Phytochromes (with gene family members phyA, B, C, D, and E) are a wavelength-dependent light sensor or switch for gene regulation that underscore a number of photo responsive developmental and morphogenic processes in plants. Recently, phytochrome-like pigment proteins have also been discovered in prokaryotes, possibly functioning as an auto-phosphorylating/phosphate-relaying two-component signaling system (Yeh et al., 1997). Phytochromes are photochromically convertible between the light sensing Pr and regulatory active Pfr forms. Red light converts Pr to Pfr, the latter having a "switch-on" conformation. The Pfr form triggers signal transduction pathways to the downstream responses including the expression of photosynthetic and other growth-regulating genes. The components involved in and the molecular mechanisms of the light signal transduction pathways are largely unknown, although G-proteins, protein kinases, and secondary messengers such as $Ca^{2+}$ ions and cGMP are implicated. The 124-127 kDa phytochromes form homodimeric structures. The N-terminal half contains the tetrapyrrolic phytochromobilin for red/far-red light absorption. The C-terminal half includes both a dimerization motif and regulatory box where the red light signal perceived by the chromophore-domain is recognized and transduced to initiate the signal transduction cascade. A working model for the inter-domain signal communication within the phytochrome molecule is proposed in this Review.

In vitro effects of acetone on cytochrome P450 (P450)-dependent benzo(a)pyrene (B(a)P) hydroxylation supported by cumene hydroperoxide (CuOOH) or NADPH/$O_2 $ systems were studied using 3-methylcholanthrene-pretreated rat liver microsomes. The maximal rate of B(a)P hydroxylation at constant concentration ($80\;{\mu}M)$ of the substrate was observed in the presence of $30\;{\mu}M$ CuOOH. However, at concentrations higher than $30\;{\mu}M$ CuOOH the hydroxylation rates were rapidly decreased. In contrast to CuOOH, at a concentration of $200\;{\mu}M$ NADPH, B(a)P hydroxylation rate reached a plateau. At concentrations higher than $200\;{\mu}M$ NADPH, the rates of substrate hydroxylation were maintained at the maximal rate with no inhibition. Acetone at 1% (v/v) enhanced both CuOOH- and NADPH/$O_2$-supported B(a)P hydroxylation at the optimal concentrations of the cofactors. At concentrations higher than 1% (v/v) acetone, substrate hydroxylation was sterero specific under the support of these two cofactors; it was strongly enhanced with $30\;{\mu}M$ CuOOH, but rather inhibited in the $200\;{\mu}M$> NADPH/$0_2 $ system. The lipid peroxidation rate induced during CuOOH-supported P450-dependent B(a)P hydroxylation was increased as CuOOH concentrations were increased. Acetone in the concentration range of 2.5~7.5%(v/v) inhibited lipid peroxidation during CuOOH supported B(a)P hydroxylation. The finding that CuOOH-supported B(a)P hydroxylation is greatly enhanced by acetone suggests that acetone may contribute more to the activation of oxygen (for the insertion of oxygen into the substrate) in the presence of CuOOH than with NADPH/$O_2$. Acetone may also contribute to the partial inhibition of destruction of microsomal membranes by lipid peroxidation.

Sex differences in the induction of microsomal cytochrome P-450 (CYP) and the activities of several related enzymes of Sprague-Dawley rats treated with 1-bromopropane (1-BrP) were investigated. Male and female rats were exposed to 50, 300, and 1800 ppm of 1-BrP per kg body weight (6 h a day,S days a week, 8 weeks) by inhalation. The mean body weight of 1-BrP treated groups increased according to the day elapsed, but four and five weeks respectively after the start of the exposure, the mean body weight of male and female rats had significantly reduced in the group treated with 1800 ppm 1-BrP compared with the control group (p<0.01). While the relative weights of liver increased in both sexes, statistical significance in both sexes was found only in the group receiving 1800 ppm/kg of 1-BrP (p<0.01). The total contents of CYP, $b_5$, NADPH-P-450 reductase, NADH $b_5$ reductase, ethoxyresorufin-O-deethylase (EROD), pentoxyresorufin-O-dealkylase (PROD), and p-nitrophenol hydroxylase (pNPH) activities were examined for the possible effects of 1-BrP. No significant changes in the CYP and $b_5$ contents, NADPH-P-450 reuctase, NADH $b_5$ reductase, ethoxyresorufin-O-deethylase (EROD), and pentoxyresorufin- O-dealkylase (PROD) were observed between the control and treated groups. The activity of pNPH increased steadily with the increase in the concentration of 1-BrP in both sexes, but was significantly increased only in the 1800 ppm-treated group of male rats (p<0.05). When Western blottings were carried out with three monoclonal antibodies (MAb 1-7-1, MAb 2-66-3, and MAb 1-98-1) which were specific against CYP1A1/2, CYP2B1/2, and CYP2E1, respectively, a strong signal corresponding to CYP2E1 was observed in microsomes obtained from rats treated with 1-BrP. Glutathione S-transferase (GST) activity and the content of lipid peroxide significantly increased in the treated groups compared with the control group (p<0.05). These results suggest that 1-BrP can primarily induce CYP2E1 as the major form and that GST phase II enzymes play important roles in 1-BrP metabolism, showing sex-dependence in the metabolic mechanism of 1-BrP in the rat liver.

