Sterile wild oat (Avena sterilis L.) is an autogamous grass established in warm climate regions. This species has been used as a cover crop in Mediterranean perennial crops during the spring period prior to initiating competition with the main crop for water and nutrients. However, such cover crops need to be controlled (by glyphosate or tillage) before the beginning of summer period (due to th...

In skeletal muscle, insulin activates glycogen synthase by reducing phosphorylation at both NH2- and COOH-terminal sites of the enzyme and by elevating the levels of glucose-6-phosphate, an allosteric activator of glycogen synthase. To study the mechanism of regulation of glycogen synthase by insulin and glucose-6-phosphate, we generated stable Rat-1 fibroblast clones expressing rabbit muscle g...

BACKGROUND The ever increasing number of antibiotic resistant bacteria has fuelled interest in the development of new antibiotics and other antibacterial agents. The major structural element of the bacterial cell wall is the heteropolymer peptidoglycan and the enzymes of peptidoglycan biosynthesis are potential targets for antibacterial agents. One such enzyme is UDP-N-acetylglucosamine enolpyr...

Cyclitol derivatives have been synthesized and screened for growth inhibitory effect upon prokaryotic and eukaryotic organisms. One derivative, (2S,3R,5R)-3-azido-2-benzoyloxy-5-hydroxycyclohexanone, was studied in detail: it has no effect upon bacteria, but it is inhibitory to Neurospora crassa. In Neurospora crassa it increased the amount of myo-inositol-1-phosphate synthase and inhibited the...

Here, we report a form of oligonucleotide-directed mutagenesis for precision genome editing in plants that uses single-stranded oligonucleotides (ssODNs) to precisely and efficiently generate genome edits at DNA strand lesions made by DNA double strand break reagents. Employing a transgene model in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana), we obtained a high frequency of precise targeted genome edits...

Salmonella typhimurium mutants conditionally deficient in 3-deoxy-d-manno-octulosonate-8-phosphate (KDO8P) synthase activity play a central role in our understanding of lipopolysaccharide function in enteric bacteria. The detailed characterization of KDO8P synthase from such a mutant, however, has not been previously reported. To address this issue KDO8P synthase from S. typhimurium AG701 and f...

Photo-oxidation of Escherichia coli 5-enolpyruvoylshikimate-3-phosphate synthase, a target for the non-selective herbicide glyphosate (N-phosphonomethylglycine), in the presence of pyridoxal 5'-phosphate resulted in irreversible inactivation of the enzyme. The inactivation followed pseudo-first-order and saturation kinetics with a Kinact. of 50 microM. The inactivation is specifically prevented...

Cystathionine beta-synthase [L-serine hydrolyase (adding homocysteine), EC 4.2.1.22] was studied in cultured skin fibroblasts from two control subjects and three patients with pyridoxine-responsive homocystinuria. In crude cell sonicates, cystathionine synthase activity detected in each mutant line was less than 5% of control values. After differential centrifugation, ammonium sulfate fractiona...