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Query: EC:1.7.1.4 (nitrite reductase)
 1,847 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

Synthesis of glutamine synthetase (GS) in anaerobic batch cultures of Escherichia coli was repressed when excess NH4+ was available, but derepressed during growth with a poor nitrogen source. In wild-type bacteria there was only a weak inverse correlation between the activities of GS and glutamate dehydrogenase (GDH) during growth in various media. No positive correlations were found between the activities of GS and nitrite reductase, or between GS and cytochrome c552: both of these proteins were synthesized normally by mutants that contained no active GS. Although activities of GS and GDH were low in two mutants that are unable to synthesize cytochrome c552 or reduce nitrite because of defects in the nirA gene, the nirA defect was separated from the GS and GDH defects by transduction with bacteriophage P1. Attempts to show that catabolite repression of proline oxidase synthesis could be relieved during NH4+ starvation also failed. It is, therefore, unlikely that nitrite reduction or proline oxidation by E. coli are under positive control by GS protein. The regulation of the synthesis of enzymes for the utilization of secondary nitrogen sources in E. coli, therefore, different from that in Klebsiella aerogenes, but is similar to that in Salmonella typhimurium.
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PMID:Lack of a regulatory function for glutamine synthetase protein in the synthesis of glutamate dehydrogenase and nitrite reductase in Escherichia coli K12. 1 79

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

Cytochrome c552, which has been implicated as an electron carrier for nitrite reduction by Escherichia coli, has been separated from NADH-nitrite oxidoreductase activity. The cytochrome is therefore not required for the reduction of nitrite by NADH in vitro. Nevertheless, some mutants which were selected by their inability to use nitrite as a nitrogen source during anaerobic growth synthesize neither NADH-nitrite oxidoreductase nor cytochrome c552. The defects in these mutants are due to mutations in a single gene, nirA, which is located at about minute 29 on the recalibrated linkage map. Experiments with an F' plasmid which carries a nirA+ allele established that nirA+ is dominant to the defective allele. Other mutants, defective in nitrate reductase activity because of mutations in the chlA or chlB genes, synthesized nitrite reductase and cytochrome c552 in the absence of nitrate or nitrite. A mutant with a defective fnr gene was also NirA- and, conversely, nirA mutants were Fnr-. In a series of transduction experiments, attempts to separate the nirA and fnr defects were unsuccessful. Furthermore, no complementation was observed when an F' plasmid carrying a defective nirA allele was transferred into the fnr strain. It is concluded that the fnr gene described by Lambden & Guest (1976) is identical to the nirA gene and that its product affects the synthesis or assembly of a variety of anaerobic redox enzymes which include nitrite reductase, cytochrome c552, nitrate reductase, fumarate reductase and formate hydrogenlyase.
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PMID:The chromosomal location and pleiotropic effects of mutations of the nirA+ gene of Escherichia coli K12: the essential role of nirA+ in nitrite reduction and in other anaerobic redox reactions. 20 51

At dissolved oxygen tensions of 15 mmHg (2 kPa) and below, nitrate-limited continuous cultures of Klebsiella K312 synthesized nitrate reductase (NR) and nitrite reductase (NiR) and excreted ammonia. Under anaerobic conditions over 60% of the nitrate-nitrogen utilized was excreted as ammonia. In contrast, carbon-limited cultures excreted nitrite at dissolved oxygen tensions of 15 mmHg or below and synthesized NR but not NiR. Ammonia repressed neither NR nor NiR synthesis. These observations indicate that below a critical oxygen tension of 15 mmHg Klebsiella K312 utilizes oxygen and nitrate as electron acceptors. This oxygen tension correlates well with the critical oxygen tension observed for a change from oxidative to fermentative metabolism in cultures of Klebsiella aerogenes. The product of dissimilatory nitrate reduction is ammonia in nitrate-limited cultures but principally nitrite in carbon-limited (nitrate excess) cultures.
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PMID:Influence of oxygen tension on nitrate reduction by a Klebsiella sp. growing in chemostat culture. 47 38

