Uracil-thymine oxidase

Strains of Corynebacterium and Mycobacterium oxidized thymine and uracil to 5-methylbarbituric acid and barbituric acid, respectively, and it appeared that a single enzyme, uracil-thymine oxidase, was responsible for the oxidation of both bases (896) (Fig. 23). Uracil oxidase (398) and uracil-thymine oxidase (896) may be identical, since on purification of the former, the rates of oxidation of uracil and thymine remmned constant. A phosphorylated uracil-5-carbinol (2,4-dihydroxy-5-hydroxymethyl-pyrimidine) was isolated as an oxidation product of thymine by resting bacterial cells (398). However, the spectroscopic characteristics of the compound suggested that this compound may have been 5-methylbarbituric acid (896). 

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