A series of oxovanadium(IV) complexes of Schiff bases derived from substituted salicylaldehyde and aminoalcohols has been prepared and characterized. The Schiff bases coordinate through 0, N, and 0 as tridentate bivalent ligands. The primary purpose of the investigation is to describe the structure and bonding in these complexes. The subnormal magnetic properties of the complexes provide much information about both the structure and the bonding in the complexes.

This study is concerned with certain factors affecting the content of lactobacillic acid in Lactobacillus plantarum. Three main areas of investigation are reported herein. The effects of both the oxygen tension and the pH of the culture medium on the accumulation of lactobacillic acid were determined. In addition, monolayer studies were conducted to determine the influence of cyclopropane fatty acid content on the molecular packing of membrane lipids.

This thesis is an investigation of the vacuum uv spectra of the phosphorus, phosphoryl, and thiophosphoryl trichlorofluorides in the region 1250 to 3000A. Assignments for absorption bands are made utilizing results from photoelectron spectra and ab initio calculations, oscillator strengths for absorption bands, and CNDO/2 molecular orbital calculations. Results from CNDO/2 calculations are compared with theoretical calculations, and experimental data are discussed with regard to the bonding in the compounds.

The levels of total nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) and nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADP), and their redox states were determined as the function of growth in S. cerevisiae. Cells growing in a medium containing 0.8% glucose exhibit two phases of exponential growth, utilizing glucose and ethanol, respectively. The NAD pool is 50% reduced during both stages of growth while the NADP pool is 67% reduced in glucose growth and 48% reduced in ethanol growth. The NAD/NADP ratio is constant during growth on glucose and a two-fold increase in the NAD/NADP ratio occurs upon exhaustion of glucose. The increased ratio is maintained during growth on ethanol. This alteration in the regulation of the relative levels of NAD and NADP may be due to a change in the regulation of NAD kinase and/or NADP phosphatase activities. These changes may be related to the redox state of the NADP pool.

The development of an analytical method for the determination of total organic-bound chlorine (TOCl) produced during the chlorination of municipal wastewater effluents is presented. Sewage effluent from the Denton, Texas municipal treatment plant was chlorinated at high chlorine doses (1000 - 4000 ppm), as well as typical treatment levels. Chlororganics present in the wastewater, before and after chlorination, were concentrated by adsorption on Amberlite XAD-2 macroreticular resin, followed by elution with diethyl ether. After concentration, the extracts were analyzed for TOC1 by microcoulometry. Analysis of wastewater extracts revealed the production of substantial amounts of new chlorinated organics when effluents were treated with chlorine. The method shows good precision and estimated accuracy is favorable.

This thesis describes the synthesis and preliminary enzymatic study of glutaryl-S-(8-aminooctyl)-L-cysteinylglycine and glutaryl-S-(10-aminodecyl)-L-cysteinylglycine as inhibitors of glyoxalase I. These analogs of glutathione were prepared as potential ligands for affinity chromatography purification of glyoxalase I. The compounds were synthesized by a seven-step procedure in overall yields of 24% for the octyl analog and 33% for the decyl analog. Both compounds exhibited mixed type inhibition of the enzyme, with the decyl derivative being more inhibitory than the octyl derivative. The inhibition was nonlinear (parabolic) for both compounds. Although less inhibitory than the corresponding S-substituted glutathione derivatives, these analogs are promising candidates for affinity chromatography ligands. Such compounds may also be useful in studying the mechanism of glyoxalase I.

The three-dimensional x-ray structure of 2,2'-bipyridylglycinatochloro copper(II) dihydrate has been fully refined to a final R factor of 0.081. The bipyridyl and glycine ligands are arranged about the central copper atom in a square planar configuration while the chlorine atom is 2.635 angstroms above this plane directly over the copper atom. This unusually long distance is explained by the positioning of a glycine group on the opposite side of the square plane, resulting in a distorted octahedral arrangement. Also, the chlorine atom is linked to three oxygen atoms via hydrogen bonding, thus stabilizing the distorted octahedral complex.