Chlorate resistant spontaneous mutants of Azospirillum spp. (syn. Spirillum lipoferum) were selected in oxygen limited, deep agar tubes with chlorate. Among 20 mutants from A. brasilense and 13 from A. lipoferum all retained their functional nitrogenase and 11 from each species were nitrate reductase negative (nr-). Most of the mutants were also nitrite reductase negative (nir-), only 3 remaining nir+. Two mutants from nr+ nir+ parent strains lost only nir and became like the nr+ nir- parent strain of A. brasilense. No parent strain or nr+ mutant showed any nitrogenase activity with 10 mM NO3-. In all nr- mutants, nitrogenase was unaffected by 10 mM NO3-. Nitrite inhibited nitrogenase activity of all parent strains and mutants including those which were nir-. It seems therefore, that inhibition of nitrogenase by nitrate is dependent on nitrate reduction. Under aerobic conditions, where nitrogenase activity is inhibited by oxygen, nitrate could be used as sole nitrogen source for growth of the parent strains and one mutant (nr- nir-) and nitritite of the parent strains and 10 mutants (all types). This indicates the loss of both assimilatory and dissimilatory nitrate reduction but only dissimilatory nitrite reduction in the mutants selected with chlorate.
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PMID:Nitrate and nitrite reductase negative mutants of N2-fixing Azospirillum spp. 69 99

Mutation in at least ten genes can result in chlorate reistance in Aspergillus nidulans. Mutation in seven of these genes also results in the inability to use nitrate as nitrogen source. The various classes of resistant mutant obtained occur in different proportions, depending on whether or not a mutagenic treatment is employed, and also on which nitrogen source is used for selection. The prinicipal effect of mutagen arises because mutations in the niaD gene, the nitrate reductase structural gene, are relatively much commoner when no mutagen is used than after treatment with N-methyl-N'-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine. This may be connected with the finding that deletions involving the niaD gene are relatively more common among samples of spontaneous niaD mutants. Some of these deletions extend to the neighbouring niiA gene, the structural gene for nitrite reductase. The selection procedures used were designed to avoid bias in favour of any particular chlorate resistant phenotype. Even if biases existed however, these could not account for the variation found from nitrogren source to nitrogen source in the proportions of certain resistant classes having apparently identical chlorate resistance phenotypes.
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PMID:Cholorate toxicity in Aspergillus nidulans: the selection and characterisation of chlorate resistant mutants. 77 8

Ferredoxin-nitrite reductase (EC 1.7.7.1.) from spinach has been purified to homogeneity with a specific activity of 110 units/mg of protein. The enzyme, Mr = 61,000 has 3 iron atoms (of which one is in siroheme) and 2 labile sulfides, i.e. 1 (Fe2-S2) per molecule, with absorption maxima at 276, 386 (Soret), 573 (alpha), and 690 nm, with an E386 of 3.97 X 10(4) M-1-cm-1, and A276/A386 absorptivity ratio of 1.8. Anaerobic addition of dithionite results in the loss of the 690 nm peak and the splitting of the 573 nm absorption band into two broad peaks at 545 and 585 nm. Reduction by dithionite is enhanced by cyanide (Fig. 7) and requires about 3 electron eq per mol of enzyme. With nitrite or hydroxylamine (substrates of the enzyme), cyanide (a competitive inhibitor with respect to nitrite), or sulfite, the 690 nm absorption band of substrate-free enzyme disappears and the absorbance in the Soret and alpha region are altered. The high spin EPR signals disappear (J. M. Vega, H. Kamin, N. R. Orme-Johnson, and W. H. Orme-Johnson, unpublished observations). Titration permits calculation of 1 mol of nitrite bound/mol of enzyme with a Kdiss of 3.2 X 10(-6) M. Dithionite-reduced enzyme also forms complexes with added nitrite, hydroxylamine, or cyanide, characterized by marked alterations in the 573 (alpha) absorption band. THus, substrates or competitive inhibitors can be bound to the oxidized or reduced enzyme forms. CO inhibits nitrite reductase and forms a complex with reduced enzyme (epsilonmax at 395, 543, and 585 nm). Formation or dissociation of the spectrophotometrically detectable CO complex correlates with inhibition or inhibition-reversal of nitrite reduction catalysis. During steady state turnover with dithionite and nitrite, the enzyme forms a complex with added nitrite with absorption difference maxima at 445, 538, and 580 nm with respect to reduced enzyme. When nearly all substrate is depleted the spectrum of a new species appears, indicating that nitrite reductase may form complexes with nitrogen compounds of more than one oxidation state. Nitrite is stoichiometrically reduced to ammonia without detectable free nitrogen compounds of intermediate reduction state. p-Chloromercuribenzoate (pCMB) inhibits nitrite reductase activity and nitrite partially protects against this inhibition. Titration of native enzyme with the mercurial shows that 6 mol of pCMB can be bound/mol or nitrite reductase. The Soret absorption band of the native nitrite reductase is altered and partially bleached in the pCMB-treated enzyme, and the 573 (alpha) band disappears.
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PMID:Spinach nitrite reductase. Purification and properties of a siroheme-containing iron-sulfur enzyme. 83 4

