title: Studies on Cellulose Synthesis by a Cell-free Oat Coleoptile Enzyme System: Inactivation by Airborne Oxidants.
abstract: Particulate cell wall polysaccharide synthetase from oat coleoptiles could use either guanosine diphosphate glucose or uridine diphosphate glucose; the latter was a much more effective glucose donor. The neutral polymer derived from uridine diphosphate glucose utilization yielded, after cellulase digestion, mostly cellobiose and to a lesser extent a substance tentatively identified as a mixed-linkage beta1,4 = beta1,3-trisaccharide; only cellobiose was found after guanosine diphosphate glucose utilization. The uridine diphosphate glucose utilizing system was inactivated by peroxyacetyl nitrate treatment of intact tissue and to a lesser extent by ozone treatment suggesting that this system is a possible site of interference with cellulose and non-cellulosic glucan biosynthesis in vivo. Direct treatment of the enzyme in vitro by peroxyacetyl nitrate, iodoacetamide or p-chloromercuribenzoate also inactivated the enzyme, indicating that the mechanism of inactivation possibly involves reaction with sulfhydryl groups.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry and Statewide Air Pollution Research Center, University of California, Riverside, California 92502.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ordin
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Hall