Thesis (M.Sc.)--Memorial University of Newfoundland, 1997. / Bibliography: leaves 50-51.

Thesis (Ph. D. in Chemistry)--Vanderbilt University, Aug. 2005. / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.

The glutathione S-transferases are a group of enzymes which catalyse the conjugation of reduced glutathione with a variety of electrophilic molecules, and they are therefore thought to play a major role in drug biotransformation and the detoxification of xenobiotics. The cytosolic GSH S-transferase isoenzymes of rat, man and mouse have been assigned to three groups, Alpha, Mu and Pi, based on N-terrninal amino acid sequences, substrate specificities, immunological cross-reactivity and sensitivities to inhibitors. The kinetic mechanism of the GSH S-transferases is controversial, due to the observation of non-Michaelian (non-hyperbolic) substrate-rate saturation curves. The most detailed investigations of the steady-state kinetics of glutathione S-transferase have been performed with isoenzyme 3-3 (class Mu) and the substrate 1,2-dichloro-4-nitrobenzene (DCNB). Explanations for the apparently anomalous non-hyperbolic kinetics have included subunit cooperativity, steady-state mechanisms of differing degrees of complexity and the superimposition of either product inhibition or enzyme memory on these mechanisms. This study has confirmed the biphasic kinetics for isoenzyme 3-3 with DCNB and shown non-hyperbolic kinetics for this isoenzyme with 1-chloro-2,4-dinitrobenzene (CDNB) and for isoenzyme 3-4 with DCNB and CDNB. It is proposed that the basic steady-state random sequential Bi Bi mechanism is the simplest mechanism sufficient to explain the non-hyperbolic kinetics of GSH S-transferases 3-3 and 3-4 under initial rate conditions. Neither more complex steady-state mechanisms nor the superimposition of product inhibition or enzyme memory on the simplest steady-state mechanism are necessary.

No description available.

No description available.

In previous work, mouse lines were selected for resistance (R) or for susceptibility (S) to fescue toxicosis based upon reductions in post-weaning growth rate caused by an endophyte-infected diet. The first objective of the current experiment was to determine whether long term reproduction of S mice was more severely depressed than that of R mice by the toxic diet. The second objective was to quantify glutathione-S-epoxytransferase (GST) and uridine diphosphate glucuronosyl-transferase (UDPGT) activities in R and S dams form the experiment and to determine whether reproduction during continuous cohabitation and liver detoxification enzyme activities were correlated within line x diet groups. Effects of the toxic diet were detectable within the first litters produced. Reproduction was more seriously influenced by the toxic diet within the S line than within the R line when these measures were compared within four equal time phases. The effects of the toxic diet on reproduction were greatest early in the experiment; by the fourth time phase differences among line x diet groups, with the exception of litter weight, were not significant. Percentage differences in total reproduction were greater between S mice fed the non-toxic diet and S mice fed the toxic diet than those between the R mice fed the non-toxic and toxic diets. Averaged across diets, GST activities were higher in R mice, but UDPGT activities were not significant. Within R line mice, GST was correlated with three reproductive measures, but UDPGT activity was not correlated with reproduction within any line x diet group. / Master of Science

Diss. (sammanfattning) Stockholm : Karol. inst., 2003. / Härtill 4 uppsatser.

<p>Evolution of enzymes with novel functional properties has gained much attention in recent years. Naturally evolved enzymes are adapted to work in living cells under physiological conditions, circumstances that are not always available for industrial processes calling for novel and better catalysts. Furthermore, altering enzyme function also affords insight into how enzymes work and how natural evolution operates. </p><p>Previous investigations have explored catalytic properties in the directed evolution of mutant libraries with high sequence variation. Before this study was initiated, functional analysis of mutant libraries was, to a large extent, restricted to uni- or bivariate methods. Consequently, there was a need to apply multivariate data analysis (MVA) techniques in this context. Directed evolution was approached by DNA shuffling of glutathione transferases (GSTs) in this thesis. GSTs are multifarious enzymes that have detoxication of both exo- and endogenous compounds as their primary function. They catalyze the nucleophilic attack by the tripeptide glutathione on many different electrophilic substrates. </p><p>Several multivariate analysis tools, <i>e.g.</i> principal component (PC), hierarchical cluster, and K-means cluster analyses, were applied to large mutant libraries assayed with a battery of GST substrates. By this approach, evolvable units (quasi-species) fit for further evolution were identified. It was clear that different substrates undergoing different kinds of chemical transformation can group together in a multi-dimensional substrate-activity space, thus being responsible for a certain quasi-species cluster. Furthermore, the importance of the chemical environment, or substrate matrix, in enzyme evolution was recognized. Diverging substrate selectivity profiles among homologous enzymes acting on substrates performing the same kind of chemistry were identified by MVA. Important structure-function activity relationships with the prodrug azathioprine were elucidated by segment analysis of a shuffled GST mutant library. Together, these results illustrate important methods applied to molecular enzyme evolution.</p>

