Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0038187 (starvation)
 24,951 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The growth of the eucaryotic microorganism Dictyostelium discoideum in liquid culture was completely inhibited by the aspartic acid analog hadacidin (N-formylhydroxyamino-acetic acid). Growth arrest occurred both in chemically defined medium and in complex growth medium containing aspartic acid and AMP precursors such as adenine and adenosine. Although these compounds could not overcome the effect of hadacidin, growth was restored if cells were washed and resuspended in fresh growth medium. Additional experiments showed that D. discoideum contains adenylosuccinate synthetase, the enzyme which catalyzes the synthesis of adenylosuccinate from IMP, aspartic acid, and GTP in the de novo biosynthesis of purines. A partially purified preparation of this enzyme was obtained, and the effect of hadacidin on its activity was studied. We found that maximum inhibition of the D. discoideum activity occurs at a ratio of aspartic acid to hadacidin of 5:1, suggesting that the affinity of the drug for this enzyme is less than for the enzyme from rabbit muscle and plants but greater than for that from Escherichia coli. The effect of the drug can be overcome by a 10-fold excess of aspartic acid, suggesting that the drug acts as a competitive inhibitor. A comparison of the adenylosuccinate synthetase activity levels at various stages of growth showed that its specific activity decreases about 60% as cells enter the stationary growth phase, and decreases about 75% after starvation for 2 h. Further studies showed that in cells treated with hadacidin the rate of uptake of exogenous nutrients is reduced about 75% and that these cells are more resistant to rupture by osmotic shock. While the results of this study are consistent with the proposal that growth arrest is contingent upon inhibition of adenylosuccinate synthetase activity, they also suggest that, as a consequence of this inhibition, some physiological properties of the cell have been altered.
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PMID:Effect of hadacidin on growth and adenylosuccinate synthetase activity of Dictyostelium discoideum. 56 51

Arterial plasma amino acids were measured in 27 patients with serious septic complications after operation, 15 patients following reduction of femoral shaft fractures and nine control patients on the first and third days following uneventful major abdominal surgery. Amino acid concentrations in the controls were similar to those which have been reported during early starvation. The amino acid patterns seen in all groups did not resemble that previously observed following glucocorticoid administration. In the patients with infection, mean phenylalanine concentration (108.0 +/- 46.9 mumoles per liter) was significantly greater than in the controls on the first (p greater than 0.001) or third (p less than 0.001) postoperative days. Four of the septic patients with hyperphenylalaninemia also had elevated arterial methionine concentrations. These observations suggest that many of the patients with sepsis had seriously impaired liver metabolism. In patients with fractures, the concentrations of ornithine (p less than 0.001), taurine (p less than 0.05), and aspartic acid (p less than 0.05) were lower than in controls. No other significant differences of amino acid concentrations were observed. It is difficult to relate these differences to a specific metabolic abnormality.
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PMID:Arterial plasma amino acids in patients with serious postoperative infection and in patients with major fractures. 125 95

Aspartate transcarbamoylase labeled with 3-fluorotyrosine was purified from an Escherichia coli strain which was auxotrophic for tyrosine and overproduced aspartate transcarbamoylase upon uracil starvation. The labeled enzyme in which about 85% of the tyrosines were replaced by fluorotyrosine exhibited high enzyme activity that varied in a sigmoidal manner with respect to the aspartate concentration. Also, the labeled enzyme was inhibited by CTP, activated by ATP, and exhibited a 2.6% decrease in sedimentation coefficient upon the addition of the active-site ligand, N-(phosphonacetyl)-L-aspartate. Thus, despite extensive replacement of tyrosines by fluorotyrosine, the modified enzyme was similar to native aspartate transcarbamoylase. The 19F nuclear magnetic resonance spectrum of isolated regulatory subunits labeled with fluorotyrosine consisted of a single peak. Addition of the activator, ATP, or the inhibitor, CTP, caused a loss of intensity at about 61.3 ppm upfield from a trifluoroacetic acid reference and an increase at about 61.5 ppm, but CTP also caused an increase at about 61.0 ppm. Five overlapping resonances were observed in the 19F NMR spectrum of unliganded catalytic subunits containing fluorotyrosine. Although the binding of the bisubstrate analog, N-(phosphonacetyl)-L-aspartate, or the combination of carbamoylphosphate and succinate caused similar disappearances of resonances, the addition of N-(phosphonacetyl)-L-aspartate caused the appearance of resonances not observed with carbamoylphosphate plus succinate. Carbamoylphosphate alone perturbed three or four resonances and the subsequent addition of succinate affected at least two.
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PMID:19F nuclear magnetic resonance studies of fluorotyrosine-labeled aspartate transcarbamoylase. Properties of the enzyme and its catalytic and regulatory subunits. 404 74

