Merton Franklin Utter (born 23 March 1917 in
Westboro, Missouri
Westboro is a city in Lincoln Township, Atchison County, Missouri, United States. The population was 116 at the 2020 census.
History
Westboro was laid out in 1881. The name Westboro was selected by railroad officials. A post office has been i ...
; died 28 November 1980) was an American
microbiologist and
biochemist.
Early life and education
In his first year the family moved to
New Market, Iowa, for his father's job in a bank. His mother worked as an organist in churches, which stimulated Utter's lifelong love of music. His education began in New Market. The family later moved to
Coin, Iowa where In 1934 he graduated from high school. He attended
Simpson College
Simpson College is a private Methodist liberal arts college in Indianola, Iowa. It is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission and has about 1,250 full-time and 300 part-time students. In addition to the Indianola residential campus, Simpso ...
in
Indianola, Iowa
Indianola is a city in Warren County, Iowa, United States, located south of downtown Des Moines, Iowa. The population was 15,833 at the time of the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Warren County. Indianola is home to the National Balloon ...
, where he graduated in 1938. Merton went to graduate school until 1942 at
Iowa State College
Iowa State University of Science and Technology (Iowa State University, Iowa State, or ISU) is a public land-grant research university in Ames, Iowa. Founded in 1858 as the Iowa Agricultural College and Model Farm, Iowa State became one of the n ...
, where his advisor was Chester Hamlin Werkman. In 1939 he married Marjorie Manifold, who worked as a secretary for
Theodore Schultz
Theodore William Schultz (; 30 April 1902 – 26 February 1998) was an American Agricultural economist and chairman of the University of Chicago Department of Economics. Schultz rose to national prominence after winning the 1979 Nobel Memorial ...
.
Academic career
In 1944 Utter was appointed assistant professor at the
University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public land-grant research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. ...
; in 1946 he became an associate professor at
Western Reserve University
Western may refer to:
Places
*Western, Nebraska, a village in the US
*Western, New York, a town in the US
* Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western world, countries that i ...
in Cleveland, where his colleagues included
Harland G. Wood, Warwick Sakami,
Thomas P. Singer, Victor Lorber, Lester Krampitz, John Muntz and Robert Greenberg.
His son
Douglas Max Utter was born in 1950, and later became an
expressionist
Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...
artist. Utter was appointed full professor in 1956. Between 1965 and 1976, he was also chair of the department of biochemistry. During his time at Western Reserve (later Case Western Reserve University), he spent three years at other universities: in 1953 with the help of the
Fulbright Program
The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States Cultural Exchange Programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people o ...
at the
University of South Australia
The University of South Australia (UniSA) is a public research university in the Australian state of South Australia. It is a founding member of the Australian Technology Network of universities, and is the largest university in South Australi ...
, in 1960 at the
University of Oxford
, mottoeng = The Lord is my light
, established =
, endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019)
, budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20)
, chancellor ...
, and in 1968 at the
University of Leicester
, mottoeng = So that they may have life
, established =
, type = public research university
, endowment = £20.0 million
, budget = £326 million
, chancellor = David Willetts
, vice_chancellor = Nishan Canagarajah
, head_lab ...
, where he met
Hans Kornberg
Sir Hans Leo Kornberg, FRS (14 January 1928 – 16 December 2019) was a British-American biochemist. He was Sir William Dunn Professor of Biochemistry in the University of Cambridge from 1975 to 1995, and Master of Christ's College, Cambridge ...
daily for discussion on the way to work. He served as associate editor of the ''
Journal of Biological Chemistry''. He became a member of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...
in 1972 and In 1973 was honored with membership in the
National Academy of Sciences.
Scientific contributions
Utter was a pioneer in the fields of
bacterial
Bacteria (; singular: bacterium) are ubiquitous, mostly free-living organisms often consisting of one biological cell. They constitute a large domain of prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micrometres in length, bacteria were amon ...
and
intermediary metabolism. As a graduate student and assistant professor he was involved in several classic experiments on the
fixation of CO2 in bacteria and higher organisms.
His most significant finding was that
gluconeogenesis is not reverse
glycolysis. He and his coworkers discovered the enzymes
pyruvate carboxylase
Pyruvate carboxylase (PC) encoded by the gene PC is an enzyme () of the ligase class that catalyzes (depending on the species) the physiologically irreversible carboxylation of pyruvate to form oxaloacetate (OAA).
Image:Pyruvic-acid-2D-sk ...
and
phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase
Phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase (, PEPCK) is an enzyme in the lyase family used in the metabolic pathway of gluconeogenesis. It converts oxaloacetate into phosphoenolpyruvate and carbon dioxide.
It is found in two forms, cytosolic and mitoch ...
and their role in converting
pyruvate to
phosphoenolpyruvate
Phosphoenolpyruvate (2-phosphoenolpyruvate, PEP) is the ester derived from the enol of pyruvate and phosphate. It exists as an anion. PEP is an important intermediate in biochemistry. It has the highest-energy phosphate bond found (−61.9 kJ/m ...
via
oxaloacetate
Oxaloacetic acid (also known as oxalacetic acid or OAA) is a crystalline organic compound with the chemical formula HO2CC(O)CH2CO2H. Oxaloacetic acid, in the form of its conjugate base oxaloacetate, is a metabolic intermediate in many processes ...
in gluconeogenesis, a pathway not the reverse of that catalyzed in glycolysis by
pyruvate kinase
Pyruvate kinase is the enzyme involved in the last step of glycolysis. It catalyzes the transfer of a phosphate group from phosphoenolpyruvate (PEP) to adenosine diphosphate (ADP), yielding one molecule of pyruvate and one molecule of ATP. P ...
.
They also uncovered the role of
acetyl-CoA in regulating the rate of pyruvate carboxylase,
one of the first discoveries of
allosteric regulation. In 1966 he examined the
quaternary structure
Protein quaternary structure is the fourth (and highest) classification level of protein structure. Protein quaternary structure refers to the structure of proteins which are themselves composed of two or more smaller protein chains (also refe ...
of pyruvate carboxylase of chickens by means of
electron microscopy, which was one of its first applications for this purpose. The enzyme was found to be a
tetramer
A tetramer () ('' tetra-'', "four" + '' -mer'', "parts") is an oligomer formed from four monomers or subunits. The associated property is called ''tetramery''. An example from inorganic chemistry is titanium methoxide with the empirical formula ...
,
which was later found to be true for other organisms by researchers like Gerhard Gottschalk. Later in his career, his lab became a leading center in the study of
inborn errors of metabolism
Inborn errors of metabolism form a large class of genetic diseases involving congenital disorders of enzyme activities. The majority are due to defects of single genes that code for enzymes that facilitate conversion of various substances ( substra ...
of pyruvate. For example, he showed that contrary to contemporary belief,
Leigh disease is not associated with deficiency in pyruvate carboxylase activity.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Utter, Merton
American biochemists
Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences
1917 births
1980 deaths
Simpson College alumni
Iowa State University alumni
University of Minnesota faculty
Case Western Reserve University faculty
People from Atchison County, Missouri