• BMB Reports
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• v.35 no.5
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• pp.443-451
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• 2002

Malonate is a three-carbon dicarboxylic acid. It is well known as a competitive inhibitor of succinate dehydrogenase. It occurs naturally in biological systems, such as legumes and developing rat brains, which indicates that it may play an important role in symbiotic nitrogen metabolism and brain development. Recently, enzymes that are related to malonate metabolism were discovered and characterized. The genes that encode the enzymes were isolated, and the regulation of their expression was also studied. The mutant bacteria, in which the malonate-metabolizing gene was deleted, lost its primary function, symbiosis, between Rhizobium leguminosarium bv trifolii and clover. This suggests that malonate metabolism is essential in symbiotic nitrogen metabolism, at least in clover nodules. In addition to these, the genes matB and matC have been successfully used for generation of the industrial strain of Streptomyces for the production of antibiotics.

• BMB Reports
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.107-111
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• 1995

In malonate grown Pseudomonas fluorescens, malonate decarboxylase and acetyl-CoA synthetase were induced, whereas in Acinetobacter calcoaceticus malonate decarboxylase, acetate kinase, and phosphate acetyltransferase were induced. In both bacteria malonate decarboxylase was the first, key enzyme catalyzing the decarboxylation of malonate to acetate, and it was localized in the periplasmic space. Acetate thus formed was metabolized to acetyl-CoA directly by acetyl-CoA synthetase in Pseudomonas, and to acetyl-CoA via acetyl phosphate by acetate kinase and phosphate acetyltransferase in Acinetobacter.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.40-48
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• 1991

Two malonate-specific enzymes, malonyl-CoA synthetase and malonamidase, were found in free-living cultures of Rhizobium japonicum, Rhizobium meliloti, and Rhizobium trifolii, that infect plant roots where contain a high concentration of malonate. Malonyl-CoA synthetase catalyzes the formation of malonyl-CoA, AMP, and PPi directly from malonate, coenzyme A, and ATP in the presence of $Mg^{2+}$ Malonamidase is a novel enzyme that catalyzes hydrolysis and malonyl transfer of malonamate, and forms malonohydroxamate from malonate and hydroxylamine. Both enzymes are highly specific for malonate. These results show that Rhizobia have enzymes able to metabolize malonate and suggest that malonate may be used in symbiotic carbon and nitrogen metabolism.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.192-197
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• 1994

Pseudomonas fluorescens which is able to utilize malonate as a sole carbon source was found to contain a novel 60 kb plasmid, which encodes the genes for the proteins to assimilate malonate, including malonate decarboxylase and acetyl-CoA synthetase. The evidence is as follows: The Pseudomonas cured with mitomycin C was unable to grow on malonate-medium as well as it lost plasmid. The plasmid isolated from the Pseudomonas could be introduced into E. coli strain JM103 and DH1 by transformation. The transformed E. coli was able to grow on malonate-medium and could transmit its plasmid back to the cured P. fluorescens by conjugation. The existence of the plasmid in the transformed E. coli was confirmed by hybridization with a labeled probe prepared from 12 kb segment of the plasmid. Dot hybridization showed that the copy number of the plasmid in the transformed E. coli is at least 13 times higher than in the wild type P. fluorescens. The two key enzymes, malonate decarboxylase and acetyl-CoA synthetase, were inducible by malonate in the transformed E. coli.

• BMB Reports
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.414-418
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• 1999

A novel gene for malonyl-CoA decarboxylase was discovered in the mat operon, which encodes a set of genes involved in the malonate metabolism of Rhizobium trifolii (An and Kim, 1998). The subunit mass determined by SDS-PAGE was 53 kDa, which correspond to the deduced mass from the sequence data. The molecular mass of the native enzyme determined by field flow fractionation was 208 kDa, indicating that R. trifolii malonyl-CoA decarboxylase is homotetrameric. R. trifolii malonyl-CoA decarboxylase converted malonyl-CoA to acetyl-CoA with a specific activity of 100 unit/mg protein. Methylmalonyl-CoA was decarboxylated with a specific activity of 0.1 unit/mg protein. p-Chloromercuribenzoate inhibited this enzyme activity, suggesting that thiol group(s) is(are) essential for this enzyme catalysis. Database analysis showed that malonyl-CoA decarboxylase from R. trifolii shared 32.7% and 28.1% identity in amino acid sequence with those from goose and human, respectively, and it would be located in the cytoplasm. However, there is no sequence homology between this enzyme and that from Saccharopolyspora erythreus, suggesting that malonyl-CoA decarboxylases from human, goose, and R. trifolii are in the same class, whereas that from S. erythreus is in a different class or even a different enzyme, methylmalonyl-CoA decarboxylase. According to the homology analysis, Cys-214 among three cysteine residues in the enzyme was found in the homologous region, suggesting that the cysteine was located at or near the active site and plays a critical role in catalysis.