The general control of amino acid biosynthesis was investigated in Candida spec. EH 15/D, using single and double mutant auxotrophic strains and prototrophic revertants starved for their required amino acids. These experiments show that starvation for lysine, histidine, arginine, leucine, threonine, proline, serine, methionine, homoserine, asparagine, glutamic acid or aspartic acid can result in derepression of enzymes. A correlation was found between the degree of derepression, growth of strains, and concentration of required amino acids. The amino acids pool pattern of mutants and revertants is different from that in the wild type strain.
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PMID:[General control of amino acid biosynthesis in mutants of Candida spec. EH 15/D]. 663 44

Pathways of L-glutamate and L-aspartate import by HeLa S3 cells were investigated before and after the cells were depleted of internal amino acids by starvation. Two new regulations of transport were observed in starved cells. Aspartate entered nonstarved cells by two routes, one non-saturable and one, an apparent analog of saturable system X-AG, that was sodium-dependent and competitively inhibited by glutamate. Starvation for one hour in saline increased the efficiency of saturable aspartate import, increasing Vmax and decreasing Km, an effect not previously reported for system X-AG. Glutamate uptake by nonstarved cells appeared to occur through system X-AG; through an analog of system X-C, which was sodium-independent, cystine- and quisqualate-inhibitable; as well as through one or more nonsaturable pathways. Starvation in saline for one hour resulted in the appearance of a new low-affinity saturable glutamate uptake system. This new system was sodium-dependent but not inhibited by aspartate.
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PMID:Novel regulations of glutamate and aspartate uptake by HeLa cells. 786 40

To analyze the role of phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase (PEPCase, EC 4.1.1.31) during seed development, two cDNA clones encoding two isoforms of PEPCase were isolated from a seed-specific library of Vicia faba. The two sequences (VfPEPCase1 and VfPEPCase2) have a sequence identity of 82 and 89% on the nucleotide and amino acid levels. The VfPEPCase1 mRNA was found to be predominantly expressed in roots and developing cotyledons whereas the VfPEPCase2 mRNA was more abundant in green and maternal tissues. In the cotyledons, PEPCase mRNAs accumulated from early to mid cotyledon stage and decreased thereafter. The PEPCase activity increased continuously during cotyledon development. The enzyme was strongly activated by glucose-6-phosphate, but not by glucose, fructose or sucrose. Asparagine was weakly activating whereas malate, aspartate and glutamate were inhibitory. The inhibitors became less effective with increasing pH. Aspartate was a much stronger inhibitor of cotyledonary PEPCase than glutamate at both pH 7.0 and 7.5. The sensitivity of PEPCase to malate inhibition decreased from early to mid cotyledon stage at a time when storage proteins are synthesized. This indicates activation on the protein level, possibly by protein phosphorylation. Nitrogen starvation in the presence of hexoses but not sucrose decreased mRNA levels of VfPEPCase1 and enzyme activity, indicating control on the mRNA level by both carbon and nitrogen. It is concluded that in developing cotyledons PEPCase is probably important for the synthesis of organic acids to provide carbon skeletons for amino acid synthesis.
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PMID:Phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase in developing seeds of Vicia faba L.: gene expression and metabolic regulation. 1021 2

The present study was designed to evaluate the relevance of arginine transport in nitric oxide (NO) synthesis in vascular smooth muscle cells. For this purpose, NO synthesis and arginine transport (system B0,+ and y+) were evaluated in cells treated with IL-1beta or angiotensin II (Ang II). In addition, the effects of 5 mM lysine and glutamine, competitive inhibitors of systems y+ and B0,+ respectively, were examined. L-arginine transport was estimated with 3H-labelled arginine and NO was determined with the Griess reagent. These studies were done in control conditions, arginine-starved cells, and in cells incubated in media containing 10 mM arginine. Our data indicate that induction of NO biosynthesis by IL-1beta depends on external arginine when cells are arginine-depleted for 24 hours. The concentration of arginine producing half maximal activation of NO synthesis in arginine-depleted cells ([arginine]i < 10 microM) was 41.1 +/- 18 microM. By contrast, in normal culture conditions, NO synthesis occurred independently of arginine transport. Neither 5 mM lysine or glutamine which abolished arginine transport through systems y+ and B0,+, respectively, reduced nitrite release in cells incubated in normal media. This suggests that the relevance of arginine uptake to NO synthesis depends on the status of intracellular arginine pools. Intracellular arginine concentrations were not affected by the stimulation of NO production using IL-1beta or its inhibition using Ang II, but were markedly reduced by arginine starvation for 48h. Aspartate levels were also reduced by arginine-depletion, but were not affected in cells incubated with 10 mM arginine. By contrast, glutamate levels were reduced in arginine-starved cells and were increased in cells incubated in arginine-supplemented medium. Ornithine levels were markedly increased by arginine supplementation. Altogether, these findings indicate that NO synthesis is normally independent of membrane transport. However in arginine-depleted cells, membrane transport is essential for NO synthesis. It is concluded that arginine transport is required for the long-term maintenance of intracellular arginine pools.
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PMID:Relationship between NO synthesis, arginine transport, and intracellular arginine levels in vascular smooth muscle cells. 1112 52

