosphate synthase-aspartate carbamyl transferase within the pyrimidine pathway; the exact biochemical function of the gene product is unknown. To understand the role of arg-13 in arginine metabolism, cosmids rescuing growth in arg-13 mutants were cloned and mapped to the position of arg-13 on LG ...

To successfully colonize the human gut, enteric bacteria must activate acid resistance systems to survive the extreme acidity (pH 1.5-3.5) of the stomach. The antiporter AdiC is the master orchestrator of the arginine-dependent system. Upon acid shock, it imports extracellular arginine (Arg) into the cytoplasm, providing the substrate for arginine decarboxylases, which consume a cellular proton...

Cationic amino acid transporters are highly selective for L-enantiomers such as L-arginine (L-Arg). Because of this stereoselectivity, little is known about the interaction of these transporters with D-isomers. To study whether these compounds can provide information on the molecular mechanism of transport, inward currents activated by L-Arg with low apparent affinity were measured in whole-cel...

A peptide with bradykinin (BK)-like immunoreactivity was isolated from an incubate of heat-denatured eel plasma with porcine pancreatic kallikrein. The purified peptide had the following amino acid sequence: Arg-Arg-Pro-Pro-Gly-Ser-Trp-Pro-Leu-Arg. This decapeptide, named eel [Arg(0)]BK, was identical to two previously identified BK homologs from cod and trout. High conservation of the BK seque...

Arginase is the only enzyme capable of producing urea in plants. This enzyme also contributes to many important biological functions during plant growth and development, such as seed development, root development and plant nitrogen using. The unique rice arginase gene OsARG is known to affect nitrogen use efficiency and is also associated with higher yields in rice. In this study, we transforme...

Proliferation of Leishmania (L.) parasites depends on polyamine availability, which can be generated by the L-arginine catabolism and the enzymatic activity of arginase (ARG) of the parasites and of the mammalian hosts. In the present study, we characterized and compared the arginase (arg) genes from pathogenic L. major and L. tropica and from non-pathogenic L. tarentolae. We quantified the lev...

Two experiments were conducted with young pigs to determine the efficacy of ornithine (Orn) or citrulline (Cit) as precursors of arginine (Arg). In Exp. 1, pigs were individually fed an Arg-deficient, semipurified diet (.18% Arg) supplemented with .3% Arg or an equimolar quantity of Orn or Cit. Supplemental Arg or Cit increased rate and efficiency of weight gain, but Orn addition was without ef...