Hydrolytic biologically active products

Fenwick (1958) found that the oxidative activation of schradan in the insect organism occurs via hydroxylation of the N-methyl groups. The N-hydroxymethyl derivative formed as intermediate product is subsequently hydrolytically de-methylated to biologically inactive products ... 

There may be some important health protective effects of glucosinolate derivatives and related compounds. The hydrolytic products of some glucosino-lates have been shown to display anticancer properties. Glucosinolates are hydrolyzed following exposure to the endogenous plant enzyme myrosi-nase (also found in the gut microflora) to form isothiocyanates. Isothiocyanates are biologically active compounds with anticancer properties and are more bioavailable than glucosinolates. 

Yes, the incorporation of nucleoside triphosphates into an acid-insoluble form is indicative of the presence of a polymerase. The polymerase is likely a DNA polymerase because dNTPs, and not NTPs, were used to form product. Further evidence for a DNA polymerase was that the radiolabeled product was destroyed by a nuclease, DNase, specific for hydrolyzing DNA, and not by one specific for RNA hydrolysis. Additionally, NaOH, which destroys RNA but not DNA, did not destroy the radiolabeled product. Pretreatment of the extract with the two hydrolytic enzymes demonstrated that the enzyme depends on an RNA and not a DNA template for its activity. Thus, this enzyme is an RNA-dependent DNA polymerase. No such enzyme had been observed previously in a cell, and this demonstration, along with similar findings by Howard Temin, of its existence in an RNA tumor virus caused a revision of Francis Crick s central dogma of molecular biology, which stated that information flowed from DNA to RNA to proteins. The demonstration of this RNA-dependent DNA polymerase suggested that in some cases information could flow from RNA to DNA. (This question was derived from D. Baltimore. Viral RNA-dependent DNA polymerase. Nature 226 [1971]1209-1213.)... 

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