Enzymatic synthesis of [U-14C] ribose-labeled inosine.

A very potent anticholinesterase compound, 7-(diethoxyphosphinyloxy)-N-methylquinolinium fluorosulfate, has been used to determine the normality of acetylcholinesterase solutions. The inhibitor reacts rapidly and completely with acetylcholinesterase. The bimolecular rate constant is 2.5 × 10⁸m^?1 min^?1 and the equilibrium constant is about 10⁶. The reaction produces an inactive diethylphosphoryl enzyme in which the active serine is phosphorylated. The reaction produces the highly fluorescent 1-methyl-7-hydroxyquinolinium dipolar ion as a leaving group. The inhibited enzyme is quite stable and hydrolyzes to produce active enzyme only at the rate of 0.04%/min. The inhibitor was used in two ways for measuring the normality of acetylcholinesterase solutions: (1) The very fast reaction of the inhibitor with cholinesterase makes it convenient to determine the normality of enzyme solutions by measuring the decrease in enzyme activity caused by the addition of an accurately known quantity of the inhibitor. (2) The highly fluorescent nature of the leaving group makes it possible to measure the low concentration that is produced by the reaction of excess inhibitor with the enzyme. The two methods yielded activities per site of 6.9 × 10⁵ min^?1 and 7.3 × 10⁵ min^?1 using enzyme normalities of 1–2 × 10^?8m and 1–5 × 10^?m, respectively, using a commercial 11 S enzyme preparation from electric eel and acetylthiocholine as the enzyme substrate.     

Kinetic Studies on Crystalline Yeast Phosphoglyceric Acid Mutase

Effects of the substrate and the coenzyme on the crystalline yeast phosphoglyceric acid mutase activity have been investigated. Lineweaver-Burk plots at different concentrations of the substrate (d-3-phosphoglyceric acid: 3×10^?7 to 8×10^?3m) and the coenzyme (d-2, 3-diphosphoglyceric acid: 8×10^?7 to 10^?5m) change in such a way to indicate the involvement of an enzyme-substrate-coenzyme ternary complex as an active intermediate in the enzymic reaction process. It is concluded that the reaction catalyzed by the yeast enzyme follows the sequential pathway and that a phosphorylated enzyme does not participate as an obligatory intermediate in the reaction mechanism, if it occurs. Kinetic studies indicate Km values of 6×10^?4m for d-3-phosphoglyceric acid and 8×10^?7m for d-2, 3-diphosphoglyceric acid. The substrate is a competitive inhibitor of the coenzyme with a Ksi (inhibition constant) of 3.2×10^?3m. The coenzyme inhibition is not observed at concentration tested. A kinetic treatment to determine the mechanism of the enzyme reaction from the experimental data which are obtaind in the range of inhibitory substrate concentrations is presented.     

Purification and properties of a homogeneous aryl sulfatase A from rabbit liver.

Aryl sulfatase A (aryl sulfate sulfohydrolase EC 3.1.6.1) has been purified > 10,000-fold from rabbit liver; by disc gel electrophoresis the enzyme appears homogeneous. Various properties of the enzyme have been determined and comparisons are made with other aryl sulfatases. Sodium dodecyl sulfate gel electrophoresis indicates that the enzyme is made up of monomers of molecular weight ～ 70,000. At pH 7.4 the enzyme exists as a dimer whereas a tetrameric form predominates at pH 4.8.The enzyme exhibits the anomalous kinetics often observed with aryl sulfatase A from mammalian tissues (the enzyme is modified to an inactive form while degrading substrate and the inactive form can be reactivated by sulfate ion). The enzyme activity has been studied under a variety of reaction conditions. Two pH optima are observed and neither enzyme concentration or changes in ionic strength appear to have an effect on the relative magnitudes of the optima. Aryl sulfatase A is competitively inhibited by potassium sulfate, potassium phosphate, and sodium sulfite (K_i = 2.9 × 10^?3 M, 3.4 × 10^?5 M, and 1.1 × 10^?6 M, respectively). Kinetic constants for some substituted phenyl sulfate esters have been determined. The variation in V is not consistent with a reaction mechanism involving a rate-limiting breakdown of a common intermediate.The inactive (modified) form of the enzyme has been isolated from reaction mixtures containing aryl sulfatase A and substrate. A procedure is presented for determining the relative amount of modified and native enzyme in these preparations. In the presence of substrate, sulfate displaces the equilibrium between native and modified enzyme in favor of native enzyme. In the absence of substrate neither sulfate or phosphate have an effect on the equilibrium. A study is made of the temperature dependence of the process in which the modified enzyme is converted back to native enzyme. The relatively small entropy of activation for the conversion of the modified to the native form (ΔS3 = ?8 cal/mole deg) does not seem to be consistent with a major modification of protein conformation.     

