Chemical mutagenesis complexity

In view of the complexity of the many processes involved in chemical mutagenesis, it is not astonishing that a variety of dose-response curves have been reported for mammalian cells exposed in vitro. These... 

C. E. Nix and B. S. Brewen, The role of Drosophila in chemical mutagenesis testing, Presented at the Symposium on Application of Short-Term Bioassays in the Fractionation and Analysis of Complex Environmental Mixtures, Williamsburg, Virginia, February 21-23, 1978, pp. 112-123, EPA 600/9-78-027, Sept. 1978. 

One example of the combined use of site-directed mutagenesis with chemical modification has been provided by the work of Bowler et al. with yeast iso-l-cytochrome c [15]. These workers introduced a His residue at position 62 to provide a site for attachment of a pentammineruthenium complex. Introduction of a second redox-active metal center to the protein at this position permitted... 

A pathway (Scheme I) (8.9) for the hydrolysis of oligoglycosides by lysozyme that differs from the previously accepted mechanism (Scheme II) (3,10-12) is described in this section. The alternative pathway, suggested by results of a 55-ps MD simulation of the lysozyme (GlcNAc)e complex (1), is consistent with the available experimental data and with stereoelectronic considerations. Experimental data have demonstrated that Glu 35 and Asp 52 are essential, as shown by recent site-directed mutagenesis results (13.) which corroborate chemical modification studies (3.14 and references cited therein), and that the reaction proceeds with retention of configuration at Ci Q and references cited therein). A fundamental feature of the alternative pathway is that an endocyclic bond is broken in the initial step, in contrast to the exocyclic bond cleavage in the accepted mechanism. 

Chemical clastogenesis and mutagenesis both involve a complex series of processes, including pharmacokinetic mechanisms (uptake, transport, diffusion, excretion), metabolic activation and inactivation, production of DNA lesions and their incomplete repair or misrepair, and steps leading to the subsequent expression of mutations in surviving cells or individuals (Thble 7.1). Each of the steps in these processes might conceivably involve first order kinetics at low doses (e.g., diffusion, MichaeUs-Menten enzyme kinetics) and hence be linear. In principle, therefore, the overall process edso might be linear and without threshold. 

The fundamental concept of the transition state stabilization was introduced to Linus Pauling in 1948 who said I think that enzymes are molecules that are complementary in structure to the activated complex of the reactions that they catalyze, that is, the molecular configuration that is intermediate between the reacting substances and the product of the reaction . This concept was widely accepted and used for the interpretation of experimental structural and kinetics data on enzyme catalysis, for the design of new substrates and inhibitors and for chemical mimicking of enzyme reactions. Decisive contributions in this area have been made by structural physical methods, X-ray analysis, in particular, and site-directed mutagenesis. 

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