title: A continual spectrophotometric assay for amino acid decarboxylases.
abstract: A spectrophotometric method for assaying the activity of three amino acid decarboxylases is reported. This method makes use of the coupled reaction of the decarboxylase with phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase and malate dehydrogenase. The assay is simple and rapid and allows continuous monitoring of the reaction progress. The kinetic parameters obtained using this method for diaminopimelate decarboxylase, lysine decarboxylase, and arginine decarboxylase are comparable to values obtained by radiochemical methods.
mesh_terms: D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D002245:Carbon Dioxide; D002262:Carboxy-Lyases / Q000032:analysis*; D006863:Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; D013053:Spectrophotometry / Q000379:methods
chemical_list: D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D002245:Carbon Dioxide; D002262:Carboxy-Lyases; C021520:lysine decarboxylase; C019722:arginine decarboxylase; C079912:LysA protein, Bacteria; C020031:diaminopimelic acid decarboxylase