A tripeptidase (PepT) was purified to homogeneity from Bacillus subtilis through four sequential chromatographies including DEAE-Sepharose ion exchange, hydroxylapatite, mono-Q FPLC ion exchange, and Superose-12 FPLC gel filtration. The apparent molecular mass of the enzyme was 49,200 Da and 51,400 Da as determined by sodium dodecylsulfatepolyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) and gel filtration chromatography, respectively, and the enzyme exists in a monomeric form. The physicochemical properties of the enzyme were as follows: optimum pH at 7.5, optimum temperature at $60^{\circ}C$, and pI at 4.9. The $K_m$ and $V_{max}$ values of the enzyme were 4.3 mM and 2.5 mmol/min/mg, respectively, with MetAla-Ser as substrate. The B. subtilis PepT requires $Co^{2+}$ ion(s) for activation, while it is inactivated by EOTA and 1,10-phenanthroline, suggesting that it is a metalloprotein. The enzyme was not inhibited by any of serine protease, aspartic protease, or leucine aminopeptidase inhibitors. The enzyme showed comparable activities towards four different substrates including Met-Ala-Ser, Leu-Gly-Gly, Leu-Ser-Phe, and Leu-Leu-Tyr. The amino terminal sequence of PepT determined by Edman degradation was found to be MKEEIIERFTTYVXV and turned out to be identical to that of PepT deduced from a cloned B. subtilis pepT.

Chicken egg ovalbumin is a non-inhibitory member of the serpin (serine protease inhibitors) family whose members share a common tertiary fold. In the present study, we succeeded in high-level production of a disulfide-free form of refolded recombinant ovalbumin. Conformational characterization of the recombinant ovalbumim revealed that it is well-folded, following two-state unfolding transition with the midpoint of transition at 4.7 M at $25^{\circ}C$. This value is very close to that of the reduced form of authentic ovalbumin. The recombinant ovalbumin can serve as a model molecule of non-inhibitory serpins in comparative studies with inhibitory members of the serpin family.

The NADPH-dependent succinic semialdehyde reductase is one of the key enzymes in the brain GABA shunt, and it catalyzes the formation of the neuromodulator $\gamma$-hydroxybutyrate from succinic semi aldehyde. This enzyme was inactivated by diethylpyrocarbonate (DEP) with the second-order rate constant of $1.1{\times}10^3\;M^{-1}min^{-1}$ at pH 7.0, $25^{\circ}C$, showing a concomitant increase in absorbance at 242 nm due to the formation of N-carbethoxyhistidyl derivatives. Complete inactivation of succinic semialdehyde reductase required the modification of five histidyl residues per molecule of enzyme. However, only one residue was calculated to be essential for enzyme activity by a statistical analysis of the residual enzyme activity. The inactivation of the enzyme by DEP was prevented by preincubation of the enzyme with the coenzyme NADPH but not with the substrate succinic semialdehyde. These results suggest that an essential histidyl residue involved in the catalytic activity is located at or near the coenzyme binding site of the brain succinic semialdehyde reductase.