Purification and properties of DL-lactate dehydrogenase from Leuconostoc mesenteroides

A dl-lactate dehydrogenase from the bacterium, Leuconostoc mesenteroides, has been purified and characterized with respect to amino acid composition, molecular weight, and kinetic properties. The turnover number of the enzyme was 1.7 × 10⁵ moles DPNH/mole enzyme/min for the most active of three preparations. On the basis of a sedimentation constant of 3.52 S and a diffusion constant of 5.0 × 10^?7 cm²/ ml, the molecular weight of the enzyme was determined to be approximately 64,000. Similar values were derived from sedimentation equilibrium data. The enzyme exhibits typical Michaelis-Menten kinetics except when lactate is the variable substrate. In this case, double reciprocal plots of activity versus substrate concentration are curved upward, suggesting that lactate either activates or stabilizes a more active form of the enzyme.     

Crystallization and amino acid composition of cathepsin B from rat liver lysosomes

Cathepsin B (EC 3.4.22.1) from rat liver was crystallized and its amino acid composition was determined. The purified enzyme formed spindle-shaped crystals and its homogeneity was proved by ultracentrifugical analysis. Its S_{20, W} value was 2.5 S and its molecular weight was calculated to be 24,000 from the result of sedimentation equilibrium analysis. Amino acid analysis showed that it contained glucosamine and galactosamine. The activity of the protease was maximal at pH 6.0 with α-N-benzoyl-DL-arginine p-nitroanilide as substrate. The apparent Kms for α-N-benzoyl-DL-arginine p-nitroanilide and α-N-benzoyl-DL-arginine-2-naphthylamide were 1.4 × 10^?2 M and 2.0 × 10^?3 M, respectively     

Changes in Hypocholesterolemic Activity in Rats by Various Konnyaku Powder Treatments

Galactosylsucroses contained in soybeans are not digestible. Thus we wished to detect α-galactosidase (EC 3.2.1.22) in intestinal bacteria. The strain of E. coli in the title was found to produce considerably this enzyme adaptively. We could prepare rather pure solution of the enzyme from the sonicate of the strain. It was purified about 142-fold. It showed optimum pH and temperature at 6.8 and 37°C, respectively, with the substrate p-nitrophenyl-α-d-galactoside (PNPG). Dilute enzyme solutions were very unstable even at 0–5°C. However, concentrated solutions were considerably stable. The Michaelis constant (m) was 1.07 × 10^?4, 2.33 × 10^?3, and 3.65 × 10^?2 for PNPG, melibiose, and raffinose, respectively. The maximum velocity (mole/min/mg protein) was 2.72 × 10^?5, 2.67 × 10^?5, and 2.04×l0^?5, respectively for the same three substrates. This enzyme had a weak transferase action.     

