Succinic thiokinase was found by Kaufman et al. (2, 3) and by Hift et al. (4) to be responsible for the substrate level phosphorylation reaction accompanying the oxidation of ar-ketoglutarate. The enzyme has been variously termed phosphorylation (“P”) enzyme (3, 4), GDP phosphorylation enzyme (5), succinic thiokinase (6-S), succinyl-CoA synthetase (9, lo), and succinate:CoA ligase (GDP) (11). T...

Curcuminoids are phenylpropanoids with high pharmaceutical potential. Herein, we report an engineered artificial pathway in Escherichia coli to produce natural curcuminoids through caffeic acid. Arabidopsis thaliana 4-coumaroyl-CoA ligase and Curcuma longa diketide-CoA synthase (DCS) and curcumin synthase (CURS1) were used to produce curcuminoids and 70 mg/L of curcumin was obtained from feruli...

Acetyl-CoA is a key precursor for the biosynthesis of a wide range of fuels, chemicals, and value-added compounds, whose biosynthesis in Saccharomyces cerevisiae involves acetyl-CoA synthetase (ACS) and is energy intensive. Previous studies have demonstrated that functional expression of a pyruvate dehydrogenase (PDH) could fully replace the endogenous ACS-dependent pathway for cytosolic acetyl...

Flavonoids are phytochemicals present in medicinal plants and contribute to human health. Coreopsis tinctoria , a species rich flavonoids, has long been used traditional medicine as food resource. N (nitrogen) fertilization can reduce flavonoid accumulation C. . However, there is limited knowledge regarding regulatory mechanisms. The aim of this study was determine the effect availability on bi...

The 20-membered ring in 1,7,11,17-tetraoxa-2,6,12,16-tetraazacycloeicosane tetrahydrochloride, C(12)H(32)N(4)O(4)(4+).4Cl(-), adopts an endo conformation, while the 18-membered ring in 1,6,10,15-tetraoxa-2,5,11,14-tetraazacyclooctadecane tetrahydrochloride, C(10)H(28)N(4)O(4)(4+).4Cl(-), lies about an inversion centre and adopts a symmetrical conformation. In the crystal structures of both comp...

Ralstonia eutropha H16 is a facultatively autotrophic hydrogen-oxidizing bacterium capable of producing polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB)-based bioplastics. As PHB's physical properties may be improved by incorporation of medium-chain-length fatty acids (MCFAs), and MCFAs are valuable on their own as fuel and chemical intermediates, we engineered R. eutropha for MCFA production. Expression of UcFatB2, ...

Metabolic studies of different fatty acids frequently require use of their radioactive esters of CoA and carnitine. However, these derivatives are not readily available even for some of the commonly used fatty acids. While procedures for synthesizing these intermediates have been described many are not suitable for synthesizing submicromole quantities of radioactive fatty acids that individual ...

The placenta plays a major role in transporting lipid to the developing foetus. Since previous studies have suggested that placental lipid transport involves intermediate esterification steps, we investigated selected microsomal and lysosomal enzymes of triacylglycerol metabolism in rat placenta. Between gestational days 10 and 14, microsomal phosphatidic acid phosphatase specific activity was ...

BACKGROUND Raspberry ketone is the primary aroma compound found in raspberries and naturally derived raspberry ketone is a valuable flavoring agent. The economic incentives for the production of raspberry ketone, combined with the very poor yields from plant tissue, therefore make this compound an excellent target for heterologous production in synthetically engineered microbial strains. METH...