This study was designed to examine the anticarcinogenic effect of dietary supplementation with garlic powder on rat hepatocarcinogenesis. All rats were initiated by a single dose (200 mg/body weight) intraperitoneal injection of diethylnitrosamine (DEN), and three weeks later, subjected to two-thirds partial hepatectomy. Two weeks after initiation, four groups of rats were given experimental diets supplemented with 0 (control group), 0.5, 2.0, or 5.0% garlic powder for 6 weeks. Rats were sacrificed at eight weeks after initiation. The induction of placental glutathione S-transferase (GST-P) positive foci was significantly inhibited almost equally in all three groups fed garlic diets. Glucose 6-phosphatase (G6Pase) activity was increased in rats fed 0.5% and 2.0% garlic powder, and was negatively correlated with the number and area of GST-P positive foci. Thiobarbituric acid reactive substance (TBARS) contents were decreased in rats fed 2.0% and 5.0% garlic powder. Only 5.0% garlic powder supplementation significantly increased the glutathione content and the glutathione S-transferase activity, compared to the control group. Therefore, all levels of garlic powder, 0.5% to 5.0%, exerted an anti promotional effect during hepatocarcinogenesis. Dietary supplementation with garlic powder seemed to maintain microsomal membrane integrity by increasing G6Pase activities. Glutathione-dependent detoxifying enzymes did not seem to contribute to this protective effect directly. The present study suggests that garlic powder is effective in inhibiting the induction of GST-P positive foci, possibly by stabilizing the hepatic microsomal membrane.

The insulin-like growth factor (IGF) system consisting of IGF-I, IGF-II, IGF-receptors, and IGF-binding proteins (IGFBP) regulates the proliferation of a variety of cancer cell types. To examine whether a decrease in endogenous IGFBP-3 stimulates proliferation or inhibits differentiation, Caco-2 cells, a human colon adenocarcinoma cell line, were stably transfected with an anti-sense IGFBP-3 expression construct or pcDNA3 vector as control. Accumulation of IGFBP-3 mRNA and secretion of IGFBP-3 into serum-free conditioned medium, 9 days after plating, were significantly lower in Caco-2 cell clones transfected with anti-sense IGFBP-3 cDNA compared to the controls. The anti-sense clones grew at a similar rate to the controls for 8 days after plating, but achieved a higher final density between days 10 and 12. The levels of sucrase-isomaltase mRNA, a marker of enterocyte differentiation of Caco-2 cells, were lower in the anti-sense clones examined on day 9. In conclusion, proliferation of Caco-2 cells can be stimulated by lowering endogenously-produced IGFBP-3.

Cytolysin produced by Vibrio vulnificus has been known to be lethal to mice by increasing vascular permeability and neutrophil sequestration in the lung. In the present study, a cytotoxic mechanism of V. vulnificus cytolysin on the neutrophil was investigated. Cytolysin rapidly bound to neutrophils and induced cell death, as determined by the trypan blue exclusion test. V. vulnificus cytolysin caused the depletion of cellular ATP without the release of ATP or lactate dehydrogenase. Formation of transmembrane pores was evidenced by the rapid efflux of potassium and 2-deoxy-D-[$^3H$]glucose from cytolysin-treated neutrophils. It was further confirmed by the rapid flow of monovalent ions in the patch clamp of cytolysin-treated neutrophil membrane. The pore formation was accompanied by the oligomerization of cytolysin monomers on the neutrophil membrane as demonstrated by immunoblot, which exhibited a 210 kDa band corresponding to a tetramer of the native cytolysin of $M_r$ 51,000. These findings indicate that V. vulnificus cytolysin rapidly binds to the neutrophil membrane and oligomerizes to form small transmembrane pores, which induce the efflux of potassium and the depletion of cellular ATP leading to cell death without cytolysis.

The aromatic hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) is a cytosolic protein that binds the environmental pollutant, dioxin. The liganded AhR translocates into the nucleus where it heterimerizes with a constitutive nuclear protein, AhR nuclear translocator (Arnt). The N-terminal regions of both AhR and Arnt contain basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) and Per-AhR-Arnt-Sim (PAS) motifs that are required for DNA binding, dimerization, and ligand binding whereas the C-terminal regions of both AhR and Arnt contain transactivation domains. Here, results from the mammalian two-hybrid system indicate that Arnt can make a homodimer but AhR cannot. In the presence of dioxin, the interaction between AhR and Arnt is stronger than that of the Arnt homodimer, suggesting that Arnt prefers to make a heterodimer with the liganded AhR rather than a homodimer. Transfection analyses using the GAL4-driven reporter system suggest that AhR's N-terminal region represses its own transactivation domain, as well as exogenous transactivation domains such as Sp 1 and VP16. Interestingly, the repressed transactivation domains of AhR are activated by ligand-dependent heterodimerization with Arnt. These observations suggest that heterodimerzation with Arnt is necessary not only for DNA binding but also for activation of the repressed transactivation capability of AhR.

