• BMB Reports
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.471-476
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• 1995

Acetolactate synthase (ALS) catalyzes the first common step in the biosynthesis of valine, leucine, and isoleucine. ALS is the target enzyme for several classes of structually diverse herbicides. We have synthesized 4,6-dimethoxypyrimidine derivatives as ALS inhibitors, and their inhibitory activities on barley ALS were determined. $IC_{50}$ values for the derivatives are 0.2~200 ${\mu}m$. K11570, the most potent ALS inhibitor with $IC_{50}$ of 0.2 ${\mu}m$, showed mixed-type inhibition with respect to substrate pyruvate, and the progress curves for ALS inhibition by K11570 indicated that the amount of inhibition increased with time. Inhibition-competition experiments were carried out and indicated that three different classes of inhibitors, K11570, a sulfonylurea Ally, and leucine, bind to ALS in a mutually exclusive manner. Chemical modification of tryptophanyl and tyrosyl residues of ALS decreased the sensitivity of ALS to K11570, while cysteine modification did not affect the sensitivity. These results suggest that tryptophanyl and tyrosynyl residues are probably located at or near the inhibitor binding site.

• BMB Reports
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.462-467
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• 1996

Acetolactate synthase (ALS, EC 4.1.3.18) is the first common enzyme in the biosynthesis of leucine, isoleucine, and valine. It is the target enzyme for several classes of herbicides, including the sulfonylureas, the imidazolinones, the mazolopyrimidines, the pyrimidyl-oxy-benzoates, the pyrimidyl-thio-benzens, and the 4,6-dimethoxypyrimidines. An amino-terminal fragment of the sulfonylurea-resistant ALS gene (SurB) from Nicotiana tabaccum was cloned into the bacterial expression vector pGEX-2T. The resulting recombinant plasmid pGEX-ALS1 was used to transform Escherichia coli strain BL21, and the tobacco ALS was expressed in the bacteria as a protein fused with glutathione S-transferase (GST). Polyclonal antibodies against the fusion product (GST-ALS) were produced, and the sensitivity of GST-ALS with the rabbit anti-GST-ALS IgG was up to 50 ng. This antibody was used for Western blot analysis of the partially purified ALS from barley shoots. The results suggest that the polyclonal antibody produced in this study can be used to detect plant ALS.