<p>Glutathione transferases (GSTs) constitute a family of multifarious enzymes that conjugate glutathione (GSH) with a wide range of electrophiles. GSTs are grouped into different classes based on protein sequence similarities. Despite high sequence identities between GSTs of the same class they often display different substrate specificites. Human GST M1-1 is efficiently catalyzing the conjugation of GSH and various epoxide substrates, whereas the 84% sequence-identical GST M2-2 has low activities with the same substrates.</p><p>Evolutionary rate analysis was used to identify hypervariable amino acid positions among GST Mu class sequences. A Thr to Ser conversion of the variable residue 210 in GST M2-2 elicited a drastic increase in catalytic activity with epoxides, which is the characteristic activity of GST M1-1. This provides support for the usefulness of evolutionary analysis in identifying functionally important residues, although the additional mutations of two other variable residues did not confer any noteworthy changes in activity.</p><p>To further investigate the functional importance of residue T210 in GST M2-2 it was replaced by all other commonly occurring amino acids. The replacements caused marked changes in substrate specificity, stability, and expressivity, indicating how functionalities of a duplicated Mu class GST may easily be altered by point mutations. </p><p>The stereo- and regioselectivity in epoxide-conjugation catalyzed by GSTs M1-1 and M2-2 was investigated. The results show that a serine in position 210 is beneficial for high enantioselectivity with trans-stilbene oxide. However, an alanine in position 210 is more favorable for stereo- and regioselectivity with the smaller epoxide substrate styrene-7,8-oxide. </p><p>The low enantioselectivity of GST M1-1 was improved 10- and 9- fold with styrene-7,8-oxide and 1-phenylpropylene oxide, respectively, through different combination of site-specific mutations and posttranslational chemical modifications. The approach can be employed in more extensive screening experiments where a large variety of modifications easily can be tested.</p>

Glutathione transferases (GSTs) constitute a family of multifarious enzymes that conjugate glutathione (GSH) with a wide range of electrophiles. GSTs are grouped into different classes based on protein sequence similarities. Despite high sequence identities between GSTs of the same class they often display different substrate specificites. Human GST M1-1 is efficiently catalyzing the conjugation of GSH and various epoxide substrates, whereas the 84% sequence-identical GST M2-2 has low activities with the same substrates. Evolutionary rate analysis was used to identify hypervariable amino acid positions among GST Mu class sequences. A Thr to Ser conversion of the variable residue 210 in GST M2-2 elicited a drastic increase in catalytic activity with epoxides, which is the characteristic activity of GST M1-1. This provides support for the usefulness of evolutionary analysis in identifying functionally important residues, although the additional mutations of two other variable residues did not confer any noteworthy changes in activity. To further investigate the functional importance of residue T210 in GST M2-2 it was replaced by all other commonly occurring amino acids. The replacements caused marked changes in substrate specificity, stability, and expressivity, indicating how functionalities of a duplicated Mu class GST may easily be altered by point mutations. The stereo- and regioselectivity in epoxide-conjugation catalyzed by GSTs M1-1 and M2-2 was investigated. The results show that a serine in position 210 is beneficial for high enantioselectivity with trans-stilbene oxide. However, an alanine in position 210 is more favorable for stereo- and regioselectivity with the smaller epoxide substrate styrene-7,8-oxide. The low enantioselectivity of GST M1-1 was improved 10- and 9- fold with styrene-7,8-oxide and 1-phenylpropylene oxide, respectively, through different combination of site-specific mutations and posttranslational chemical modifications. The approach can be employed in more extensive screening experiments where a large variety of modifications easily can be tested.