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Query: EC:1.7.1.2 (nitrate reductase)
 3,861 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

It had previously been held that chlorate is not itself toxic, but is rendered toxic as a result of nitrate reductase-catalysed conversion to chlorite. This however cannot be the explanation of chlorate toxicity in Aspergillus nidulans, even though nitrate reductase is known to have chlorate reductase activity. Among other evidence against the classical theory for the mechanism of chlorate toxicity, is the finding that not all mutants lacking nitrate reductase are clorate resistant. Both chlorate-sensitive and resistant mutants lacking nitrate reductase, also lack chlorate reductase. Data is presented which implicates not only nitrate reductase but also the product of the nirA gene, a positive regulator gene for nitrate assimilation, in the mediation of chlorate toxicity. Alternative mechanisms for chlorate toxicity are considered. It is unlikely that chlorate toxicity results from the involvement of nitrate reductase and the nirA gene product in the regulation either of nitrite reductase, or of the pentose phosphate pathway. Although low pH has an effect similar to chlorate, chorate is not likely to be toxic because it lowers the pH; low pH and chlorate may instead have similar effects. A possible explanation for chlorate toxicity is that it mimics nitrate in mediating, via nitrate reductase and the nirA gene product, a shut-down of nitrogen catabolism. As chlorate cannot act as a nitrogen source, nitrogen starvation ensues.
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PMID:Chlorate toxicity in Aspergillus nidulans. Studies of mutants altered in nitrate assimilation. 0 97

Induced wildtype cells of A. nidulans rapidly lost NADPH--linked nitrate reductase activity when subjected to carbon and or nitrogen starvation. A constitutive mutant at the regulatory gene for nitrate reductase, nir Ac 1, rapidly lost nitrate reductase activity upon carbon starvation. This loss of activity is thought to be due to a decrease in the NADPH concentration in the cells. Cell free extracts from wildtype cells grown in the presence of nitrate, rapidly lost their nitrate reductase activity when incubated at 25 degrees C. NADPH prevented this loss of activity. Wildtype cells grown in the presence of nitrate and urea have a higher initial NADPH:NADP+ ratio and cell free extracts from such cells lost their nitrate reductase activity slower than extracts of cells grown with nitrate alone. The Pentose Phosphate Pathway mutant, pppB-1, had a lower NADPH concentration compared with the wildtype grown under the same conditions and cell free extracts lost their nitrate reductase activity more rapidly than the wildtype. Cell free extracts of nirAc-1 and a non-inducible mutant for nitrate reductase, nirA- -14, upon incubation lost little of their nitrate reductase activity.
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PMID:In vivo and in vitro studies of nitrate reductase regulation in Asperillus nidulans. 1 26

Reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH)-nitrate reductase from Neurospora crassa was purified and found to be stimulated by certain amino acids, citrate, and ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA). Stimulation by citrate and the amino acids was dependent upon the prior removal of EDTA from the enzyme preparations, since low quantities of EDTA resulted in maximal stimulation. Removal of EDTA from enzyme preparations by dialysis against Chelex-containing buffer resulted in a loss of nitrate reductase activity. Addition of alanine, arginine, glycine, glutamine, glutamate, histidine, tryptophan, and citrate restored and stimulated nitrate reductase activity from 29- to 46-fold. The amino acids tested altered the Km of NADPH-nitrate reductase for NADPH but did not significantly change that for nitrate. The Km of nitrate reductase for NADPH increased with increasing concentrations of histidine but decreased with increasing concentrations of glutamine. Amino acid modulation of NADPH-nitrate reductase activity is discussed in relation to the conservation of energy (NADPH) by Neurospora when nitrate is the nitrogen source.
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PMID:Regulation of the Neurospora crassa assimilatory nitrate reductase. 1 23

The formation of aminoacids and proteins from the nitrogen which enters the roots as nitra t involves a complex reaction requiring energy. The first step requires a metalloflavoprotein, the nitrate reductase and the successive intervention of NADPH, FAD and reduced molybdenum which transfers electrons to nitrate and reduces it to nitrite. The following steps involve NADPH, FAD, Copper, Iron and Manganese, the last steps of the successive reductions being ammonia, needed for the aminoacids synthesis. The activity of the different enzymes are under the dependence of the genetic equipment of the plant, of the nitrogen and oligo-element nutrition and of the different factors acting on the photosynthesis.
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PMID:[Nitrates and nitrites in plants]. 2 19

The nitrogen source available to Diplodia maydis in vivo is reported to affect the severity of stalk rot in maize. Nitrate and (or) ammonium salts were tested for their effect on the type of nitrogen metabolism found in Diplodia maydis in vitro. The level of glutamate dehydrogenase remained essentially constant on either nitrogen salt but nitrate reductase was induced by growth on nitrate salts and was not extractable on ammonium salts. Properties of nitrate reductase reported here are similar to those reported for the higher plant and Neurospora crassa enzymes. Thr relationship of nitrogen metabolism in Diplodia maydis to Zea mays L. stalk rot is discussed.
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PMID:Nitrogen-metabolizing enzymes of Diplodia maydis, a Zea mays L. stalk rot causing fungus. 3 73

Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (reduced form)-nitrate reductase was freed from ammonium repression in a Neurospora crassa mutant having drastically lowered glutamine synthetase activity, gln-1a. The general phenomenon of nitrogen metabolite repression required glutamine or some aspect of glutamine metabolism.
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PMID:Nitrogen metabolite repression of nitrate reductase in Neurospora crassa: effect of the gln-1a locus. 3 43

