A new and specific assay for ammonia and glutamine sensitive to 100 pmol

The function of Glu338 in the catalytic triad of the carbamoyl phosphate synthetase amidotransferase domain

The synthesis of carbamoyl phosphate by the mammalian multifunctional protein, CAD, involves the concerted action of the 40 kDa amidotransferase domain (GLN), that hydrolyzes glutamine and the 120 kDa synthetase (CPS) domain that uses the ammonia, thus produced, ATP and bicarbonate to make carbamoyl phosphate. The separately cloned GLN domain has very low activity due to a reduction in kcat and an increase in Km but forms a hybrid complex with the isolated Escherichia coli CPS subunit. The hybrid has full glutamine-dependent catalytic activity and a functional interdomain linkage. The mammalian-E. coli hybrid was used to investigate the functional consequence of replacing His336 and Glu338, two residues postulated to participate in catalysis as part of a catalytic triad. The mutant mammalian GLN domains formed stable complexes with the E. coli CPS subunit, but the catalytic activity was severely impaired. While the His336Asn mutant does not form measurable amounts of the gamma-glutamyl thioester, the steady state concentration of the intermediate with the Glu338Gly mutant was comparable to the wild type hybrid because both the rate of formation and breakdown of the thioester are reduced. This result is consistent with the postulated role of Glu338 in maintaining His336 in the optimal orientation for catalysis and suggests a mechanism for the GLN CPS functional linkage.

Glutamine and ammonium handling by anaesthetized rats

The infusion of ether anesthaetized rats with 0.2 M (1 mmols in total) ammonium acetate or glutamine were compared with the infusion of 0.2 M NaCl. The levels of circulating glucose, amino acids, lactate, urea and ammonium were measured as well as liver glycogen and tissue amino acids and the liver and muscle activities of carbamoyl phosphate synthetases I and II, glutamate dehydrogenase, glutamine synthetase and adenylate deaminase. Neither treatment altered the glucose and glycogen homeostasis. The infusion of ammonium did not result in increases in circulating ammonium, but resulted in increased circulating urea after a short delay; the infusion of glutamine resulted also in urea production but much later on. Glutamine infusion also resulted in increased tissue free amino-acid levels. There was little alteration in enzyme activities, except for decreased glutamine synthetase and adenylate deaminase activity in muscle of glutamine-infused rats and higher tissue carbamoyl phosphate synthetase II. The results agree with a fast removal of infused ammonium, and maintenance of glutamine, with their channeling towards urea production at a rate comparable with that of infusion, that did not alter significantly the homeostasis of the experimental animals.

Some pitfalls and considerations of plasma ammonia estimation

Several approaches to the estimation of plasma ammonia have been tested and compared: indophenol, Nessler, iodometric techniques were studied as well as enzymatic spectrophotometric and radiometric methods. Their lower safe limits of estimation were determined and it was found that most of them were not viable for plasma estimations because of its very low ammonia levels. The need for a concentration/purification step and the lack of repetability in this phase at very low concentrations, made very unreliable the utilization of all methods studied except for the enzymatic radiometric method tested that was barely usable for plasma ammonia estimations.

Glyphosate sensitivity of 5-enol-pyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate synthase from Bacillus subtilis depends upon state of activation induced by monovalent cations

The 5-enol-pyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate (EPSP) synthase from Bacillus subtilis was activated by monovalent cations, catalytic activity being negligible in the absence of monovalent cations. The order of cation effectiveness (NH4+ greater than K+ greater than Rb+ greater than Na+ = Cs+ = Li+) indicated that the extent of activation was directly related to the unhydrated cation radius. Ammonium salts, at physiological concentrations, were dramatically more effective than other cations. Activation by ammonium was instantaneous, was not influenced by the counter ion, and gave a hyperbolic saturation curve. Hill plots did not show detectable cooperativity in the binding of ammonium. Double-reciprocal plots indicated that ammonium increases the maximal velocity and decreases the apparent Michaelis constants of EPSP synthase with respect to both phosphoenol pyruvate (PEP) and shikimate 3-phosphate (S3P). A direct relationship between sensitivity to inhibition by glyphosate and the activation state of EPSP synthase was demonstrated. Hill plots indicated a single value for glyphosate binding throughout the range of ammonium activation. Double-reciprocal plots of substrate saturation data obtained with ammonium-activated enzyme in the presence of glyphosate showed glyphosate to behave as a competitive inhibitor with respect to PEP and as a mixed-type inhibitor relative to S3P. The increased glyphosate sensitivity of ammonium-activated EPSP synthase is attributed to a lowering of the inhibitor constant of glyphosate with respect to PEP. Erroneous underestimates of sensitivities of some bacterial EPSP synthases to inhibition by glyphosate may result from failure to recognize cation requirements of EPSP synthases.

