Oxygen and Life: Oxygenases, Oxidases and Lipid Mediators: Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Oxygen and Life, Kyoto, Japan 26-29 November 2000(v. 1233 International Congress S.)

These proceedings cover recent advances in research on 'Oxygenases and oxygen metabolism' and have been dedicated to Professor Osamu Hayaishi, the discoverer of dioxygenase. Humans inhale and exhale molecular oxygen (O2), and cannot live without it. Oxygenases are the enzymes, which catalyze the fixation of either one or two atoms of molecular oxygen into a wide variety of substrates including steroid hormones, eicosanoids, amino acids, drugs, toxic substances and carcinogens. Many of the substrates and metabolic products of oxygenases show remarkable biological effects on cellular activities. They usually act to maintain homeostasis of the cell and hence to keep the organism healthy. These proceedings describe: molecular properties and mechanism of action of oxidases and oxygenases including x-ray structures of cytochrome c oxidase, cytochromes P450 and other kinds of mono and dioxygenases; how oxygenases and their metabolites are effective in keeping the cells healthy, and why they are sometimes harmful; and, the state of the art in research on the cellular action of eicosanoids.

Table of Contents:
Preface. Committees. I. Oxidases and reductases. The reactivity of oxygen with flavoproteins (V. Massey). Structure, function and redesign of vanillyl-alcohol oxidase (R.H.H. van den Heuvel et al.). Initial characterization of the ferric H175G cytochrome c peroxidase cavity mutant using magnetic circular dichroism spectroscopy: phosphate from the buffer as an axial ligand (A.E. Pond et al.). Oxidation of a cyclic tripeptide by molecular oxygen and the development of fluorescene in the Aequora green fluorescent protein (F.J. Tsuji). Biotransformations with oxidases and peroxidases for the synthesis of optically active building blocks (M. Lazarus et al.). Abortive assembly of succinate-ubiquinone reductase (complex II) in an Escherichia coli mutant: role of iron and molecular chaperones on structure formation (C. Nihei et al.). Molecular mechanism of nitric oxide reduction catalyzed by fungal nitric oxide reductase (E. Obayashi et al.). Nox4, a novel homologue of the phagocyte NADPH oxidase catalytic subunit gp91phox (A. Shiose et al.). The reaction mechanism of peptidylglycine a-hydroxylating monooxygenase (K. Takahashi et al.). Function of two arginine residues of L-lactate Oxidase (K. Yorita et al.). II. Heme-containing oxygenases. Heme and oxygen: intermediates on the pathway to substrate oxygenation (S.G. Sligar). Cytochrome P450nor and P450foxy of the fungus Fusarium oxysporum (H. Shoun, H. Takaya). Steroid monooxygenases as markers for studying the functional zonation in the adrenal cortex (.Mitani, Y. Ishimura). Cytochrome P450 species specifically expressed in flower buds metabolize fatty acids (H. Imaishi, H. Ohkawa). The loss of enzyme activities by a single amino acid substitution of a newly cloned rabbit CYP2D isozyme, CYP2D24 (M. Ishizuka et al.). Cytochrome P450-dependent neurosteroid synthesis in the rat brain hippocampal neurons (T. Kimoto et al.). Catalytic properties of two human leukotriene B4 u-hydroxylase P450s (Y. Kikuta, E. Kusunose, M. Kusunose). Analysis of fungal P450foxy (CYP505), a fused protein of cytochcrome P450 and its reductase (T. Kitazume et al.). Two modes of regulation mechanism in the successive reaction of rat neuronal nitric oxide synthase (T. Iwanaga, T. Yamazaki, S. Kominami). Production of truncated enzymically active human indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase using site-directed mutagenesis (T.K. Littlejohn et al.). Sub unit structure of recombinant rat liver L-tryptophan-2,3-dioxgenase (S.P. Manandhar et al.). Regulation of rat steroid 11a-hydroxylase gene: suppression of transcriptional activation involving AP-1 factors through an upstream element (K. Mukai et al.). Structure and reaction mechanism of heme oxygenase-1 (H. Sakamoto et al.). Tryptophan metabolism, aging and cataract (R.J.W. Truscott et al.). Density functional theory study on the C-H bond activation of alkane by cytochrome P450 (K. Yoshizawa). Distribution, structure and function of fungal nitric oxide reductase P450nor-recent advances (L. Zhang et al.). III. Non-heme oxygenses. Methane monooxygenase and compound Q: lessons in oxygen activation (J.D. Lipscomb, B.J. Brazeau, B.J. Wallar). Structure