The strains were isolated from soil by enrichment in a liquid minimal medium containing ethanol, acetate, succinate, L-malate or tartrate, under an N2O atmosphere at 32 degrees C. All fourteen strains can use the following 25 sources of carbon and energy under aerobic conditions: glycerate, ethanol, propanol, acetate, butyrate, malonate, succinate, glutarate, sebacate, glycollate, L-lactate, D-lactate, L-malate, DL-3-hydroxybutyrate, pyruvate, fumarate, itaconate, mesaconate, crotonate, L-alpha-alanine, D-alpha-alanine, L-leucine, asparagine, L-tyrosine, and L-proline. They hydrolyze Tween 80 but not gelatin. Nitrate is used as nitrogen source. Nitrate reductase A and respiratory nitrite reductase are present. Four of the strains are clearly and easily distinguishable from the others on the basis of six characters: special morphology of colonies; in ability to use isovalerate and DL-valine, inability to use glucose, absence of exocellular amylase, and high level of metapyrocatechase. Their G + C content is 66-67%. One of the strains is distinct from the others by the yellow pigmentation of its colonies, its ability to use D-glucuronate, trehalose, D-sorbitol and citraconate, ability to grow at 4 degrees but not at 40 degrees, and a lower G + C content: 63%. One strain accumulates poly-beta-hydroxybutyrate. This work confirms the well-known, wide variability of the bacteria belonging to the P. stutzeri group. Denitrification by two of the strains was quantitatively studied using cell suspensions. Cells from NO-3-containing anaerobic cultures reduce NO-3, NO-2 and NO to N2O and N2; they reduce slowly N2O to N2. Cells grown in anaerobic cultures under N2O also reduce NO-3, NO-2 and NO to N2O and N2 but they reduce N2O rapidly to N2.
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PMID:[Study of 14 denitrifying soil bacteria of the "pseudomonas stutzeri" group isolated by enrichment culture in the presence of nitrous oxide (author's transl)]. 86 7

The roles of molybdenum and iron in the enzymes of the assimilatory nitrate-reducing system from Azotobacter chroococcum have been investigated. 1. By adding 99 Mo-molybdate to a cell culture of A. chrocococcum with nitrate as the nitrogen source, it has been possible to incroporate the radioactive metal into a purified preparation of the enzyme nitrate reductase. 2. When 185 W-tungstate was supplied to a culture medium lacking added molybdate, a 185 W-labelled nitrate reductase preparation with negligible activity could be obtained. This in vivo incorporation of tungsten was competitively hindered by molybdenum. 3. The cellular level of nitrite reductase activity gradually increased in response to the addition of increasing amounts of iron to the culture medium. Under the same conditions, of the level of nitrate reductase activity was not affected.
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PMID:Molybdenum and iron as functional consitituents of the enzymes of the nitrate-reducing system of Azotobacter chroococcum. 111 63


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