Two Class I Aldolases in the Green Alga Chara foetida (Charophyceae)

Aldolase activity of Chara foetida (Braun) could be separated into a minor (peak I) and a major peak (peak II) by ion-exchange chromatography on DEAE-cellulose. Affinity chromatography on P-cellulose resulted in highly purified aldolase preparations with specific activities of 3.2 and 4.8 units per milligram protein and molecular subunit masses of 37 and 35 kilodalton, as shown by SDS-PAGE, for the aldolase of peak I and peak II, respectively. Both aldolases belong to class I aldolase since the activity is not inhibited by 1 millimolar EDTA. The K_m (fructose-1,6-bisphosphate) values were 0.64 and 13.4 micromolar, respectively. The aldolase of peak I showed a 6.7 times stronger crossreaction with a specific antiserum against the cytosol aldolase of spinach than with an antiserum against the chloroplast aldolase of spinach. On the other hand the aldolase of peak II showed a 5.1 times stronger cross-reaction with the α-plastidaldolase antiserum than with the α-cytosol-aldolase antiserum. For algae this is the first separation of two class I aldolases. They are similar to the cytosol and chloroplast aldolases in higher plants, but different from a reported class I (Me²⁺ independent) and class II (Me²⁺ dependent) aldolase in other algae.