The distribution of isozymes of triosephosphate isomerase was normal in all human tissues examined. This finding argues against the existence of tissue-specific isozymes. Normal distributions of isozymes were also found in patients with cri-du-chat syndrome. Thus it is unlikely that a gene for triosephosphate isomerase is located on the short arm of chromosome five in man. When triosephosphate isomerases from a wide range of species were examined by starch gel electrophoresis, definite evolutionary patterns were found. Kinetic studies were conducted on human triosephosphate isomerase under conditions simulating the intracellular environment of the erythrocyte. Calculations using the kinetic parameters obtained indicate that even in triosephosphate isomerase deficiency disease, enough enzyme activity remains that the rate of glycolysis should not become inhibited.

This study is concerned with the metabolism of L-asparagine in Lactobacillus plantarum (ATCC 8014). Theprimary area of investigation is the preliminary characterization of a previously unreported L-asparaginase enzyme in L. plantarum. This L-asparaginase was determined to be an inducible enzyme with variations in its activity level according to the L-asparagine level in the growth medium. L-Glutaminase could not be induced in this organism by L-glutamine, nor would L-glutamine induce the asparaginase activity. These and other studies with amino acid analogs demonstrated the high specificity of both induction and enzymic activity of the asparaginase. Various physical properties of the enzyme were studied. The enzyme was found to be inhibited by adenosine triphosphate (ATP). This inhibition appears to be cooperative in nature and of the type exhibited by allosteric enzymes. These studies should be confirmed on a highly purified enzyme as these preliminary experiments were performed using a crude cell-free extract.

Ligands prepared from various combinations of aldehydes and ketones with the appropriate aminealcohol were complexed with cupric acetate monohydrate. The complexes with O,NO or N,N,O donor atoms were synthesized to study the influences of the ligand on molecular structure, spin-spin interaction, and on the value of the exchange integral. The magnetic data indicated that of the eight Cu(II) complexes discussed, two behaved differently from known analogous compounds. Cu (benzoylacetone :ethanolamine) was compared to Cu(acac:ethanolamine), and Cu(pyrr:oaminophenol) was compared to Cu(acac:o-aminophenol). Each pair of complexes was postulated to have the same molecular structure. The synthesis and characterization of Mn(pyrr:oaminophenol) 2H2 is also discussed. The following physical data were collected and discussed: elemental analysis, melting point, molecular weight, infrared spectra, electronic spectra, and magnetic susceptibility.

This study is concerned with the regulation of Lasparaginase (LA) in the cell-free crude extracts from Lactobacillus plantarum (ATCC8014). A previously reported finding that adenosine triphosphate (ATP) inhibits the action of LA in crude extracts was confirmed. The study was extended to include the mono-, di-, and triphosphates of adenosine, guanosine, cytidine, and uridine. These compounds were also shown to inhibit LA activity. These andother studies revealed that LA appears to be an allosteric type enzyme exhibiting positive homotropism with respect to substrate and heterotropism with respect to the nucleotides tested. The regulation of LA activity by high energy compounds, when coupled with asparagine synthetaseL suggests a relationship between amide synthesis-amide degradation and the energy levels of the cell.

Methylglyoxal synthetase, which catalyzes the formation of methylglyoxal and inorganic phosphate from dihydroxyacetone phosphate, was found in extracts of Proteus vulgaris. An efficient purification procedure utilizing ion exchange column chromatography and isoelectric focusing has been developed. Homogeneity of the enzyme preparation was confirmed by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and rechromatography.Two components of methylglyoxal synthetase were obtained upon isoelectric focusing. A comparison of the chemical and physical properties of the two components was carried out. The enzyme is a dimer. In the presence of inorganic phosphate, the hyperbolic saturation kinetics with dihydroxyacetone phosphate are shifted to sigmoidal.