In Escherichia coli, p-aminobenzoate (PABA) is synthesized from chorismate and glutamine in two steps. Aminodeoxychorismate synthase components I and II, encoded by pabB and pabA, respectively, convert chorismate and glutamine to 4-amino-4-deoxychorismate (ADC) and glutamate, respectively. ADC lyase, encoded by pabC, converts ADC to PABA and pyruvate. We reported that pabC had been cloned and mapped to 25 min on the E. coli chromosome (J. M. Green and B. P. Nichols, J. Biol. Chem. 266:12971-12975, 1991). Here we report the nucleotide sequence of pabC, including a portion of a sequence of a downstream open reading frame that may be cotranscribed with pabC. A disruption of pabC was constructed and transferred to the chromosome, and the pabC mutant strain required PABA for growth. The deduced amino acid sequence of ADC lyase is similar to those of Bacillus subtilis PabC and a number of amino acid transaminases. Aminodeoxychorismate lyase purified from a strain harboring an overproducing plasmid was shown to contain pyridoxal phosphate as a cofactor. This finding explains the similarity to the transaminases, which also contain pyridoxal phosphate. Expression studies revealed the size of the pabC gene product to be approximately 30 kDa, in agreement with that predicted by the nucleotide sequence data and approximately half the native molecular mass, suggesting that the native enzyme is dimeric.

The bone resorption observed after chymopapain injection into the rabbit knee joint can be inhibited through the use of the bisphosphonate, zoledronic acid. Furthermore, zoledronic acid does not increase the level of cartilage degeneration and appears to provide some level of chondroprotection in this model.

In Escherichia coli, chorismate lyase catalyzes the first step in ubiquinone biosynthesis, the conversion of chorismate to 4-hydroxybenzoate. 4-Hydroxybenzoate is converted to 3-octaprenyl-4-hydroxybenzoate by 4-hydroxybenzoate octaprenyltransferase. These two enzymes are encoded by ubiC and ubi4, respectively, and have been reported to map near one another at 92 min on the E. coli chromosome. We have cloned the ubiCA gene cluster and determined the nucleotide sequence of ubiC and a portion of ubi4. The nucleotide sequence abuts with a previously determined sequence that encodes a large portion of ubi4. ubiC was localized by subcloning, and overproducing plasmids were constructed. Overexpression of ubiC allowed the purification of chorismate lyase to homogeneity, and N-terminal sequence analysis of chorismate lyase unambiguously defined the beginning of the ubiC coding region. Although chorismate lyase showed no significant amino acid sequence similarity to 4-amino-4-deoxychorismate lyase (4-amino-4-deoxychorismate -. 4-aminobenzoate), the product of E. coli pabC, chorismate lyase overproduction could complement the growth requirement for 4-aminobenzoate of a pabC mutant strain. Of the several enzymes that convert chorismate to intermediates of E. coli biosynthetic pathways, chorismate lyase is the last to be isolated and characterized.Chorismate is the branch point precursor for the synthesis of many aromatic compounds in Escherichia coli. The seven major end products of chorismate anabolism are phenylalanine, tyrosine, tryptophan, ubiquinone, 4-aminobenzoate, menaquinone, and enterobactin. Chorismate itself undergoes five different conversions that result in those seven products. The tyrosine and phenylalanine pathways diverge following the isomerization of chorismate to prephenate, but two distinct, homologous chorismate mutase activities channel chorismate toward either phenylalanine or tyrosine (10). The menaquinone and enterobactin pathways diverge following the conversion of chorismate to 2-hydroxy-4-deoxychorismate (isochorismate) by isochorismate synthase (28,30). For 4-aminobenzoate synthesis, chorismate is first aminated to form 4-amino-4-deoxychorismate, which then undergoes ,-elimination of the enol-pyruvyl moiety to form 4-aminobenzoate (1,8,21,29). The first step in ubiquinone biosynthesis is the conversion of chorismate to 4-hydroxybenzoate by chorismate lyase (5, 15), in a reaction apparently similar to the second step of 4-aminobenzoate synthesis, catalyzed by 4-amino-4-deoxychorismate lyase. Finally, the first step in tryptophan synthesis is chorismate amination and p-elimination of the enol-pyruvyl group to form anthranilate, or 2-aminobenzoate (2).With the exception of the genes involved in ubiquinone biosynthesis, all of the E. coli genes encoding enzymes that use chorismate or 4-amino-4-deoxychorismate as substrates have been cloned and sequenced. These include pheA (chorismate mutase-prephenate dehydratase), tyrA (chorismate mutase-prephenate dehydrogenase) (10), entC (isochorismate synth...

