Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: EC:2.3.3.1 (citrate synthase)
 4,488 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The pathway for biosynthesis of sialic acid capsular polysaccharide was examined in Neisseria meningitidis serogroup B strain M986 and in strain PRM102, an isogenic mutant defective in polysaccharide production. Strain PRM102 was found to possess only 25% of the level of sialyltransferase activity that was found in strain M986, but it had wild-type levels of both the N-acetylneuraminic acid (NANA) condensing enzyme and the CMP-NANA synthetase. A new meningococcal enzyme, a CMP-NANA hydrolase, was found in both meningococcal strains. This enzyme generated CMP and NANA from CMP-NANA, had a Km of 0.88 microM, had a Vmax of 10.75 nmol of NANA produced per h per mg of protein, and was completely inhibited by 45.3 microM CMP. The sialyltransferase, which also had CMP-NANA as substrate, was insensitive to CMP addition. Subcellular fractionation and purification of cytoplasmic and outer membranes on sucrose density gradients revealed that both the sialyltransferase and the CMP-NANA hydrolase were cytoplasmic membrane associated. The NANA condensing enzyme and the CMP-NANA synthetase were found to be cytosolic. A working hypothesis for the regulation of sialic acid polysaccharide synthesis was developed. The CMP-NANA hydrolase with its high affinity for CMP-NANA regulates polysaccharide formation by the sialyltransferase, whereas CMP, a product of both the sialyltransferase and the CMP-NANA hydrolase, modulates the activity of the hydrolase on the cytoplasmic membrane.
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PMID:Physiology of sialic acid capsular polysaccharide synthesis in serogroup B Neisseria meningitidis. 630 82

The genes encoding all enzymes necessary for capsular polysaccharide biosynthesis in Neisseria meningitidis B are located on a 5 kb DNA fragment within the chromosomal cps gene cluster. Nucleotide sequence analysis revealed four open reading frames (ORFs), which can encode proteins with molecular masses of 41.4 kDa, 24.9 kDa, 38.3 kDa, and 54.4 kDa, respectively. These ORFs constitute a transcriptional unit as demonstrated by Northern blots. Primer extension analysis revealed that the transcriptional start site is preceded by a nucleotide sequence with homologies to the sigma 70 consensus promoter sequence of Escherichia coli. Functional analysis of the proteins encoded by the ORFs indicated that ORF2 encodes the CMP-NeuNAc synthetase, ORF3 encodes the NeuNAc condensing enzyme, and ORF4 encodes the alpha-2,8 polysialyltransferase. ORF1 encodes an enzyme, which provides a precursor molecule for synthesis of monomeric NeuNAc. In E. coli the subcloned ORFs 2-4 were able to synthesize a high-molecular-weight alpha-2,8 polysialic acid. In contrast, inactivation of ORF1 in the meningococcal genome resulted in a complete loss of capsule production. A regulatory enzyme, the CMP-NeuNAc hydrolase, which cleaves CMP-NeuNAc to CMP and NeuNAc, was not found as a part of the capsular polysaccharide biosynthesis gene operon or within the cps gene cluster.
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PMID:Molecular analysis of the biosynthesis pathway of the alpha-2,8 polysialic acid capsule by Neisseria meningitidis serogroup B. 783 May 52