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D E Atkinson

Publications and source records attributed to D E Atkinson.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1984

Regulation of the rate of urea synthesis in liver by extracellular pH. A major factor in pH homeostasis in mammals.

The views that catabolism of protein leads to net production of acid and that urinary excretion of ammonium ion represents an equimolar excretion of proton are not compatible with basic chemical relationships (Atkinson, D.E., and Camien, M.N. (1982) Curr. Top. Cell. Regul. 21, 261-302). Metabolism of protein produces significant amounts of base (bicarbonate), which is disposed of in the synthesis of urea. In perfused rat liver and in isolated rat hepatocytes, the rate of urea synthesis increases with increase in pH but is not affected by change in the concentration of bicarbonate when pH is held constant. An increase in the concentration of ammonium ion in the suspending medium causes an increase in the rate of urea synthesis by hepatocytes when lactate is the energy source, as previously reported by others, but causes a decrease in the rate of urea synthesis during incubation with glucose or with no added energy source. The rate of urea synthesis decreases when glucose is added to lactate medium. All of these observations are consistent with the view that disposal of bicarbonate is a major function of urea synthesis, and that regulation of the rate of ureagenesis is an important factor in the maintenance of pH homeostasis.

Animals↗
PubMed1984

Adenine nucleotide control of the rate of oxygen uptake by rat heart mitochondria over a 15- to 20-fold range.

Rat heart mitochondria oxidizing pyruvate (in the presence of 20% as much malate) took up nearly the amount of oxygen required for complete oxidation to CO2. Thus pyruvate, a physiological substrate of the citrate cycle, is oxidized through the entire cycle in these mitochondria, and they seem suitable for study of regulation of integrated mitochondrial energy transduction. By addition of graded amounts of hexokinase or pyruvate kinase to the suspending medium (in the presence of excess glucose or phosphoenolpyruvate), a wide range of steady-state values of the ATP/ADP concentration ratio was obtained. At a constant concentration of phosphate, the steady-state rate of oxygen uptake by rat heart mitochondria oxidizing pyruvate was a function of the adenylate energy charge or of the ATP/ADP ratio, and relatively independent of the absolute concentrations of these nucleotides. The oxygen uptake rates typically spanned a range of about 20-fold. At very high values of the ATP/ADP ratio, the rate of oxygen uptake is much lower than the "state 4" rate seen after added ADP has been phosphorylated. This result suggests that "state 4" respiration, at least in these freshly prepared mitochondria, measures the rate at which ADP is made available by ATPase activity, rather than indicating uncoupling of electron transport from phosphorylation. The concentration of orthophosphate affected the rate of oxygen uptake and the pattern of response to the ATP/ADP ratio or the energy charge, but the effects did not seem interpretable in terms of the mass-action expression for hydrolysis of ATP, (ATP)/ (ADP) (Pi).

Adenine Nucleotides↗
PubMed1981

Adenylate energy charge in Escherichia coli CR341T28 and properties of heat-sensitive adenylate kinase.

Escherichia coli strain CR341T28 will not grow at temperatures above 34 degrees C in liquid medium, and the adenylate kinase of this strain is heat sensitive. When a culture was shifted from a permissive (30 degrees C) to a nonpermissive (36 degrees C) temperature, the adenylate energy charge fell from 0.9 to 0.2, with a concurrent decrease in the number of viable cells and in the specific activity of adenylate kinase. When cultures of the temperature-sensitive strain were grown at temperatures above 30 degrees C, the adenylate energy charge, the specific activity of adenylate kinase, and the growth rate were lower than the corresponding parameters for the parental strain. By isotopic labeling of the adenine nucleotides in vivo, it was determined that increasing growth temperatures between 30 and 34 degrees C for the heat-sensitive strain resulted in a decrease in the adenosine triphosphate-to-adenosine monophosphate and adenosine triphosphate-to-adenosine diphosphate ratios. Between 26 and 30 degrees C the adenosine triphosphate-to-adenosine diphosphate ratio was essentially normal in the temperature-sensitive strain, but the adenosine triphosphate-to-adenosine diphosphate ratio was decreased. The adenylate ratios in the parental strain did not change between 30 and 34 degrees C. The adenylate kinase mass action ratio for each strain was essentially constant under all growth conditions. When assayed at 30 degrees C, the affinities of the enzyme from the mutant strain were somewhat lower than those of the parent adenylate kinase. The mutant enzyme also did not exhibit the substrate inhibition that was observed at high adenosine monophosphate concentrations with the parental enzyme. An increase in the assay temperature from 30 degrees to 40 degrees C had little or no effect on the Km values determined for the parental adenylate kinase, but caused the Km values determined for the mutant adenylate kinase to increase by a factor of two or more.

