New benzo[a]naphthacenequinone metabolites, designated bequinostatins A and B, have been isolated from the culture broth of the benastatin-producing strain Streptomyces sp. MI384-DF12. The structures of bequinostatins A and B were determined by spectral analyses to be 5,6,8,13-tetrahydro-1,6,7,9,11-pentahydroxy-8,13-dioxo-3- pentylbenzo[a]naphthacene-2-carboxylic acid and 2-decarboxybequinostat...

New highly sensitive latent bioluminescent luciferin substrates were designed and synthesized for monitoring mammalian glutathione S-transferase (GST) and Schistosoma japonicum enzyme activities.

Glutathione transferase (formerly GST) catalyzes the inactivation of various electrophile-producing anticancer agents via conjugation to the tripeptide glutathione. Moreover, several data link the overexpression of some GSTs, in particular GSTP1-1, to both natural and acquired resistance to various structurally unrelated anticancer drugs. Tumor overexpression of these proteins has provided a ra...

Fully substituted quinones including some naturally occurring oxyquinones acted as inhibitors o f yeast gluta­ thione reductase (EC 1.6.4.2). They were competitive, mixed or uncompetitive inhibitors for N A D PH , possess­ ing K j in the range o f 1 2 0 0 |iM and uncompetitive in­ hibitors for glutathione. Rhein (4,5-dioxy-9,10-anthraquinone-2-carbonic acid) and 9,10-phenanthrenequinone were th...

various concentrations as a selective inhibitor and have found that ATP at a concentration of lOmM abolishes arylsulphatase B activity but only inhibits 50% of the arylsulphatase A activity. By measuring the total activity and the activity in the presence of 1OmM-ATP we have been able to determine the activity of both forms in defined mixtures of the two. Thus the proportions of the two enzymes...

Glutathione S-transferase was purified approximately 2,300-fold from cell extracts of Escherichia coli B with a 7.5% activity yield. The molecular weight of the enzyme was 45,000, and the enzyme appeared to consist of two homogeneous subunits. The enzyme was almost specific to 1-chloro-2,4-dinitrobenzene (Km, 1.43 mM) and glutathione (Km, 0.33 mM). The optimal pH and optimal temperature for act...

ComN (YrzD) is a small, 98-amino-acid protein recently shown to be involved in the posttranscriptional control of the late competence comE operon in Bacillus subtilis. We show here that ComN localizes to the division site and cell poles in a DivIVA-dependent fashion. Yeast two-hybrid and glutathione S-transferase pulldown experiments showed that ComN interacts directly with DivIVA. ComN is not ...