Escherichia coli contains two major systems for transporting inorganic phosphate (P(i)). The low-affinity P(i) transporter (pitA) is expressed constitutively and is dependent on the proton motive force, while the high-affinity Pst system (pstSCAB) is induced at low external P(i) concentrations by the pho regulon and is an ABC transporter. We isolated a third putative P(i) transport gene, pitB, from E. coli K-12 and present evidence that pitB encodes a functional P(i) transporter that may be repressed at low P(i) levels by the pho regulon. While a pitB(+) cosmid clone allowed growth on medium containing 500 microM P(i), E. coli with wild-type genomic pitB (pitA Delta pstC345 double mutant) was unable to grow under these conditions, making it indistinguishable from a pitA pitB Delta pstC345 triple mutant. The mutation Delta pstC345 constitutively activates the pho regulon, which is normally induced by phosphate starvation. Removal of pho regulation by deleting the phoB-phoR operon allowed the pitB(+) pitA Delta pstC345 strain to utilize P(i), with P(i) uptake rates significantly higher than background levels. In addition, the apparent K(m) of PitB decreased with increased levels of protein expression, suggesting that there is also regulation of the PitB protein. Strain K-10 contains a nonfunctional pitA gene and lacks Pit activity when the Pst system is mutated. The pitA mutation was identified as a single base change, causing an aspartic acid to replace glycine 220. This mutation greatly decreased the amount of PitA protein present in cell membranes, indicating that the aspartic acid substitution disrupts protein structure.
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PMID:Characterization of PitA and PitB from Escherichia coli. 1148 53

Eisenstadt, Jerome M. (Brandeis University, Waltham, Mass.) and Harold P. Klein. Evidence for the de novo synthesis of the alpha-amylase of Pseudomonas saccharophila. J. Bacteriol. 82:798-807. 1961.-Chloramphenicol at a concentration of 20 mug per ml inhibited the appearance of the inducible alpha-amylase of Pseudomonas saccharophila. This inhibition was observed when induction was attempted in buffer or in a complete medium. Preinduced cells were also prevented from forming this enzyme under similar conditions. Under all the conditions tested, there was no lag in chloramphenicol inhibition, thus suggesting an absence of any protein precursor in amylase formation. Cells suspended in a complete medium without a nitrogen source lost their capacity to form this enzyme when subsequently induced in buffer. When cells were grown in the presence of radioactive sulfate and then subjected to starvation, the radioactivity of the amino acid pool diminished only slightly. However, examination of the free amino acid pool by paper chromatography showed that the loss of enzyme inducibility was accompanied by the disappearance of glutamine, aspartic acid, and a third, unidentified, compound. Enzyme-forming ability was restored by the addition, to starved cells of casein hydrolysate, glutamate, glutamine, or aspartate. Other amino acids tested were ineffective in this regard. When cells were induced in buffer in the presence of labeled methionine, amylase was formed at a linear rate over a 3-hr period. Furthermore, both the cellular proteins and the extracellular amylase became labeled at a linear rate. These observations are discussed in relation to the problem of protein turnover, and are interpreted as evidence for the de novo synthesis of alpha-amylase in this organism.
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PMID:Evidence for the de novo synthesis of the alpha-amylase of Pseudomonas saccharophila. 1388 95

Aspartate is one of the compounds that induce the differentiation process of the non-infective epimastigote stage to the infective trypomastigote stage of the protozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi. l-aspartate is transported by both epimastigote and trypomastigote cells at the same rate, about 3.4 pmolmin(-1) per 10(7) cells. Aspartate transport is only competed by glutamate suggesting that this transport system is specific for anionic amino acids. Aspartate uptake rates increase along the parasite growth curve, by amino acids starvation or pH decrease. The metabolic fate of the transported aspartate was predicted in silico by identification of seven putative genes coding for enzymes involved in aspartate metabolism that could be related to the differentiation process.
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PMID:Aspartate transport and metabolism in the protozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi. 1592 49


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