In vitro loss of hydrophobicity of trehalase from the brush border membrane of rabbit kidney cortex

Trehalase solubilized with 0.5% Triton X-100 and 0.5% deoxycholate from the brush border membrane of rabbit kidney cortex was all adsorbed on phenyl-Sepharose equilibrated with elution buffer containing no detergents, and all the adsorbed enzyme was eluted in one peak on the addition of 0.5% Triton X-100 to the elution buffer, in contrast to the results reported by Nakano and Sacktor (J. Biochem. 97, 1329-1335 (1985], who separated two forms of trehalase differing in hydrophobicity from rabbit kidney. On concentration of detergent-solubilized extracts, followed by incubation at 37 degrees C, however, there appeared trehalase nonadsorbable on phenyl-Sepharose, i.e. a hydrophilic trehalase. Various protease inhibitors added to the concentrated extracts did not inhibit this conversion at all. The concentration-incubation treatment also increased the proportion of trehalase that interacts with Con A-Sepharose. These results indicate that kidney trehalase that interacts with Con A-Sepharose. These results indicate that kidney trehalase is susceptible to some lytic action of a factor(s) intrinsic to the brush border membrane (limited autolysis), as seen with rabbit intestinal trehalase (Yokota et al., (1986) Biochim. Biophys. Acta 881, 405-414). Therefore, in studies of the molecular form of trehalase (and other proteins) in the brush border membrane of the kidney and intestine where a lot of hydrolases exist, it is very important to take account of limited autolysis which results in some chemical modifications without affecting enzymatic activity.