Discoveries in Bacterial Nucleotide Metabolism

Robert L Switzer

doi:10.1074/jbc.x800012200

Abstract

Discoveries in Bacterial Nucleotide Metabolism

Highlights

As the state’s land grant university, the University of Illinois at Urbana was a natural choice for my undergraduate education, especially after I won a scholarship by competitive examination that paid tuition and fees for all four years (1957–1961)
We were able to make substantial contributions to the enzymology of the coenzyme B12-dependent glutamate mutase system [1], but the most important contemporary contribution to the mechanism of action of the coenzyme came from the work of Perry Frey and Robert Abeles, who demonstrated the transfer of hydrogen atoms
My work with Barker emphasized metabolic pathways and enzymology, which were central to the biochemistry of the time, but Stadtman opened my eyes to the regulation of metabolism

Summary

Introduction

As the state’s land grant university, the University of Illinois at Urbana was a natural (and the only affordable) choice for my undergraduate education, especially after I won a scholarship by competitive examination that paid tuition and fees for all four years (1957–1961). The studies of Frank Nygaard and Sine Larsen on x-ray structures and kinetic properties of mutant B. subtilis PRPP synthetases, which have not been published except in Nygaard’s Ph.D. thesis [24], suggest near identity between the mechanisms of allosteric regulation of human and bacterial enzymes.

Results

Conclusion