All species of Rhizobium except R. lupini had nitrate reductase activity. Only R. lupini was incapable of growth with nitrate as the sole source of nitrogen. However, the conditions necessary for the induction of nitrate reductase varied among species of Rhizobium. Rhizobium japonicum and some Rhizobium species of the cowpea strains expressed nitrate reductase activities both in the root nodules of appropriate leguminous hosts and when grown in the presence of nitrate. Rhizobium trifolii, R. phaseoli, and R. leguminosarum did not express nitrate reductase activities in the root nodules, but they did express them when grown in the presence of nitrate. In bacteroids of R. japonicum and some strains of cowpea Rhizobium, high N2 fixation activities were accompanied by high nitrate reductase activities. In bacteroids of R. trifolii, R. leguminosarum, and R. phaseoli, high N2 fixation activities were not accompanied by high nitrate reductase activities.
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PMID:Nitrate reductase activities of rhizobia and the correlation between nitrate reduction and nitrogen fixation. 11 73

Pseudomonas aeruginosa can reduce nitrate to nitrite and evenutally to nitrogen gas by the denitrification pathway, thereby providing the organism with a mode of respiration and ATP generation in the absence of oxygen. P. aeruginosa can also reduce nitrate to nitrite through an assimilatory pathway that provides the cell with reduced nitrogen for biosyntheses. In order to establish whether this organism synthesizes a single nitrate reductase protein that functions in both pathways, or produces one for each pathway, we isolated mutants blocked in the assimilation of nitrate. These mutants are unaffected in the reduction of nitrate be the denitrification pathway, although they produce low or undectable levels of assimilatory nitrate reductase. On the basis of transductional analysis, the mutations were found to be distributed among four genes designated nasA, nasB, nasC, and nasD. Shifting a nasA mutant from anaerobic to aerobic growth eliminated the culture's ability to reduce nitrate, i.e. the anaerobic nitrate reductase cannot function in the presence of oxygen. Thus P. aeruginosa can synthesize two distinct proteins which reduce nitrate to nitrite: an assimilatory nitrate reductase and a dissimilatory nitrate reductase. If conditions of growth are fully aerobic, the latter is not synthesized and does not function. The former, synthesized under the control of at least four genes, is repressed by readily available nitrogen sources.
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PMID:Isolation and analysis of mutants of Pseudomonas aeruginosa unable to assimilate nitrate. 12 Jul 27

One allele at each of the five nit loci in Neurospora crassa together with the wild type strain have been compared on various nitrogen sources with regard to (i) their growth characteristics (ii) the level of nitrate reductase and its associated activities (reduced benzyl viologen nitrate reductase and cytochrome c reductase) (iii) the level of nitrate reductase and (iv) their ability to take up nitrite from the surrounding medium. Results are consistent with the hypothesis that nit-3 is the structural gene for nitrate reductase, nit-1 specifies in part of molybdenum containing moiety which is responsible for the nit-3 gene product dimerising to form nitrate reductase, nit-4 and nit-5 are regulator genes whose products are involved in the induction of both nitrate reductase and nitrite reductase and nit-2 codes for a generalised ammonium activated repressor protein. Studies on the induction of nitrate reductase (and its associated activities) and nitrite reductase in wild type, nit-1 and nit-3 in the presence of either nitrate or nitrite suggest that each enzyme may be regulated independently of the other and that nitrite could be true co-inducer of the assimilatory pathway. Nitrite uptake experiments with nit-2, nit-4 and nit-5 strains show that whereas nit-4 and nit-5 are freely permeable to this molecule, it is unable to enter the nit-2 mycelium.
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PMID:Biochemical studies on the nit mutants of Neurospora crassa. 13 3

Synthesis of wild-type Neurospora crassa assimilatory nitrate reductase is induced in the presence of nitrate ions and repressed in the presence of ammonium ions. Effects of several Neurospora mutations on the regulation of this enzyme are shown: (i) the mutants, nit-1 and nit-3, involving separate lesions, lack reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADPH)-nitrate reductase activity and at least one of three other activities associated with the wild-type enzyme. The two mutants do not require the presence of nitrate for induction of their aberrant nitrate reductases and are constitutive for their component nitrate reductase activities in the absence of ammonium ions. (ii) An analog of the wild-type enzyme (similar to the nit-1 enzyme) is formed when wild type is grown in a medium in which molybdenum has been replaced by vanadium or tungsten; the resulting enzyme lacks NADPH-nitrate reductase activity. Unlike nit-1, wild type produced this analog only in the presence of nitrate. Contaminating nitrate does not appear to be responsible for the observed mutants' activities. Nitrate reductase is proposed to be autoregulated. (iii) Mutants (am) lacking NADPH-dependent glutamate dehydrogenase activity partially escape ammonium repression of nitrate reductase. The presence of nitrate is required for the enzyme's induction. (iv) A double mutant, nit-1 am-2, proved to be an ideal test system to study the repressive effects of nitrogen-containing metabolites on the induction of nitrate reductase activity. The double mutant does not require nitrate for induction of nitrate reductase, and synthesis of the enzyme is not repressed by the presence of high concentrations of ammonium ions. It is, however, repressed by the presence of any one of six amino acids. Nitrogen metabolites (other than ammonium) appear to be responsible for the mediation of "ammonium repression."
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PMID:Induction and repression of nitrate reductase in Neurospora crassa. 14


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