Wheat germ isolation

Methylcytosine (964 X = O) was synthesized in 1901 and its isolation from hydrolyzates of tubercule bacilli was reported in 1925. However, this was later shown to be incorrect and only about 1950 was it isolated by hydrolysis of the deoxyribonucleotide fractions from thymus, wheat germ and other sources (50MI21302). Nucleotides and a nucleoside of 5-methylcytosine are known. 

Bio-Research Products Inc., was founded in 1975, and specialized in the isolation, purification and characterization of enzymes and proteins. The company is well known for its production of wheat germ phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase (PEPC). Currently, it is involved in finished goods and raw material production, through a biomedical contract. Bio-Research Products runs custom services on enzymes, proteins production, diagnostic assays, and other goods for industry, governments, or academia. Bio-Research Products, Inc. also markets a number of enzymes and associated products, and carries out custom synthesis projects. 

Another fat-soluble vitamin, E, was found by Evans and Bishop in 1923. Pregnant rats on a defined diet (alcohol-extracted casein, cornstarch, and lard) supplemented with butter (vitamins A and D) and yeast extract (vitamin B group) produced few young because of fetal resorption. Male rats on the same diet were sterile. The disorders, which have not been identified in man, were corrected by wheat-germ oil, from which tocopherol, the active ingredient, was isolated in 1936. In spite of intensive investigations and a recognition that the vitamin is an antioxidant and destroyer of free radicals, the function of vitamin E remains obscure. 

Various biotransformations concerning the decarboxylation of a-keto acids and the formation of ot-hydroxy ketones with different aldehydes as cosubstrates have been performed with either whole cell-systems, mainly fermenting yeast [116,143-151], or isolated enzymes from wheat germ [27,33,120,152], yeast... 

Control of the synthesis of amylase ntRNA s in barley aleurone cells and the synthesis of cellulase mRNAs in pea epicotyl cells are similar in some respects. The control of cellulase activity in pea epicotyl is the only known example of auxin-induced formation of specific mRNA molecules. The formation of cellulase mRNA was demonstrated by the isolation of poly A + RNA s and in vitro synthesis of cellulase (71) using the protein-synthesizing system of wheat germ (72). The formation of cellulase mRNA precedes the increase in cellulase levels by more than 12 hr. Thus, it appears that the increase in rate of synthesis of translatable cellulase mRNA s in the pea epicotyl (71) and that of -amylase mRNA s in barley aleurone cells (65,... 

The simplest type of phosphoinositide is represented by the phosphatide isolated from horse liver or dog liver by McKibbin.171 This consists only of glycerol, myo-inositol, phosphoric acid, and fatty acids it probably has structure LXXX. Similar inositides, differing only in the nature of the fatty acids, have been isolated from wheat germ,187 beef heart, 188 and beef liver.189 That the major portion of the fatty acids is attached to glycerol, not to myo-inositol, was shown by the isolation of a diglyceride on mild hydrolysis.189... 

Dekker and Elmore34 isolated 2-deoxy-5 -methylcytidine (VI, R = CH3) from enzymic hydrolyzates of wheat-germ deoxyribonucleic acid. (It had been shown previously32 that wheat germ is relatively rich in 5-methyl-cytosine.) By use of ion-exchange and partition chromatography, a small... 

Figure 2.18 Wheat germ lectin isolation using A -acetyl-o-glucosamine as the ligand. Chromatography conditions column, Waters API glass column, 100 x 10 mm I.D. flow rate, 1 ml/min detection, UV absorbance at 280 nm. The sample was 1 ml of crude wheat germ preparation 1.2 mg/ml of lectin was eluted from a crude preparation with 6.8 mg/ml total protein. (Reprinted from Ref. 64 with permission.)...

Superoxide dismutases have been isolated from a wide variety of eukaryotes including yeast, wheat germ, garden peas, chicken liver and erythrocytes. These enzymes contain copper and zinc. Copper containing proteins which also display this catalytic activity had been isolated from blood, brain and liver tissues many years previously and were known as erythrocuprein, cerebrocuprein and hepatocuprein. 

Gordon et al. (G25) isolated the primary translation product of human intestinal apoA-I mRNA from wheat germ and ascites cell-free translation systems. This proved to be pre-pro-apoA-I, with an 18-amino-acid prepeptide and a 6-amino-acid propeptide. Intracellular pro-apoA-I (in a human hepatoma cell line) was secreted without further cleavage, and corresponded to isoproteins 2 and 3 (isoprotein 2 being the major form) of Zannis et al. (Zl). 

A similar approach was followed for displaying a random library of 20-mers using a wheat germ uncoupled transcription and translation system (Gersuk et al., 1997), and several peptides were isolated that bound to prostate-specific antigen, but not to bovine serum albumin. No affinities were reported. 

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