and reaction mechanism of cathechol 2,3-dioxygenase (metapyrocatechase) (T. Ishida et al.). Structure determination of reaction intermediates for 2,3-dihydroxybiphenyl 1,2-dioxygenase (the BphC enzyme) derived from Pseudomonas sp. strain KKS102 (T. Senda, M. Fukuda). Thermodynamic and kinetic evidence for a two-step reaction between methane monooxygenase compound Q and substrates (B.J. Brazeau, J.D. Lipscomb). The reaction mechanism of peptidylglycine a-hydroxylating monooxygenase (K. Takahashi et al.). IV. Regulation of oxygen metabolism. Structural and functional properties of the CO sensing transcriptional activator CooA (S. Aono). Heme-based oxygen sensor protein FixL: its structure and function (Y. Shiro, H. Nakamura). Mitochondria, oxygen metabolism and the regulation of cell death (J. Chandra, S. Orrenius). Induction of erythropoietin (hypoxia marker) in Hep3B cells by hypoxia depends on NADPH-dependent enzyme (S. Imaoka et al.). V. Fatty acid oxygenases. Fatty acid binding to cyclooxygenases (M.G. Malkowski et al.). How do lipoxygenases control the stereochemistry of fatty acid oxygenation? (H. Kuhn et al.). On the basis for the positional specificity and stereo specificity of lipoxygenases (A.R. Brash et al.). a-Dioxygenase, a new enzyme in fatty acid metabolism (M. Hamberg, A. Sanz, C. Castresana). Molecular mechanism of low density lipoprotein oxidation by 12-lipoxygenase-overexpressing macrophages (T. Yoshimoto et al.). Gene regulation of human 12(S)-lipoxygenase (W.-C. Chang, B.-K. Chen). Affinities of mammalian arachidonate oxygenase for molecular oxygen (S. Yamamoto, I. Juranek, H. Suzuki). Intracellular localization of 5-lipoxygenase (H. Hanaka, T. Shimizu, T. Izumi). Overexpression of cyclooxygenase-2 stimulates amyloid a-peptide production in neuronal cells (K. Kadoyama et al.). Specificity and inhibition by antioxidant of lipid peroxidation by lipoxygenase: effects of substrate, lipoxygenase and milieu (N. Noguchi et al.). Lipoxygenase inhibitor-induced apoptosis in Madin-Darby canine kidney cells (K. Nishimura et al.). 12-Lipoxygenase increases neuronal excitability by inhibiting M-type potassium channels (Y. Takahashi et al.). VI. Oxygenase metabolites of eicosanoids. Molecular mechanism of sleep induced by prostaglandin D2 (Y. Urade). Leukotriene A4 hydrolase: analysis of structure-function relationships by site-directed mutagenesis and X-ray crystallography (J.Z. Haeggstrom et al.). Genetic analysis on roles of prostanoids in animal physiology and pathology; studies with receptor knockout mice (S. Narumiya). Prostaglandin E2 and F2a in mouse reproduction (K. Tsuboi, Y. Sugimoto, A. Ichikawa). Nitration of prostacyclin synthase: mechanism and physiological implications (V. Ullrich et al.). Characterization of two distinct types of leukotriene B4 receptor (T. Shimizu, T. Yokomizo, T. Izumi). Cloning and characterization of human cysteinyl leukotriene receptors (J.F. Evans). Sleep in transgenic and gene-knockout mice for lipocalin-type prostaglandin D synthase (N. Eguchi et al.). Involvement of the Oct-1 and AP2 elements in the transcriptional regulation of the human hematopoietic prostaglandin D synthase gene in megakaryoblastic Dami cells (K. Fujimori et al.). Prostaglandin E2 activates the histaminergic system in the rat brain (Z.-L. Huang et al.). Lipocalin-type prostaglandin D synthase in cerebrospinal fluid of patients with aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage scavenges bile pigments (T. Inui et al.). Crystal structure of lipocalin-type prostaglandin D synthase (D. Irikura et al.) Enzymatic formation of prostaglandin D2, E2, and F2a in the parasitic protozoan Trypanosoma brucei (B.K. Kubata et al.). Functional linkage between secretory phospholipase A2 (sPLA2) and membranebound prostaglandin E2 synthase (mPGES) (M. Murakami, I. Kudo). Prostaglandin spectrum in falciparum malaria patients (T. Obata et al.). Prostaglandin receptors IP and EP mediating regulation of tumor necrosis factor-alpha and interleukin-10 production (H. Naraba et al.). VII. Special contributions. Cytochrome P450, a very hard mountain to climb: evidence for multiple functional species of activated oxygen (M.J. Coon, K.P. Vatsis, H.-M. Peng). The essentiality of oxygen for life (R.W. Estabrook). Unraveling the enigma of sleep - molecular mechanisms of sleep-wake regulation (O. Hayaishi). Dioxygen activation of iron bleomycin and the cleavage of DNA (J. Peisach). Acknowledgements. Author index. Keyword index.