In order to understand the initial interaction of the substrates malonate, ATP, and CoA with malonyl-CoA synthetase, the catalytic product malonyl-CoA was characterized by NMR spectroscopy and molecular modeling. To assign proton and carbon chemical shifts, two-dimensional $^1H-^1H$ DQF-COSY and $^1H-^{13}C$ HMBC experiments were used. The structure of malonyl-CoA in the solution phase was determined based on distance constraints from NOESY and ROESY spectra. The structures were well-converged around the pantetheine region with the pairwise RMSD value of 0.08 nm. The solution structure exhibited a compact folded conformation with intramolecular hydrogen bonds among its carbonyl and hydroxyl groups. These findings will help us to understand the initial interaction of malonate and CoA with malonyl-CoA synthetase.

Myo-inositol monophosphate phosphatase is a key enzyme in the phosphoinositide cell-signaling system. Incubation of myo-inositol monophosphate phosphatase from porcine brain with N-bromosuccinimide (NBS) resulted in a time-dependent loss of enzyme activity. The inactivation followed pseudo-first-order kinetics with the second-order rate constant of $3.8{\times}10^3\;M^{-1}min^{-1}$. The time course of the reaction was significantly affected by the substrate myo-inositol-1-phosphate, which afforded complete protection against the loss of catalytic activity. Spectrophotometric studies indicated that about one oxindole group per molecule of enzyme was formed following complete loss of enzymatic activity. It is suggested that the catalytic function of myo-inositol monophosphate phosphatase is modulated by the binding of NBS to a specific tryptophan residue at or near the substrate binding site of the enzyme.

Protein carboxyl O-methyltransferase (PCMT) catalyzes the transfer of a methyl group from Sadenosyl-L-methionine to free carboxyl groups of methyl-accepting substrate proteins. Two isozymes were separated by DEAE-Sephacel chromatography from porcine brain cytosol and designated PCMT I and II. Isozymes I and II were further purified by adenosyl homocysteine-Sepharose 4B and Superose HR 12 chromatography. The molecular weights of the purified PCMT I and II were determined by mass spectrometry to be 20,138 Da and 25,574 Da, respectively. The two enzymes displayed different isoelectric points; 7.9 for PCMT I and 5.3 for PCMT II. Isozymes I and II exhibited similar substrate specificities when tested with various methyl-accepting proteins. Myelin basic protein, a component of myelinated neurons, was found to be an excellent methyl-accepting substrate for both PCMT isozymes with different $K_m$ values, $21.1\;{\mu}M$ for PCMT I and $10.6\;{\mu}M$ for PCMT II. The PCMT activity and methyl-accepting capacity displayed similar distribution in the various brain regions with an exception of the lower values in the cerebellum. The overall distribution may relate to a general function of protein repair by PCMT in the brain.

The partial cDNA of the MT-c clone encoding snake venom metalloprotease was subcloned and expressed in E. coli. The expressed metalloprotease was purified by affinity chromatography in the presence of urea, and then successfully refolded into its functional form, retaining metalloprotease activity that hydrolyzes fibrinogen. The simple and convenient refolding strategy established in this work was highly efficient in recovering the recombinant enzyme activity. Experimental evidence suggests that the C-terminal amino acid stretch of 16 residues is a critical sequence for proper folding of the metalloprotease domain.

Studies in adipocytes indicate that secretion of active lipoprotein lipase (LPL) was strictly regulated by a quality control system in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). However, there has been no report about the ER chaperones participating in the folding and assembly of LPL. Many chaperones are known to bind unfolded proteins and dissociate from them through the ATP-hydrolyzing reaction. In this study, putative ER chaperones for LPL were determined by affinity chromatography using denatured LPL as an affinity ligand and elution with ATP. BiP, grp94, calreticulin, and another 50 kDa K-D-E-L protein in the ER of rat adipose tissue were bound to denatured LPL and eluted by ATP. Calnexin was bound to denatured LPL; however, it was not eluted by ATP but by acetic acid. These results indicate that, at least, BiP, grp94, calreticulin, calnexin, and the unidentified 50 kDa protein might act as putative chaperones for the proper folding and assembly of LPL in ER.

A leucine aminopeptidase has been isolated from the culture medium of the soil fungus, Aspergillus flavus. The enzyme was found to be a glycoprotein, as judged by electrophoresis analysis and the subsequent staining by the periodic acid-Schiff's reagent. Carbohydrate moieties could be cleaved by N-glycosidase, but not by O-glycosidase, indicating that the glucans are linked to the asparagine residue in the protein. Removal of N-glucans was observed without prior denaturation of the protein, implying that the N-glycosidic linkage is exposed and accessible to glycosidase. When the activity of native or deglycosylated enzyme was measured in the presence of various metal ions, removal of carbohydrates increased the aminopeptidase activity of the enzyme.