Ammonium and methylammonium transport in Rhodobacter sphaeroides

Rhodobacter sphaeroides maintained intracellular ammonium pools of 1.1 to 2.6 mM during growth in several fixed nitrogen sources as well as during diazotrophic growth. Addition of 0.15 mM NH4+ to washed, nitrogen-free cell suspensions was followed by linear uptake of NH4+ from the medium and transient formation of intracellular pools of 0.9 to 1.5 mM NH4+. Transport of NH4+ was shown to be independent of assimilation by glutamine synthetase because intracellular pools of over 1 mM represented NH4+ concentration gradients of at least 100-fold across the cytoplasmic membrane. Ammonium pools of over 1 mM were also found in non-growing cell suspensions in nitrogen-free medium after glutamine synthetase was inhibited with methionine sulfoximine. In NH4+-free cell suspensions, methylammonium (14CH3NH3+) was taken up rapidly, and intracellular concentrations of 0.4 to 0.5 mM were maintained. The 14CH3NH3+ pool was not affected by methionine sulfoximine. Unlike NH4+ uptake, 14CH3NH3+ uptake in nitrogen-free cell suspensions was repressed by growth in NH4+. These results suggest that R. sphaeroides may produce an NH4+-specific transport system in addition to the NH4+/14CH3NH3+ transporter. This second transporter is able to produce normal-size NH4+ pools but has very little affinity for 14CH3NH3+ and is not repressed by growth in high concentrations of NH4+.

Effects of lactation on circulating plasma metabolites in 'cafeteria-fed' rats

1. The effects of 'cafeteria feeding' on primiparous Wistar rats during lactation have been studied by measuring circulating levels of glucose, amino acids, lactate, urea and ammonia as well as glycogen levels in liver and muscle. 2. No significant changes in glucose levels were observed despite alterations in blood glucose compartmentation. 3. Compared with controls, the dams given the cafeteria diet had higher liver glycogen stores which were more easily mobilized at the peak of lactation. 4. Rats given the cafeteria diet showed a lower amino acid utilization than controls and adequately maintained circulating levels, as determined by the lower circulating levels of ammonia and urea. 5. No significant differences in body-weight were observed in the period studied despite increasing dam weight after weaning in the cafeteria-fed group. 6. The size of pups of cafeteria-fed dams was greater than that of controls, and the differences were marked after weaning, when the metabolic machinery of the cafeteria pup maintained high protein accretion and body build-up using fat as the main energy substrate characteristic of the preweaning stage. The controls, however, changed to greater utilization of amino acids as an energy substrate and adapted to high-protein (low-biological-quality) diets with a significantly different pattern of circulating nitrogen distribution.

The kinetics of ammonia release during the catalytic cycle of pig plasma amine oxidase

The time course of NH3 release during the catalytic cycle of pig plasma amine oxidase was followed by using the quenched-flow technique in conjunction with a sensitive assay for NH3. These studies were made under both air and O2-saturating conditions. The results establish unequivocally that NH3 is released in the step whereby a reduced enzyme species is re-oxidized by molecular O2 rather than in the step leading to the reduced enzyme. It is concluded that the catalytic cycle of the enzyme conforms to an aminotransferase mechanism rather than one in which an imine is an intermediate.