Escherichia coli AbgT was first identified as a structural protein enabling the growth of p-aminobenzoate auxotrophs on exogenous p-aminobenzoyl-glutamate (M. J. Hussein, J. M. Green, and B. P. Nichols, J. Bacteriol. 180:6260-6268, 1998). The abg region includes abgA, abgB, abgT, and ogt; these genes may be regulated by AbgR, a divergently transcribed LysR-type protein. Wild-type cells transformed with a high-copynumber plasmid encoding abgT demonstrate saturable uptake of p-aminobenzoyl-glutamate (K T ‫؍‬ 123 M); control cells expressing vector demonstrate negligible uptake. The addition of metabolic poisons inhibited uptake of p-aminobenzoyl-glutamate, consistent with this process requiring energy. p-Aminobenzoyl-glutamate taken in by cells expressing large amounts of AbgT alone is not rapidly metabolized to a form that is trapped in the cell, as the addition of nonradioactive p-aminobenzoyl-glutamate to these cells results in a rapid loss of intracellular label. The addition of nonradioactive p-aminobenzoate has no effect. The abgA, abgB, and abgAB genes were cloned into the medium-copy-number plasmid pACYC184; p-aminobenzoate auxotrophs transformed with the clone encoding abgAB demonstrated enhanced ability to grow on low levels of p-aminobenzoylglutamate. When transformed with complementary plasmids encoding high-copy levels of abgT and mediumcopy levels of abgAB, p-aminobenzoate auxotrophs grew on 50 nM p-aminobenzoyl-glutamate. Our data are consistent with a model of p-aminobenzoyl-glutamate utilization in which AbgT catalyzes transport of paminobenzoyl-glutamate, followed by cleavage to p-aminobenzoate by a protein composed of subunits encoded by abgA and abgB. While endogenous expression of these genes is very low under the conditions in which we performed our experiments, these genes may be induced by AbgR bound to an unknown molecule. The true physiological role of this region may be related to some molecule similar to p-aminobenzoyl-glutamate, such as a dipeptide.

Objective. To measure changes in pharmacy and medical students' physician-pharmacist collaboration scores resulting from a workshop designed to promote understanding of the others' roles in health care. Methods. More than 88% of first-year pharmacy (n 5 215) and medical (n 5 205) students completed the Scale of Attitudes Toward Physician-Pharmacist Collaboration on 3 occasions in order to establish a baseline of median scores and to determine whether the scores were influenced by an interprofessional workshop. Results. Participation in the interprofessional workshop increased pharmacy students' collaboration scores above baseline (p50.02) and raised the scores of medical students on the education component of the collaboration survey instrument (p50.015). The collaboration scores of pharmacy students greatly exceeded those of medical students (p,0.0001). Conclusion. A workshop designed to foster interprofessional understanding between pharmacy and medical students raised the physician-pharmacist collaboration scores of both. Crucial practical goals for the future include raising the collaboration scores of medical students to those of pharmacy students.

Folic acid exists in mammalian cells with a poly-gamma-glutamate tail that may regulate the flux of folates through the various cellular pathways. The substrate polyglutamate specificity of methylenetetrahydrofolate dehydrogenase from pig liver has been examined by using a competitive method and measuring apparent tritium kinetic isotope effects on Vmax/Km for methylenetetrahydrofolate. This competitive method yields very accurate ratios of Km values for alternate substrates of an enzyme and may also be applied to reactions with no isotope effect. In combination with published data from our own and other laboratories, the kinetic parameters of methylenetetrahydrofolate dehydrogenase were used to calculate the initial velocities of pig liver methylenetetrahydrofolate dehydrogenase, thymidylate synthase, and methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase, at physiological concentrations of substrates and enzymes. These calculations suggest that the cellular concentration of methylenetetrahydrofolate may regulate the flux of this metabolite into the pathways leading to nucleotide biosynthesis and methionine regeneration. An increase in the cellular level of methylenetetrahydrofolate would permit more one-carbon units to be directed toward nucleotide biosynthesis.

The metabolic fate of p-aminobenzoic acid (PABA) in Escherichia coli is its incorporation into the vitamin folic acid. PABA is derived from the aromatic branch point precursor chorismate in two steps. Aminodeoxychorismate (ADC) synthase converts chorismate and glutamine to ADC and glutamate and is composed of two subunits, PabA and PabB. ADC lyase removes pyruvate from ADC, aromatizes the ring, and generates PABA. While there is much interest in the mechanism of chorismate aminations, there has been little work done on the ADC synthase reaction. We report that PabA requires a preincubation with dithiothreitol for maximal activity as measured by its ability to support the glutamine-dependent amination of chorismate by PabB. PabB undergoes inactivation upon incubation at 37؇C, which is prevented by the presence of chorismate or PabA; glutamine enhances the protective effect of PabA. Incubation with fresh dithiothreitol reverses the inactivation of PabB. We conclude that both PabA and PabB have cysteine residues which are essential for catalytic function and/or for subunit interaction. Using conditions established for maximal activity of the proteins, we measured the K m values for the glutamine-dependent and ammonia-dependent aminations of chorismate, catalyzed by PabB alone and by the ADC synthase complex. Kinetic studies with substrates and the inhibitor 6-diazo-5-oxo-L-norleucine were consistent with an ordered bi-bi mechanism in which chorismate binds first. No inhibition of ADC synthase activity was observed when p-aminobenzoate, sulfanilamide, sulfathiazole, and several compounds requiring folate for their biosynthesis were used.

Objective. To determine the impact of performing critical-thinking and reflection assignments within interdisciplinary learning teams in a biochemistry course on pharmacy students' and prospective health professions students' collaboration scores. Design. Pharmacy students and prospective medical, dental, and other health professions students enrolled in a sequence of 2 required biochemistry courses. They were randomly assigned to interdisciplinary learning teams in which they were required to complete case assignments, thinking and reflection exercises, and a team service-learning project. Assessment. Students were asked to complete the Scale of Attitudes Toward Physician-Pharmacist Collaboration prior to the first course, following the first course, and following the second course. The physician-pharmacist collaboration scores of prospective health professions students increased significantly ( p,0.001). Conclusions. Having prospective health professions students work in teams with pharmacy students to think and reflect in and outside the classroom improves their attitudes toward physician-pharmacist collaboration.