Pathways of Chlorophenol Formation in Oxidative Biodegradation of BHC

Hexose 1-phosphate uridylyltransferase (EC 2.7.7.12) was present constitutively in Bifidobacterium bifidum. The enzyme was purified to a homogeneous state from B. bifidum grown on a glucose medium and characterized. The molecular weight of the enzyme is about 110,000.The pH optimum of the enzyme was 7.5. The enzyme was very labile on the acidic side below pH 4.5. Thymidine diphosphate glucose could serve as a substrate with about 60% efficiency of UDP-glucose. The Km values for UDP-gtucose, galactose 1-phosphate (Gal-l-P), UDP-galactose and glucose 1-phosphate (Glc-1-P) were estimated to be 2.3×10^?5M, 5.0 × 10^?4M, 3.1 × 10^?5 M and 1.4 × 10^?4M, respectively. From these results the physiological roles of the enzyme were considered in relation to galactose metabolism in B. bifidum.     

Mechaism of Arthrobacter sialophilus neuraminidase: The binding of substrates and transition-state analogs

2-Deoxy-2,3-dehydro-N-acetylneuraminic acid and its methyl ester are competitive inhibitors of Arthrobacter sialophilus neuraminidase with K_i = 1.4 × 10^?6$\text{M}$ and 4.8 × 10^?5$\text{M}$, respectively. The K_m for the substrate, N-acetylneuraminlactose, is 1.0 × 10^?3$\text{M}$. These data, taken together with the conformation of these compounds, indicate that these compounds are transition-state analogs of the enzyme. These results also suggest that the substrate upon binding to neuraminidase is distorted to a conformation approaching that of a half-chair.     

Purification and Properties of Hypoxanthine Phosphoribosyltransferase from Streptomyces cyanogenus

Hypoxanthine phosphoribosyltransferase (EC 2.4.2.8) of a strain of Streptomyces cyanogenus was purified 1,900-fold to an apparent homogenity from cell-free extracts. The enzyme had a molecular weight of 150,000 and consisted of eight identical subunits with a molecular weight of 18,000. The isoelectric point was at pH 4.4. The enzyme required Mg²⁺ or Ma²⁺ for activity and had a pH optimum at 8.5. Hypoxanthine and guanine were good substrates for the enzyme. Xanthine was a very poor substrate and adenine was not a substrate. Apparent Km values of the enzyme for hypoxanthine, guanine and 5-phosphoribose-1-pyro-phosphate were 1.6 × 10^?8, 2.7 × 10^?6 and 6.3 × 10^?5 m, respectively. All purine nucleotides tested inhibited the activity significantly, apparently by competing with 5-phosphoribose-1-pyrophosphate.     

Further Characterization of Ureido Ring Synthetase from Pseudomonas graveolens

Detailed enzymatic properties of the ureido ring synthetase purified from Pseudomonas graveolens were investigated. Nucleotide specificity studies indicated that CTP, UTP, GTP, and ITP were each tenth to one-fifth as active as ATP. The effect of substrate concentration was examined. The Km values for 7,8-diaminopelargonic acid, biotin diaminocarboxylic acid, NaHCO₃, ATP, and MgCl₂ were 1 × 10^?4 M, 4 × 10^?5 M, 1 × 10^?2 m, 5 × 10^?5 M, and 3 × 10^?3 M, respectively. It was elucidated that only ADP was produced from ATP in both the reaction of desthiobiotin synthesis from 7,8-diaminopelargonic acid and biotin synthesis from biotin diaminocarboxylic acid. The reaction was remarkably inhibited by Ni²⁺, Cd²⁺, Cu²⁺, Ag⁺, and As³⁺, while Mn²⁺ remarkably enhanced the enzyme reaction. The reaction was remarkably inhibited by metal-chelating reagents. It was elucidated that ADP had a competitively inhibiting effect on this enzyme reaction. 7,8-DiaminopeIargonic acid, which is the substrate for the desthiobiotin synthesis, competitively inhibited the biotin synthesis from biotin diaminocarboxylic acid. The stoichiometry of the desthiobiotin synthesis indicated that the formation ratio of desthiobiotin to ADP was 1 to 1.     