Adenosine Diphosphate↗
PubMed1977

Functional capacities and the adenylate energy charge in Escherichia coli under conditions of nutritional stress.

Functional capacities in Escherichia coli cells starved for glucose were examined by comparing protein synthesis, utilization of new substrates, and maintenance of viability with the adenylate energy charge of the culture. When growth ceased because of glucose exhaustion in an E. coli culture, the energy charge dropped from 0.90 to about 0.80. During this time, the viable-cell count and the capacity for protein synthesis and for induction of new enzymes were maintained only if other substrates were available in the medium. The culture could be maintained for many hours without growth or death if glucose was added slowly; the energy charge in this case stabilized at about 0.80. A consistent transient decrease in the energy charge to around 0.80, accompanied by a decrease in protein synthesis, was also observed during the adaptation from glucose to other substrates during diauxic growth on glucose and glycerol or lactose.

Acetates↗
PubMed1976

Role of the adenylate deaminase reaction in regulation of adenine nucleotide metabolism in Ehrlich ascites tumor cells.

The regulatory properties of adenylate deaminase (EC 3.5.4.6) from Ehrlich ascites tumor cells suggest that the reaction catalyzed by this enzyme serves to protect the cell against sharp decreases in the adenylate energy charge by removing adenosine 5'-monophosphate generated when the rate of utilization of adenosine triphosphate is suddenly increased. The enzyme is effectively inhibited under normal physiological conditions of high energy charge (0.9) and 4 to 5 mM adenine nucleotide pool size. The reaction is sharply activated by a decrease in the energy charge in the physiological range (0.9 to 0.6). At low energy charge (0.6), decrease in the size of the pool causes a marked and nonlinear decrease in the rate of the deaminase reaction. This effect presumably serves to prevent excessive depletion of the adenine nucleotide pool. Calculations based on the kinetic data obtained in this study show that the AMP deaminase reaction can account for the well-established alteration of adenine nucleotide metabolism that is observed following addition of glucose or 2-deoxyglucose to intact ascites cells.

AMP Deaminase↗
PubMed1976

Adaptations of enzymes for regulation of catalytic function.

1. Enzymes must not only be extremely effective catalysts, but must also be the operating components of very sensitive and sophisticated regulatory systems. Appropriate evolutionary adjustment of the properties of different enzymes causes the sites that bind typical metabolic intermediates to be only partially saturated in vivo, thus allowing flexibility for control by variation in ligand concentration. In contrast, sites that bind such coupling agents as the pyridine and adenine nucleotides seem to be virtually saturated. Thus the ratios, rather than the absolute concentrations, of these compounds are important in metabolic regulation. This type of response is esstial to the function of these compounds simultaneously as thermodynamic energy transducers and modifiers in the kinetics regulatory system. 2. Reaction orders of two to four are frequently encountered. They appear to be essenital to biochemical homoeostasis, which is the maintenance of nearly constant substrate concentrations at the expense of wide variation in flux rates. 3. The strategies of enzyme adaptation are general, but the actual adaptations of enzymes are highly specific, reflecting the place of the enzyme in a metabolic sequence, the place of the sequence in the metabolism of the cell and, in complex organisms, the function of the cell, and of the organ or tissue of which it is a part, in the organism. Patterns of adaptation must be almost infinitely varied. A few are presently known in outline, but probably none as yet in detail. Several examples are discussed.

