Amino acid regulatory mechanisms

A rather satisfactory explanation of the irreversibility of amino acid accumulation in yeast cells is that it might result from specific regulatory mechanisms capable of immobilizing the transporters in a closed position. Uptake of amino acids by a number of permeases does indeed appear to be regulated by specific, and possibly allosteric, feedback inhibition. This idea is based on the fact that a number of transport systems seem to be specifically inhibited by their internally accumulated... 

The inhibition of amino-acid transport has been regarded as the main toxic effect of mercury compounds [82], The biochemical mechanism underlying the inhibition is unclear. In unfertilized sea-urchin eggs an interaction with the amino-acid carrier was found, whereas in fertilized eggs inhibition of amino-acid transport was indirect and might result from an elevation of the Na + content of the egg caused by the inhibition of the Na+ pump [83]. The action on the diffusional process could be mediated by an effect on membrane phospholipids or on membrane proteins, or by interaction with Ca2+ which stabilizes membrane structure. Mercuric chloride in skate liver cells inhibited amino acid transport, decreased Na + /K + -ATPase (adenosinetriphosphatase) activity, impaired volume regulatory mechanisms and increased the permeability of the plasma membrane to potassium [84]. It has been suggested that... 

FIGURE 22-22 Interlocking regulatory mechanisms in the biosynthesis of several amino acids derived from aspartate in E. coli. Three... 

Regulatory sequence 1 is crucial for a tryptophan-sensitive mechanism that determines whether sequence 3 pairs with sequence 2 (allowing transcription to continue) or with sequence 4 (attenuating transcription). Formation of the attenuator stem-and-loop structure depends on events that occur during translation of regulatory sequence 1, which encodes a leader peptide (so called because it is encoded by the leader region of the mRNA) of 14 amino acids, two of which are Trp residues. The leader peptide has no other known cellular function its synthesis is simply an operon regulatory device. 

Operons that produce the enzymes of amino acid synthesis have a regulatory circuit called attenuation, which uses a transcription termination site (the attenuator) in the mRNA. Formation of the attenuator is modulated by a mechanism that couples transcription and translation while responding to small changes in amino acid concentration. 

John Wiley and Sons, 1972. A collection of essays describing microbial processes used in Japanese industry for the production of amino acids. Includes examples in which the regulatory mechanisms functioning in most cells have been modified or bypassed. 

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