Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UMLS:C0026764 (multiple myeloma)
 36,148 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

We have characterized an operon required for inner-core biosynthesis of the lipooligosaccharide (LOS) of Neisseria meningitidis. Using Tn916 mutagenesis, we recently identified the alpha-1,2-N-acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc) transferase gene (rfaK), which when inactivated prevents the addition of GlcNAc and alpha chain to the meningococcal LOS inner core (C. M. Kahler, R. W. Carlson, M. M. Rahman, L. E. Martin, and D. S. Stephens, J. Bacteriol. 178:1265-1273, 1996). During the study of rfaK, a second open reading frame (lgtF) of 720 bp was found upstream of rfaK. An amino acid sequence homology search of the GenBank and EMBL databases revealed that the amino terminus of LgtF has significant homology with a family of beta-glycosyltransferases involved in the biosynthesis of polysaccharides and O antigen of lipopolysaccharides. The chromosomal copy of lgtF was mutagenized with a nonpolar antibiotic resistance cassette to minimize potential polar effects on rfaK. Tricine sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and composition analysis of the LOS from the nonpolar lgtF mutant showed that this strain produced a truncated LOS structure which contained a LOS inner core of GlcNAc1Hep2KDO2lipid A but without the addition of lacto-N-neotetraose to HepI or glucose to HepII. These results and the amino acid homology with beta-glycosyltransferases suggest that lgtF encodes the UDP-glucose:LOS-beta-1,4-glucosyltransferase which attaches the first glucose residue to HepI of LOS. Reverse transcriptase PCR and primer extension analysis indicate that both lgtF and rfaK are cotranscribed as a polycistronic message from a promoter upstream of lgtF. This arrangement suggests that completion of the LOS inner core and the initiation of the alpha chain addition are tightly coregulated in N. meningitidis.
 ...
PMID:Two glycosyltransferase genes, lgtF and rfaK, constitute the lipooligosaccharide ice (inner core extension) biosynthesis operon of Neisseria meningitidis. 895 82

A 1,3-alpha-glucan synthase (GTF-I), a highly branched 1, 6-alpha-glucan synthase (GTF-U) and a 1,6-alpha-glucan synthase (GTF-T) were purified to near homogeneity from the culture fluid of Streptococcus sobrinus strain B13N (serotype d) and characterized. In addition, a crude preparation of a recombinant oligo-isomaltosaccharide synthase (rGTF-S) was prepared from a cell-free extract of Escherichia coli MD124 transformant. Using four homogeneous GTF preparations including previously purified rGTF-S as antigens for immunization, 11 murine hybridomas producing a monoclonal antibody (MAb) were established through the fusion of myeloma cells (P3X63-Ag8-U1) and spleen cells of immunized BALB/c mice. When the immunoreactivities of the resultant MAbs were tested, all five MAbs raised against GTF-I, all three MAbs raised against GTF-T, and two of three MAbs raised against GTF-U reacted specifically with the homologous enzyme alone, while one MAb (B86) raised against GTF-U cross-reacted strongly with all GTFs. Although no MAb monospecific for rGTF-S was obtained, precise recognition of GTF-S was possible using the nonspecific B86 antibody together with the MAbs monospecific for the three glucan synthases. Thus, a set of four typical MAbs (B17, B76, B19 and B86) were successfully used for the identification of gene products expressed in 24 previously constructed E. coli phage clones, and the findings suggested that six phage clones might express a gtfU gene encoding GTF-U which has not been hitherto isolated.
 ...
PMID:Production, characterization, and application of monoclonal antibodies which distinguish four glucosyltransferases from Streptococcus sobrinus. 1061 84