Ribonucleotide reductase is a remarkable enzyme that catalyzes the rate-limiting
step in the synthesis of the 2'-deoxynucleoside triphosphates. The intent of this project
was to characterize the ribonucleotide reductase encoded by the orthopoxvirus,
vaccinia. The first objective was to study the structural and functional features of the
viral small subunit...
Blood vessel injury was found to release intracellular pools of protein
D-aspartyl/L-isoaspartyl carboxyl methyltransferase (PIMT) into the extracellular
milieu, where it became trapped. Trapped PIMT was able to utilize radiolabeled
S-adenosyl-L-methionine (AdoMet) introduced into the circulation to methylate
blood vessel proteins containing altered aspartyl residues specifically at the site
of...