The fungus Stachybotrys chartarum has been implicated in cases of nonspecific indoor air quality complaints in adults and in cases of pulmonary hemorrhaging in infants. The effects that have been described have been attributed to mycotoxins. Previous dose-effect studies focused on exposure to a single mycotoxin in a solvent, a strategy which is unlikely to accurately characterize the effects of...

Ethyleneglycol (aminoethylether) tetra-acetic acid (EGTA) was shown to be a potent competitive inhibitor of electron transfer between methanol dehydrogenase (MDH) and its electron acceptor cytochrome cL. Addition of Ca2+ ions relieved the inhibition by removal of the inhibitory EGTA. Removal of EGTA by gel filtration completely relieved the inhibition. EGTA did not remove the tightly bound Ca2+...

The mechanism of bacterial methanol dehydrogenase involves hydride equivalent transfer from substrate to the ortho-quinone PQQ to provide a C5-reduced intermediate that subsequently rearranges to the hydroquinone PQQH(2). We have studied the PQQ reduction by molecular dynamic (MD) simulations in aqueous solution. Among the five simulated structures, either Asp297 or Glu171 or both are ionized. ...

An inducible methanol dehydrogenase showing high activity with 2-chloroethanol was purified from 2-chloroethanol-grown cells of the 1,2-dichloroethane utilizing bacterium Xanthobacter autotrophicus GJ10. The enzyme consisted of a 60 kDa polypeptide that was associated with a 10 kDa polypeptide and contained pyrrolo-quinoline quinone (PQQ) as a prosthetic group. Chloroethanol-grown cells of stra...