AMP Deaminase↗
PubMed1975

Uridine diphosphate glucose synthase from calf liver: determinants of enzyme activity in vitro.

The reaction catalyzed by calf liver uridine diphosphate glucose synthase (pyrophosphorylase) (EC 2.7.7.9; UTP + glucose 1-phosphate = UDP-glucose + PPi) is an example of an enzymic reaction in which a nucleoside triphosphate other than ATP is the immediate source of metabolic energy. Kinetic properties of the enzyme, acting in the direction of UCP-glucose formation were investigated in vitro. The reaction was inhibited by UDP-glucose (0.072), Pi (11), UDP (1.6), UDP-xylose (0.87), UDP-glucuronate (1.3), and UDP-galacturonate (0.95). The numbers in parentheses indicate the concentration (mM) required for half-maximal inhibition under the conditions used. Other compounds tested, including ATP, ADP, and AMP, had no effect. Over a range of concentrations of UTP (0.04-0.8 MM) and UDP-glucose (0.05-0.03 mM), the reaction rate was more dependent on the concentration ratio [UDP-glucose]/[UTP] than on the absolute concentration of either compound. Comparison of the kinetic properties in vitro with estimates of metabolite levels in vivo suggests that (1) the enzyme operates in a range far from its maximal rate, and (2) the concentrations of glucose 1-phosphate and Pi and the ratio [UDP-glucose]/[UTP] may be the most important determinants of UDP-glucose synthase activity.

Adenine Nucleotides↗
PubMed1975

Relation of growth and protein synthesis to the adenylate energy charge in an adenine-requiring mutant of Escherichia coli.

When Escherichia coli K-12 strain PC 0294, which is unable to synthesize adenine nucleotides, thereonine, proline, and leucine, was starved for adenine, the concentrations of ATP, ADP, and AMP fell rapidly. The adenylate energy charge was not affected until the adenine nucleotide pool fell to about 30% of its normal value. Similarly, cells in an adenine-limited chemostat grew at intracellular adenine nucleotide pool values as low as 30% of normal, but the energy charge in all cases was approximately 0.90. Incorporation of [14C]leucine into protein in adenine-starved cells continued rapidly as long as the energy charge was in or near its normal range, even when the concentration of ATP was 30% to 10% of its normal value. When glucose was added to cells that had been resuspended in medium lacking both glucose and adenine, the energy charge rose rapidly but the concentration of ATP fell, presumably because of nucleic acid synthesis. The rate of [14C]leucine incorporation into protein rose rapidly while adenine nucleotide concentrations fell, and then declined roughly in parallel with the energy charge. At a given value of energy and of total concentration of adenine nucleotides, the rate of protein synthesis may, of course, vary with the concentrations of precursors and modifiers; thus, the rate cannot be predicted from knowledge only of the energy charge. Our results suggest, however, that the rate of protein synthesis and the capacity for growth are much more sensitive to changes in the value of the energy charge than to changes in the concentration of ATP. Growth occurs when the ATP concentration is reduced to one-third of its normal value, but has not been observed when the energy charge has fallen by as much as 10%.

Adenine↗
PubMed1975

Adenylate energy charge in Saccharomyces cerevisiae during starvation.

Bakers' yeast cells, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, if grown aerobically on ethanol or if grown aerobically on glucose and allowed to pass into stationary phase, with utilization of accumulated ethanol, maintain a normal value (0.8 to 0.9) of the adenylate energy charge during prolonged starvation. In contrast, cells grown anaerobically on glucose and cells in the early stages of aerobic growth on glucose exhibit a rapid decrease of energy charge if transferred to medium lacking on energy source. These results suggest that functional mitochondria or enzymes of balance of adenine nucleotides during starvation. Yeast cells remain viable at energy charge values below 0.1, in marked contrast to results previously obtained with Escherichia coli. In other respects, the engery charge responses of yeast to starvation and refeeding are generally similar to those previously reported for E. coli.

Adenine Nucleotides↗