Ochoa, Severo

Ochoa, Severo (1905-93) Spanish-bom U.S. biochemist who became a professor at New York University in 1954. A year later, he showed how cells use an enzyme to join DNA fragments. This work led to genetic engineering. For this discovery, Ochoa and a fellow worker on DNA, Arthur Kornberg, shared the 1959 Nobel prize in physiology or medicine. 

Vishniac, Wolf, Horecker, B. L., and Ochoa, Severo, Enzymic Aspects of Photosynthesis. XIX 1... 

Engelhardt s experiments in 1930 led to the notion that ATP is synthesized as the result of electron transport, and, by 1940, Severo Ochoa had carried out a measurement of the P/O ratio, the number of molecules of ATP generated per atom of oxygen consumed in the electron transport chain. Because two electrons are transferred down the chain per oxygen atom reduced, the P/O ratio also reflects the ratio of ATPs synthesized per pair of electrons consumed. After many tedious and careful measurements, scientists decided that the P/O ratio was 3 for NADH oxidation and 2 for succinate (that is, [FADHg]) oxidation. Electron flow and ATP synthesis are very tightly coupled in the sense that, in normal mitochondria, neither occurs without the other. 

In 1955, Marianne Grunberg-Manago and Severo Ochoa discovered the bacterial enzyme polynucleotide phosphorylase, which in vitro catalyzes the reaction... 

Arthur Kornberg and Severo Ochoa Physiology/Medicine Enzymatic synthesis of DNA... 

The first enzyme discovered that could catalyze polynucleotide synthesis was a bacterial enzyme called polynucleotide phosphorylase. This enzyme, isolated by Severo Ochoa and Marianne Grunberg-Manago in 1955, could make long chains of 5 -3 -linked polyribonucleotides starting from nucleoside diphosphates. However, there was no template requirement for this synthesis, and the sequence was uncontrollable except in a crude way by adjusting the relative concentrations of different nucleotides in the starting materials. 

Juan C. Mauricio Professor of Microbiology, Departamento de Microbiologfa, Ediflcio Severo Ochoa, Campus Universitario de Rabanales, Universidad de Cordoba, 14071-Cordoba, Spain, milgamaj uco.es... 

O-Ketoglutaric Acid. 2-Oxopentanedioic acid 2-oxoglutaric acid 2-oxo-l,5-pentanedioic acid. CsH40 mol wt 146.10. C 41.10%, H 4.14%, O 54.76%. HOOC. CH.CHjCOCOOH. Plays an important role in amino add metabolism (transamination) see Severo Ochoa, "Enzymic Mechanisms in the Citric Acid Cycle in Advances fn Enzy-mology 15, 183-270 (1954). Prepn Friedman, Kosower, Org. Syn. cell. vol. Ill, 510 (1955) Bottorff. Moore, ibid. Coll. vol. V, 687 (1973). Microbial synthesis using a strain of Pseudomonas Lockwood et al. U.S. pat. 2,443,919 (1948) Berger, Witt, U.S. pat. 2,841,616 (1958). 

Corresponding Author Antonio Alcami—Centro de Biologfa Molecular Severo Ochoa (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones cientfficas—Universidad Autdnoma de Madrid), Nicolas Cabrera 1, Cantoblanco, 28049 Madrid, Spain. Email aalcami cbm.uam.es... 

Role of Phosphorylation-Dephosphorylation Cycles in the Control of Protein Synthesis in Eukaryotes Severo Ochoa, Cesar de Haro, John Siekierka, and Haim Grosfeld... 

We wish to express our gratitude to all the contributors to this volume, as well as to all the persons and institutions who, by their support or participation, made possible the celebration of the International Symposium on En2ymatic Mechanisms in Biosynthesis and Cell Function and other activities honouring Severo Ochoa on his 70th birthday, which were a prelude to the publication of this book. The Symposium was organized by the Autonomous Universities of Barcelona and Madrid and the University of Houston with the collaboration of Stanford University and the Roche Institute of Molecular Biology. It was held under the auspices of ... 

Abstracts of the papers presented in Madrid and Barcelona, and biographical sketches of the contributors (in English), and a biography of Severo Ochoa (in Spanish) were included in a bound programme entitled Homenaje al Profesor Severo Ochoa en su 70 aniversario— International Symposium on Enzymatic Mechanisms in Biosynthesis and Cell Function (J. Orb and L. Cornudella, eds., Socitra, Salvadors, 22 Barcelona-1). 

Severo Ochoa was born on 24 September 1905 in the village of Luarca of the province of Asturias, in Northern Spain. 

He was the youngest of seven children born to Severo Ochoa, a lawyer and businessman, and Carmen de Albornoz. His father died when Severo was 7. At this time the family went to live in Malaga in Southern Spain. There Severo had his initial education, first in a Jesuit elementary school and then at the State High School, where his enthusiasm and dedication to the subjects of human anatomy and physiology were notable. 

An extended version including more personal commentaries has been printed in Spanish in the program for Homenaje a Profesor Severo Ochoa en su 70 Aniversario (1975) Barcelona, Socitra-Salvadors, 22. 

A list of selected papers from Dr. Severo Ochoa... 

Fig. 5. Papers published by Severo Ochoa from 1928 through 1973, grouped in 2-year periods.

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