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A study of interfering substances in a new spectrophotometric assay for phenylalanine ammonia-lyase has been made. None of the commonly interfering compounds interfere in the assay to any significant extent. The assay has been employed for the partial purification of the enzyme from mint leaves (Mentha viridis'L).

In vivo administration of pulegone once daily decreased the levels of liver microsomal cyt. P-450 to the extent of 32 and 76% at the end of 24 and 96 hrs respectively. However, cyt. b5 and NAD(P)H-cyt. c reductase activities remained unchanged. In vitro incubation (15 min) of liver microsomes from phenobarbitol (PB)-treated rats with pulegone (10 mM), aerobically or anaerobically resulted in the loss (approximately 60%) of cyt. P-450 in the presence or absence of NADPH. Destruction of cyt. P-450 was more in PB-treated microsomes as compared to 3-methylcholanthrene (MC)-treated and control microsomes. The loss of cyt. P-450 was accompanied by a concomitant loss of microsomal heme. In contrast, menthone or carvone upon incubation with PB-induced microsomes resulted in the conversion (25-40%) of cyt. P-450 to cyt. P-420 without any loss of microsomal heme. The destructive process is irreversible, time dependent, linear upto a substrate concentration of 10 mM and follows first order kinetics.

Anthranilate hydroxylase from Aspergillus niger catalyzes the oxidative deamination and dihydroxylation of anthranilic acid to 2,3-dihydroxybenzoic acid. This enzyme has been purified to homogeneity and has a molecular weight of 89,000. The enzyme is composed of two subunits of 42,000 with 2 gram-atoms of nonheme iron per mol. Fe2+-chelators like alpha,alpha'-dipyridyl and o-phenanthroline are potent inhibitors of the enzyme activity. Absorption and fluorescence spectra of the enzyme offer no evidence for the presence of other cofactors like flavin. Flavins and flavin-specific inhibitors like atebrin have no effect on the activity of the enzyme. The enzyme incorporates one atom of oxygen each from 18O2 and H218O into the product 2,3-dihydroxybenzoic acid. Based on these studies, it is concluded that anthranilate hydroxylase from A. niger is a new type of NADPH-linked nonheme iron monooxygenase.

A new enzyme which can hydroxylate 4-nitrophenol to 4-nitrocatechol has been isolated from a Nocardia sp. It is an inducible enzyme found in the 105,000xg supernatant. It requires molecular oxygen, reduced pyridine nucleotide, and flavin adenine dinucleotide for its activity. Preliminary characterization of this enzyme is reported in this communication.

Evidence was obtained for the participation of iron in the double hydroxylation reaction catalyzed by anthranilate hydroxylase from Aspergillus niger (UBC 814). Omission of iron from the growth medium gave inactive preparations of anthranilate hydroxylase which could be reactivated by incubating the enzyme preparations with ferric citrate. The enzyme was susceptible to inhibition by metal chelating agents. The K(i) for o-phenanthroline, which inhibited the enzyme activity non-competitively with respect to anthranilate, was calculated to be 0.9 mM. The inhibition by o-phenanthroline was counteracted by ferric complexes such as ferric-ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid and ferric citrate. Anthranilate afforded protection against inhibition by o-phenanthroline.

Studies were carried out to determine the factors governing the induction of anthranilate hydroxylase and other enzymes in the pathway for the dissimilation of anthranilate by Aspergillus niger (UBC 814). The enzyme was induced by growth in the presence of tryptophan, kynurenine, anthranilate, and, surprisingly, by 3-hydroxyanthranilate, which was not an intermediate in the conversion of anthranilate to 2,3-dihydroxybenzoate. There was an initial lag in the synthesis of anthranilate hydroxylase when induced by tryptophan, anthranilate, and 3-hydroxyanthranilate. Cycloheximide inhibited the enzyme induction. Comparative studies on anthranilate hydroxylase, 2,3-dihydroxybenzoate carboxy-lyase, and catechol 1:2-oxygenase revealed that these enzymes were not coordinately induced by either anthranilate or 3-hydroxyanthranilate. Structural requirements for the induction of anthranilate hydroxylase were determined by using various analogues of anthranilate. The activity of the constitutive catechol oxygenase was increased threefold by exposure to anthranilate, 2,3-dihydroxybenzoate, or catechol. 3-Hydroxyanthranilate did not enhance the levels of catechol oxygenase activity.