Kinetic Studies of a (Na++ K++ Mg2+) ATPase in Sugar Beet Roots

Kinetic studies of a microsomal, dithiotreitol treated, homogenate from sugar beet roots led to the following conclusions about its ATPase activity: (1) MgATP in complex appears to be the primary substrate for the reaction. The reciprocal equilibrium constant for the binding to the enzyme is estimated to be approximately 0.2 × 10^?3M. (2) Free ATP acts as a competitive inhibitor of the MgATP. The binding constant is about twice as high as for MgATP. Consequently the enzyme has less affinity for ATP than for MgATP. (3) Free Mg²⁺ has little influence on the velocity, as the binding affinity of the enzyme for Mg²⁺ is almost negligible.     

Rabbit brain purine nucleoside phosphorylase. Physical and chemical properties. Inhibition studies with aminopterin, folic acid and structurally related compounds.

Rabbit brain purine nucleoside phosphorylase used in this study was purified 6000-fold to apparent homogeneity and a specific activity or 50 μmol min^?1 mg ^?1 protein. A molecular weight of 70.000 daltons was determined for the native enzyme by gel filtration on Sephadex. Electrophoresis on polyacrylamide gel, in presence of sodium dodecyl sulfate, gave a subunit molecular weight of 34,500 daltons, suggesting that the enzyme is dimeric with, probably, identical subunits. The relationship of the structure of certain biologically active substances to their inhibitory action on the enzyme was examined. Folic acid and the compound d,l-6-methyl 5,6,7,8-tetrahydropterine, with similar substituents on their primary ring structure, were competitive inhibitors of the enzyme. The inhibition constants calculated were 3.37 × 10^?5M for folic acid and 3.80 × 10^?5m for d,l-6-methyl 5,6,7,8-tetrahydropterine. Aminopterin and the purine analog 8-aza-2,6-diaminopurine, with similar substituents on their primary ring structure, were noncompetitive inhibitors of the enzyme. Their respective inhibition constants were 1.50 × 10^?4 and 1.95 × 10^?4m. Erythro-9-(2-hydroxy-3-nonyl) adenine, an adenosine deaminase inhibitor, was also examined for inhibitory potency with mammalian purine nucleoside phosphorylase, and was observed to be a competitive inhibitor of this enzyme, with an inhibition constant of 1.90 × 10^?4m. The Michaelis constant for the substrate guanosine was near 6.0 × 10^?5m. Physical probe of the nature of the functional groups which participate in enzymic catalysis implicated both histidine and cysteine as the essential catalytic species. Photooxidation studies suggested a pH-dependent sensitivity of an essential catalytic group, and its probable location at the active site.     

Properties of glutamate dehydrogenase from Beta vulgaris

Glutamate-NAD oxidoreductase, E.C. 1.4.1.3 (GDH), from seedlings of Beta vulgaris cv. Rota, Jahnsch Peragis Comp., was enzymatically characterized. This enzyme with molecular weight of 2.6 × 10⁵ has a pH optimum of around 8 for animation of α-KGA and around 9.5 for the desamination of glutamate. The apparent K_m for α-KGA is 6.7 × 10^?4M, for NH₃ 2.5 × 10^?3M, for NADH 3.2 × 10^?5M and for NAADPH 5.5 × 10^?4M. NAD¹ inhibits the reaction non-competitively when NADPH serves as substrate. The apparent K¹ is 4.5 × 10^?4M. The data are discussed on relation to the properties of GDH from other plant sources.     

MEMBRANE THIAMINE TRTPHOSPHATASE FROM RAT BRAIN: INHIBITION BY ATP AND ADP

—The hydrolysis of ThTP by rat brain membrane-bound ThTPase is inhibited by nucleoside diphosphates and triphosphates. ATP and ADP are most effective, reducing hydrolysis by 50% at concentrations of 2 × 10^?5m and 7·5 × 10^?5m respectively. Nucleoside monophosphates and free nuclcosides as well as P_i have no effect on enzyme activity. ThMP and ThDP also fail to inhibit hydrolysis in concentrations up to 5 × 10^?3m . Non-hydrolysable methylene phosphate analogs of ATP and ADP were used in further kinetic studies with the ThTPase. The mechanism of inhibition by these analogs is shown to be of mixed non-competitive nature for both compounds. An observed K_i, of 4 × 10^?5m for the ATP analog adenosine-PPCP and 9 × 10^?5m for the ADP analog adenosine-PCP is calculated at pH 6·5. Formation of the true enzyme substrate, the [Mg²⁺. ThTP] complex, is not significantly affected by concentrations of analogs producing maximal (>95%) inhibition of enzyme activity. Likewise the relationships between pH and observed K_m and pH and V_max are not shifted by the presence of similar concentrations of inhibitor.     

