Escherichia coli is an enteric bacterium that is capable of growing over a wide range of pH values (pH 5-9) and, incredibly, is able to survive extreme acid stresses including passage through the mammalian stomach where the pH can fall to as low as pH 1-2. To enable such a broad range of acidic pH survival, E. coli possesses four different inducible amino acid decarboxylases that decarboxylate ...

Five strains of gram-negative, yellow chromogenic bacilli were recovered from clinical specimens which fit the characteristics of the "lathyri-herbicola group" within the genus Erwinia. The strains were facultatively anaerobic, fermentative, anaerogenic bacilli with peritrichous flagella which grew at 37 C, reduced nitrate to nitrite, and failed to produce oxidase, pectinase, arginine dihydrola...

Here, we report on the draft genome of a copper-resistant and acidophilic Desulfosporosinus sp. BG, isolated from the tailings of a molybdenum-tungsten mine in Transbaikal area. The draft genome has a size of 4.52 Mb and encodes transporters of heavy metals. The phylogenetic analysis based on concatenated ribosomal proteins revealed that strain BG clusters together with the other acidophilic co...

Homoisocitrate dehydrogenase (HICDH) catalyzes the conversion of homoisocitrate to 2-oxoadipate, the third enzymatic step in the α-aminoadipate pathway by which lysine is synthesized in fungi and certain archaebacteria. This enzyme represents a potential target for anti-fungal drug design. Here, we describe the first crystal structures of a fungal HICDH, including structures of an apoenzyme and...

2.2 Significance of decarboxylation 2.2.1 Role in biosynthetic pathways In the biochemical milieu, decarboxylation is a ubiquitous step for transformation of amino acids into various other secondary metabolites using specific enzymes termed decarboxylases [Liu and Zhang (2006)]. More importantly, nature has also employed decarboxylation as a central tool for linking metabolic pathways like glyc...

During the course of work with kynureninase obtained from Neurospora cra~~cz (l), it became evident that a series of interactions was taking place between the enzyme and its substrates, pyridoxal phosphate and amines. Studies of the pyridoxal phosphate-activated dihydroxyphenylalanine and tyrosine decarboxylases have indicated that several amines (24) and aromatic amino acids (2, 5, 6) are capa...

During the course of work with kynureninase obtained from Neurospora cra~~cz (l), it became evident that a series of interactions was taking place between the enzyme and its substrates, pyridoxal phosphate and amines. Studies of the pyridoxal phosphate-activated dihydroxyphenylalanine and tyrosine decarboxylases have indicated that several amines (24) and aromatic amino acids (2, 5, 6) are capa...