Previous studies have shown that a Na+-dependent transport system is responsible for the transplacental transfer of the vitamins pantothenate and biotin and the essential metabolite lipoate. We now report the isolation of a rat placental cDNA encoding a transport protein responsible for this function. The cloned cDNA, when expressed in HeLa cells, induces Na+-dependent pantothenate and biotin t...

BACKGROUND Acetyl-CoA is an important precursor in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Various approaches have been adopted to improve its cytosolic level previously with the emphasis on engineering the "acetyl-" part of acetyl-CoA. To the best of our knowledge, there have been no reports on engineering the "-CoA" part so far. RESULTS In this study, we had tried to engineer S. cerevisiae from both the ...

Pantothenate kinase-associated neurodegeneration (PKAN) is a neurodegenerative disease belonging to the group of neurodegeneration with brain iron accumulation disorders. It is characterized by progressive impairments in movement, speech and cognition. The disease is inherited in a recessive manner due to mutations in the Pantothenate Kinase-2 (PANK2) gene that encodes a mitochondrial protein i...

Several methods for the assay of pantothenic acid have been reported in the literature. They have been based on the growth response of yeast (l), bacteria (2, 3), and chicks (4, 5) to the vitamin. The relative merits of these methods have been discussed in an earlier paper (3). In a previous publication (6) it was shown that pantothenic acid is one of the growth factors required by Proteus morg...

Knowledge concerning the function of paminobenzoate in biological systems has been derived largely by the use of specificcompetitive inhibitors. Thus, the reversal of either sulfanilamide or 2-chloro4-aminobenzoate inhibition by methionine and other amino acids (Lampen et al., 1946; King et al., 1948; Strandskov, 1947; Winkler and DeHaan, 1948), by pteroylglutamic acid (Nimmo-Smith et al., 1948...

Pantothenate synthetase from Mycobacterium tuberculosis catalyzes the formation of pantothenate from ATP, D-pantoate, and beta-alanine. The formation of a kinetically competent pantoyl-adenylate intermediate was established by the observation of a positional isotope exchange (PIX) reaction within (18)O-labeled ATP in the presence of d-pantoate. When [betagamma-(18)O(6)]-ATP was incubated with p...

Endogenous fatty acid biosynthesis in the bacterium Lactobacillus plantarum is greatly decreased upon addition of exogenous fatty acids (Henderson, T.A., and McNeil, J.J. (1966) Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 25, 662-669). We have demonstrated the presence of five pantothenate-containing compounds in L. plantarum which have been identified by co-chromatography with authentic samples: pantothena...