A critical reexamination of the continous spectrophotometric assay for adenosine deaminase

The continuous spectrophotometric assay for adenosine deaminase has been reinvestigated, using both adenosine and 9-β-d-arabinofuranosyladenine as substrates. This assay is based on the reported decrease in absorbance at or near 265 nm between the adenine nucleoside substrate and the hypoxanthine nucleoside product. In the substrate concentration range 1,5 – 8.0 × 10^?4m, the progress of the reaction is associated with an anomalous sigmoidal dependence of absorbance on time, and the overall change in absorbance decreases with increasing substrate concentration. Near 8 × 10^?4m substrate, the deamination proceeds with no change in absorbance, while at higher concentrations, small increases in absorbance are observed. These effects, if ignored, generate initial “rate” data exhibiting an apparent substrate inhibition whieh, however, is completely an artifact induced by the spectral anomalies. Over the entire concentration range 5 × 10^?6–1 × 10^?3m, alternative assay methods (e.g., discontinuous detection of the product, ammonia) yeld normal Michaelis-Menten kineties. The anomalous behavior manifested in the continuous spectrophotometric assay is due to large negative deviations from Beer's law. These deviations are observed for all four of the nucleosides tested, viz., adenosine, 9-β-d-arabinofuranosyladenine, inosine, and 9-β-d-arabinofuranosylhypoxanthine. The departure from Beer's law is detectable anywhere in the concentration range 5 × 10^?6–1 × 10^?3m, but is most marked at concentrations above 1 × 10^?4m. Thus, the continuous spectrophotometric assay for adenosine deaminase should be utilized withextreme caution, and should not be employed at concentrations exceeding 1 × 10^?4m, irrespective of the K_m value for the substrate. Specific recommendations are given for future assays.     

Analysis of the binding of phenylalanine to phenylalanyl-tRNA synthetase

Using the complete rate equation for the PP_i-ATP exchange reaction at equilibrium, the dissociation constants of phenylalanine (10^?5m), phenylalanine butyl ester (8 × 10^?5m), benzyl alcohol (6 × 10^?4m), phenylalaninol (2 × 10^?4m), hydrocinnamic acid (3 × 10^?3m) and glycine (>1 m) with the phenylalanyl-tRNA synthetase (Escherichia coli K12) were determined. Taking the model of Koshland (1962) for the estimation of the configurational free energy change due to proximity and orientation, and decomposing the process of binding into several thermodynamic steps, the contribution to binding of the benzyl group, glycine unit, protonated amino group, carboxylate group and joint interactions were estimated. The results are: (1) the standard free energy contributions for binding phenylalanine are benzyl group (?8.2 kcal/mol), glycine unit (?2.5 kcal/mol), protonated amino group (?0.8 kcal/mol) and carboxylate group (1 kcal/mol). (2) The standard free energy change due to the change in the interaction between the protonated amino group and carboxylate group when they are transferred from the aqueous environment to the enzyme environment is ?2.7 kcal/mol. (3) A dissociation constant for glycine of 7.5 m is calculated without the hypothesis that a conformational change occurs in the enzyme when the benzyl unit of phenylalanine binds, permitting an interaction of the enzyme with the protonated amino and/or carboxylate groups.The detection of E·AA² and E·ATP shows that a sequential addition of substrates is not necessary for binding. A comparison of the dissociation constants of E·AA (10^?5m), E·ATP (1.5 × 10^?3m), E·PP (5.5 × 10^?4m), E·I (8 × 10^?5m) and the mixed complexes E·I·ATP (6 × 10^?8m²), E·I·PP (5 × 10^?8m²) and E·AA·PP (7 × 10^?9m²), with phenylalanine butyl ester as the inhibitor, indicates no strong interaction between the binding of ATP or PP_i with the binding of phenylalanine.     

