Arginine racemization by coupled catabolic and anabolic dehydrogenases.

ABSTRACT: D-amino acids exist in living organisms as specialized components of many different machineries. Biosynthesis of D-amino acids from racemization of predominant L-enantiomers is catalyzed by a single enzyme. Here, we report the finding of a novel 2-component amino acid racemase for D-to-L inversion in D-arginine metabolism of Pseudomonas aeruginosa. From DNA microarray analysis, the putative dauBAR operon (for D-arginine utilization) of unknown functions was found to be highly induced by D-arginine. The importance of the dau operon in D-arginine metabolism was demonstrated by the findings that strains with a lesion at dauA or dauB failed to use D-arginine as sole carbon source. Two lines of evidence suggest that DauA and DauB are required for D-to-L racemization of arginine. First, growth c

SUBMITTER: Li C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2630070 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature