Ascidians are sessile marine animals known to accumulate high levels of vanadium selectively in vanadium-containing blood cells (vanadocytes). Almost all the vanadium accumulated in the vacuoles of vanadocytes is reduced to the 3 oxidation state via the 4 oxidation state, although vanadium is dissolved in the 5 oxidation state in sea water. Some of the reducing agents that participate in the reduction have been proposed. By chemical study, vanadium in the 5 oxidation state was reported to be reduced to the 4 oxidation state in the presence of NADPH. The present study revealed the existence of glucose-6-phosphodehydrogenase (G6PDH), the first enzyme to produce NADPH in the pentose phosphate pathway, in vanadocytes of a vanadium-rich ascidian. The results suggested that G6PDH conjugates the reduction of vanadium from the 5 through to the 4 oxidation state in vanadocytes of ascidians.
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1 August 1998
Glucose-6-Phosphate Dehydrogenase in the Pentose Phosphate Pathway Is Localized in Vanadocytes of the Vanadium-Rich Ascidian, Ascidia sydneiensis samea
Taro Uyama,
Kazuhiro Yamamoto,
Kan Kanamori,
Hitoshi Michibata