BACKGROUND The current persistence of Triatoma infestans (one of the main vectors of Chagas disease) in some domestic areas could be related to re-colonization by wild populations which are increasingly reported. However, the infection rate and the genetic characterization of the Trypanosoma cruzi strains infecting these populations are very limited. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS Of 333 wild...

A quantitative electrophoretic analysis of glucose phosphate isomerase (GPI-1) allozymes produced by heterozygous Gpi-1sa/Gpi-1sb mouse embryos has enabled us to estimate separately the contributions of GPI-1 enzyme that were oocyte coded, encoded by the embryonic, maternally derived Gpi-1sa allele and encoded by the embryonic, paternally derived Gpi-1sb allele. The oocyte-coded GPI-1 activity ...

The mutants used to show that phosphoglucose isomerase, and glucose itself, are not essential components of Escherichia coli had not been characterized genetically, other than by mapping. We now describe two new pgi mutants, one amber and the other a Mu-phage insertion, presumably both complete inactivation mutations. The new mutations do not give a phenotype markedly different from those descr...

In 1933 Lohmann (1) demonstrated the existence of phosphohexose isomerase, the enzyme which mediates the reversible conversion of glucose-6-phosphate to fructose-6-phosphate, in dialyzed frog lnuscle extracts and in simple aqueous extracts of yeast, heart, kidney, liver, and brain. Tank6 (2) and, more recently, Somers and Cosby (3) have found this enzyme to be present in pea meal. Slein (4) has...

The phosphorolytic breakdown of sucrose was discovered several years ago by three groups of investigators working independently with two unrelated genera of bacteria. This mechanism was first described in Leuconostoc mesenteroides by Kagan, Latker, and Zfasman (1942). Without knowledge of this discovery Doudoroff, Kaplan, and Hassid (1942) found the same reaction in Pseudomonas saccharophila. I...

Coevolution analyses identify residues that co-vary with each other during evolution, revealing sequence relationships unobservable from traditional multiple sequence alignments. Here we describe a coevolutionary analysis of phosphomannomutase/phosphoglucomutase (PMM/PGM), a widespread and diverse enzyme family involved in carbohydrate biosynthesis. Mutual information and graph theory were util...

In this preliminary report, we describe a polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis technique for the resolution of isoenzyme patterns of four isolates of Entamoeba histolytica and one isolate of Entamoeba coli. Our findings were similar to previous findings for three enzyme systems: maleic enzyme (malate dehydrogenase [EC 1.1.1.40]), hexokinase (EC 2.7.1.1), and phosphoglucomutase (EC 2.7.5.1). We fo...

Highly purified platelet glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD; D-glucose-6-phosphate:NADP+ 1-oxidoreductase, EC 1.1.1.49) can be modified in its isoelectric point and its molecular specific activity by extracts of some leukemic granulocytes. The "G6PD modifying factors" are relatively small molecules (molecular weight slightly under 5000), thermostable, dialyzable, and ultrafilterable. These...

The value of phosphohexose isomerase (EC 5.3.1.9) determination in the CSF in the diagnosis of meningitis was tested under routine conditions. In 48 patients with untreated bacterial meningitis, enzyme activity concentrations between 40 and 2335 U/l were measured, whereas the highest phosphohexose isomerase activity concentration in 92 patients with viral meningitis was 34 U/l. Lysis of the CSF...

SYNOPSIS The activities of phosphohexose isomerase and 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase have been studied in the vaginal fluid of women from the gynaecological departments. Women from these departments gave a very high false positive rate, though no cases of carcinoma in situ were not detected by estimating phosphohexose isomerase levels. It gave considerably better results in malignancy than 6...