Partial Purification and Characterization of Ornithine Carbamoyl Transferase (OCT) from the Cyanobacterium Nostoc sp. Strain PCC 73102

Ornithine carbamoyl transferase (OCT) catalyzes the formation of citrulline and orthophosphate from ornithine and carbamoyl phosphate. We have partially purified OCT from the filamentous cyanobacterium Nostoc sp. strain PCC 73102, using ammonium sulfate precipitation (35–55%), a gel-filtration column (Sephacryl S-200), followed by an affinity column (Sepharose-6B-PALO). The partially purified OCT was analyzed on native-PAGE and shown to be an active enzyme with an estimated molecular weight of approximately 80 kDa. The isoelectric point was determined to be about 6.2. Varying the ornithine concentration resulted in a hyperbolic response of the reaction velocity at lower concentrations. Ornithine concentrations above 2 mM inhibited the enzyme. A hyperbolic response of the OCT reaction was observed when increasing the carbamoyl phosphate concentration. From a double reciprocal plot, a saturation concentration of 0.8 mM and a V_max of 0.4 U/mg may be calculated. None of the tested compounds (argininosuccinate, arginine, aspartic acid, urea) had any significant positive effect on the in vitro activity of the partially purified OCT. Moreover, at concentrations higher than 10 mM, all tested compounds had an inhibitory effect. Received: 23 March 1998 / Accepted: 6 May 1998