Soybean alcohol dehydrogenase

Alcohol dehydrogenase was prepared from germinating soybean seeds. Specific activity was increased from 511 to 31316 units. The coenzyme is NAD with a K_m of 10^?4M. Allyl alcohol is oxidized faster than ethanol; with the latter substrate, the K_m is 1.3 × 10^?2M, and the pH optimum 8.7. The enzyme catalyses acetaldehyde reduction, with a K_m of 10^?2M and a pH opt of 7.1. The MW is 53(±5) × 10^?3.     

Inactivation of E. coli RNA polymerase by pyridoxal 5'-phosphate: identificationof a low pKa lysine as the modified residue.

The inactivation of E. coli RNA polymerase (3.3 × 10^?7M) by pyridoxal 5′-phosphate (1 × 10^?4M to 5 × 10^?4M) is a first order process with respect to the remaining active enzyme. Studies of the variation of the first order rate constant with the concentration of pyridoxal 5′-phosphate show that the inactivation reaction follows saturation kinetics. The formation of a reversible enzyme-inhibitor intermediate is postulated. Kinetic studies at different pH values indicate that the inactivation rate constant depends on the mole fraction of one conjugate base with pK_a 7.9. The apparent equilibrium constant (association) for the inactivation reaction is independent of the pH and is 1.8 × 10⁴ M^?1. By electrophoretic and chromatographic analysis of enzyme hydrolyzates after pyridoxal 5′-phosphate and NaBH₄ treatment only N-ε-pyridoxyllysine was found. It is postulated that a lysine ε-amino group with a low pK_a is critical for the activity of the enzyme.     

Purifications and properties of L-mandelate- 4-hydroxylase from Pseudomonas convexa.

An inducible l-mandelate-4-hydroxylase has been partially purified from crude extracts of Pseudomonas convexa. This enzyme catalyzed the hydroxylation of l-mandelic acid to 4-hydroxymandelic acid. It required tetrahydropteridine, NADPH, Fe²⁺, and O₂ for its activity. The approximate molecular weight of the enzyme was assessed as 91,000 by gel filtration on Sephadex G-150. The enzyme was optimally active at pH 5.4 and 38 °C. A classical Michaelis-Menten kinetic pattern was observed with l-mandelate, NADPH, and ferrous sulfate and K_m values for these substrates were found to be 1 × 10^?4, 1.9 × 10^?4, and 4.7 × 10^?5m, respectively. The enzyme is very specific for l-mandelate as substrate. Thiol inhibitors inhibited the enzyme reaction, indicating that the sulfhydryl groups may be essential for the enzyme action. Treatment of the partially purified enzyme with denaturing agents inactivated the enzyme.     

Characterization and Regulatory Properties of Glucose-6-Phosphate Dehydrogenase from Black Gram (Phaseolus mungo)

Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (E.C. 1.1.1.49) was partially purified by fractionation with ammonium sulfate and phosphocellulose chromatography. The K_m value for glucose-6-phosphate is 1.6 × 10^?4 and 6.3 × 10^?4M at low (1.0–6.0 × 10^?4M) and high (6.0–30.0 × 10^?4M) concentrations of the substrate, respectively. The K_m value for NADP⁺ is 1.4 × 10^?5M. The enzyme is inhibited by NADPH, 5-phosphoribosyl-1-pyrophosphate, and ATP, and it is activated by Mg²⁺, and Mn²⁺. In the presence of NADPH, the plot of activity vs. NADP⁺ concentration gave a sigmoidal curve. Inhibition of 5-phosphoribosyl-1-pyrophosphate and ATP is reversed by Mg²⁺ or a high pH. It is suggested that black gram glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase is a regulatory enzyme of the pentose phosphate pathway.