We describe a method for assessing tissue-specific plasma free fatty acid (FFA) utilization in vivo using a non-beta-oxidizable FFA analog, [9,10-3H]-(R)-2-bromopalmitate (3H-R-BrP). Ideally 3H-R-BrP would be transported in plasma, taken up by tissues and activated by the enzyme acyl-CoA synthetase (ACS) like native FFA, but then 3H-labeled metabolites would be trapped. In vitro we found that 2-bromopalmitate and palmitate compete equivalently for the same ligand binding sites on albumin and intestinal fatty acid binding protein, and activation by ACS was stereoselective for the R-isomer.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOverexpression of the Escherichia coli msbB gene on high copy plasmids suppresses the temperature-sensitive growth associated with mutations in the htrB gene. htrB encodes the lauroyl transferase of lipid A biosynthesis that acylates the intermediate (Kdo)2-lipid IVA (Brozek, K. A.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBy assaying lysates of Escherichia coli generated with the hybrid lambda bacteriophages of an ordered library (Kohara, Y., Akiyama, K., and Isono, K.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe enzyme 3-deoxy-D-manno-octulosonic acid (Kdo) transferase is encoded by the kdtA gene in Escherichia coli. The enzyme is a single polypeptide that catalyzes the transfer of two Kdo residues to a tetraacyldisaccharide-1,4'-bisphosphate precursor of lipid A, designated lipid IVA (Belunis, C.J.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe gene kdtA in Escherichia coli codes for 3-deoxy-D-manno-octulosonic acid transferase, the enzyme responsible for attachment of the two 3-deoxy-D-manno-octulosonic acid residues that constitute the link between lipid A and the core oligosaccharide of the lipopolysaccharide. Cloning and subsequent sequencing of the region upstream of kdtA revealed an open reading frame identified as the first gene (rfaQ) in an rfa gene cluster. The kdtA and rfaQ transcripts were identified, and the 5' ends of the transcripts were mapped by primer extension.
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