Control of the purine nucleotide cycle in extracts of rat skeletal muscle: effects of energy state and concentrations of cycle intermediates

The enzymes of the purine nucleotide cycle-AMP deaminase, adenylosuccinate synthetase, and adenylosuccinate lyase-were examined as a functional unit in an in vitro system which simulates the purine nucleotide composition of sarcoplasm. Activity of each cycle enzyme in extracts of rat skeletal muscle was observed to increase as ATP/ADP, reflecting the energy state of the system, was lowered from approximately 50 to 1. The increase in AMP deaminase activity could be attributed to effects of energy state and factors such as AMP concentration, which are obligatorily coupled to energy state. The increases in synthetase and lyase activities were accounted for by increases in the concentration of IMP and adenylosuccinate, respectively. The inhibitory influence of IMP concentration on synthetase activity reported in other systems was not observed in this system; synthetase activity progressively increased as IMP concentration was raised to approximately 4 mM, and apparent saturation occurred at concentrations above 4 mM. Also, adenylosuccinate was found to be an activator of AMP deaminase. The results of this study document that the activities of the enzymes of the purine nucleotide cycle increase in parallel at low energy states, and the components of the cycle function as a coordinated unit with individual enzyme activities linked via concentrations of cycle intermediates.