Recent studies of the human Pneumocystis carinii dihydropteroate synthase (DHPS) gene suggest that P. carinii is developing resistance to sulfamethoxazole (SMX) and dapsone. To explore whether P. carinii is also developing resistance to trimethoprim (TMP), the human P. carinii dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR) gene was cloned, DHFR and DHPS genes in 37 P. carinii isolates from 35 patients were seq...

Ubiquitin-dependent proteolysis is a major proteolytic pathway in the cytoplasm and nucleus of eukaryotic cells. We introduced a gene encoding a substrate for this pathway into the genome of Arabidopsis thaliana. The transgene codes for a hybrid protein consisting of dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR, EC 1.5.1.3) fused to a degradation signal that is specifically recognized by components of the ubi...

To investigate the phylogenetic and therapeutic implications of the genetic divergence in the dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR) and dihydropteroate synthase (DHPS) genes among different Pneumocystis carinii strains, these 2 genes in P. carinii obtained from 7 different host species were sequenced. Pairwise comparison of the DHPS sequences demonstrated 6%-24% and 6%-30% divergence in the nucleotide...

A T7 RNA transcript coding for mouse dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR) was utilized as a substrate for the N6-methyladenosine mRNA methyltransferase isolated from HeLa cell nuclei. This transcript acted as a 3 fold better substrate than either prolactin mRNA or a synthetic RNA substrate which contained multiple methylation consensus sequences. Formation of internal N6-methyladenine (m6A) residues ...

A prospective study was conducted to measure the selective effect of pyrimethamine prophylaxis on point mutations in Plasmodium falciparum dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR). A total of 109 Malian children were given pyrimethamine weekly for 5 weeks. P. falciparum infections were analyzed by polymerase chain reaction for DHFR mutations, which were dramatically more frequent among prophylaxis-breakt...

Murine cytomegalovirus (MCMV) productively infects quiescent fibroblasts in which the levels of nucleoside triphosphate precursors and cell functions involved in DNA metabolism are minimal. It appears that MCMV has evolved molecular pathways in order to ensure the presence of nucleoside triphosphate precursors for the viral DNA polymerase. Here, we report that MCMV infection of quiescent NIH 3T...

Mechanical forces play critical roles in the function of living cells. However, the underlying mechanisms of how forces influence nuclear events remain elusive. Here, we show that chromatin deformation as well as force-induced transcription of a green fluorescent protein (GFP)-tagged bacterial-chromosome dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR) transgene can be visualized in a living cell by using three-...

BACKGROUND Dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR) converts dihydrofolate (DHF) into tetrahydrofolate (THF) and plays an essential role in cell metabolism and cellular growth. Folic acid from multivitamins needs to be reduced by DHFR before it participates in cellular reactions. OBJECTIVES We examined the relation of a 19-base pair (bp) deletion polymorphism of the DHFR gene with the risk of breast ca...

Dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR), an essential enzyme in the folate pathway, is a potential target for new anti-tuberculosis drugs. Fifteen crystal structures of Mycobacterium tuberculosis DHFR complexed with NADPH and various inhibitors are available in the RCSB Protein Data Bank, but none of them is a substrate binding structure. Therefore, we performed molecular dynamics simulations on ternary...

Methotrexate-resistant cells, which contain a 500-fold amplification of dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR) genes, were used as a model system for studying the regulation of DHFR gene expression during growth stimulation. We have shown that a threefold increase in DHFR mRNA levels following growth stimulation results from a corresponding increase in DHFR mRNA production (i.e., delivery to the cytopl...