Liver ornithine decarboxylase in pregnant rats fed two levels of casein

Liver ornithine decarboxylase (ODC) and tyrosine aminotransferase (TAT) activities were assessed at 2200 h (prandial phase) and at 1000 h (postprandial phase) in virgin and in pregnant (day 13-20) rats fed on different levels of casein and carbohydrate. In virgin rats, ODC levels were higher at 2200 h after resumption of eating than at 1000 hours, the inductive effect being greater with the high-casein than with the low-casein diet. Rapid deinduction followed termination of eating, resulting in equally low enzyme levels at 1000 h with both diets. On the contrary, prandial and postprandial levels of TAT were always greater with the high-protein diet. In pregnant rats, there was a progressive stimulation of ODC that reached a maximum on day 19. However, the inductive capacity of the high-protein diet was lower than that of the low-casein diet. Prandial rest was not followed by enzyme deinduction at 1000 h. In contrast, TAT stimulation remained dependent on overall casein ingestion. At constant casein but restricted carbohydrate intake, pregnant females exhibited a reduction in ODC stimulation. Thus, whereas in virgin females proteins are determinant in the regulation of ODC, during pregnancy there determinant in the regulation of ODC, during pregnancy there is a shift toward modulation by carbohydrates. Levels of liver urea and ornithine were found to vary in inverse proportion with the magnitude of ODC stimulation.

Regulation of nitrogen catabolic enzymes in Bacillus spp

The levels of the inducible nitrogen catabolic enzymes arginase (L-arginine amidinohydrolase, EC 3.5.3.1) and alanine dehydrogenase (L-alanine:NAD+ oxidoreductase [deaminating], EC 1.4.1.1) from Bacillus licheniformis and histidase (L-histidine ammonia-lyase, EC 4.3.1.3) from Bacillus subtilis and the ammonia assimilatory enzymes from B. licheniformis were determined in cultures grown in the presence of different nitrogen sources. Although the levels of these enzymes were dependent upon the nitrogen source present, induction of the catabolic enzymes in response to the addition of inducer occurred even in the presence of preferred nitrogen sources. Intracellular pool sizes of ammonia, glutamate, glutamine, and alpha-ketoglutarate were measured in continuous cultures of b. licheniformis growing in the presence of different nitrogen sources. A comparison of the pool sizes of these metabolites with the ammonia assimilatory enzyme levels showed that the pools of the metabolites did not change in a manner consistent with their use as regulators of the synthesis of any of these enzymes.

Effect of glutamine on enzymes of nitrogen metabolism in Bacillus subtilis

An earlier study of the regulation of glutamate synthase (GOGAT) in Bacillus subtilis (Deshpande et al., Bichem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 95:55--60, 1980) revealed an inverse relationship between the specific activity of this essential ammonia-assimilatory enzyme and the intracellular pool of glutamine: GOGAT activity decreased when the internal glutamine concentration reached or exceeded 2.5 mM. This finding prompted the present investigation of the intracellular events linking glutamine formation to the regulation of GOGAT. A growing culture of B. subtilis was shifted from glutamate plus NH+4 medium (high GOGAT activity) to glutamate medium (low GOGAT activity). At various times after the shift, the intracellular concentrations of aspartate, glutamate, glutamine, alanine, and NH+4 and the activities of GOGAT and glutamine synthetase (GS) were measured. After 30 min, the only significant pool level change was an eightfold increase in glutamine, which paralleled a 2- to 3-fold increase in GS activity. Approximately 15 min after the glutamine pool reached its peak, GOGAT activity began to decrease and eventually declined 2.5-fold. In contrast, when B. subtilis was shifted from glutamate medium to glutamate plus NH+4 medium, there was a 1- to 2-h lag before the glutamine pool and GS activity approached a steady state. As a result, GOGAT activity was low until the concentration of glutamine dropped below 2.5 mM. We propose that glutamine is an important regulatory element in the control of GOGAT activity and that one form of GOGAT regulation involves enzyme inactivation. In addition, these results indicate that glutamine is neither a corepressor nor a feedback inhibitor of GS.