Aspartic-β-Semialdehyde: A Potent Inhibitor of Escherichia coli l-Asparaginase

Rapid purification and characterization of homoserine dehydrogenase from Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Homoserine dehydrogenase of Saccharomyces cerevisiae has been rapidly purified to homogeneity by heat and acid treatments, ammonium sulfate fractionation, and chromatography on Matrex Gel Red A and Q-Sepharose columns. The final preparation migrated as a single entity upon sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis with a Mr of 40,000. The Mr of the native enzyme was 81,000 as determined by gel filtration, suggesting that the enzyme is composed of two identical subunits. This feature was also confirmed by cross-linking analysis using the bifunctional reagent dimethyl suberimidate. Feedback inhibition by L-methionine and L-threonine was observed using the purified enzyme. The enzyme was markedly stabilized against heat treatment at high salt concentrations. Additions of feedback inhibitors or high concentrations of salts failed to cause any dissociation or aggregation of the enzyme subunits unlike enzymes from other sources such as Rhodospirillum rubrum. The enzyme denatured in 3 M guanidine-HCl was refolded by simple dilution with a concomitant restoration of the activity. Cross-linking analysis of the renaturation process suggested that the formation of the dimer is required for activity expression. Amino acid sequence analysis of peptides obtained by digestion of the enzyme protein with Achromobacter lyticus protease I revealed that several amino acid residues are strictly conserved among homoserine dehydrogenases from S. cerevisiae, Escherichia coli, and Bacillus subtilis.

A sepharose derivative coupled with a leupeptin-like peptide aldehyde, glycylglycyl-L-argininal, and its use as an affinity adsorbent for trypsin

A Sepharose derivative containing a peptide aldehyde, glycylglycyl-L-argininal, the structure of which resembles that of leupeptin was prepared. It was a strong affinity adsorbent for trypsin (EC 3.4.21.4). Bovine trypsin showed higher affinity for this adsorbent at the optimum pH of catalysis (8.2) than at lower pH (5.0). This observation was in good agreement with the pH dependence of the interaction of leupeptin and trypsin (Kuramochi, H., Nakata, H. and Ishii, S. (1979) J. Biochem. 86, 1403-1410). Streptomyces griseus trypsin was also adsorbed while trypsinogen, alpha-chymotrypsin and TLCK-trypsin were not adsorbed. Though anhydrotrypsin, in which Ser-183 is converted to dehydroalanine, was not adsorbed, carbamoylmethylated (His-46) trypsin was adsorbed. Ser-183 proved to be essential for the binding. This adsorbent can also be used as a good tool to study the mechanism of action of leupeptin.

Antiproteolytic aldehydes and ketones: substituent and secondary deuterium isotope effects on equilibrium addition of water and other nucleophiles

Equilibrium constants for hydration of ketones, in dilute D2O solution at 34 degrees C, observed by proton magnetic resonance under conditions of slow exchange, were acetone 0.002, chloroacetone 0.08, 1,3-dichloroacetone 4.17, bromoacetone 0.07, and 1,3-dibromoacetone (an inhibitor of papain) 1.85. Neither acetamidoacetone nor N,N-diacetylaminoacetone showed evidence of appreciable hydration in dilute aqueous solution, nor was any hydrate detectable in solutions of tosylglycine chloromethyl ketone. Substitution of acetaldehyde with acylamido substituents, as in several potent reversible inhibitors of papain, was found to enhance its equilibrium constant for covalent hydration by an order of magnitude; these inhibitors are about 90% hydrated in dilute aqueous solution, and their affinity for proteases may have been underestimated accordingly. The effects of deuterium substitution at C-1 of acetaldehyde, on equilibrium addition of oxygen and sulfur nucleophiles, are substantial and vary with the nature of the nucleophile. These isotope effects may be useful as a mean of distinguishing between alternative structures of complexes formed between enzymes and aldehydes.

Regulation of a metabolic system in vitro: synthesis of threonine from aspartic acid

Six enzymes involved in the conversion of aspartate to threonine have been extracted from Escherichia coli and separated from each other. Two of these enzymes, aspartokinase and homoserine dehydrogenase, have also been partially purified from Rhodopseudomonas spheroides. In an attempt to determine whether small changes in the kinetic properties of individual enzymes are important to the regulation of metabolic flux through a coupled reaction system, the partially purified enzymes were recombined in a variety of ways under reaction conditions designed to resemble the in vivo situation. These conditions include: use of an entire metabolic system rather than a single reaction; high enzyme concentrations at the same relative concentrations as found in the cell; and low, steady-state concentrations of substrates and products. Metabolic flux was followed spectrophotometrically and the concentrations of aspartic semialdehyde, hemoserine, O-phosphohomoserine, and threonine were measured. The results indicate that the threonine concentration is of major importance in regulating metabolic flux by inhibiting aspartokinase, the first reaction in threonine in the pathway. When threonine-insensitive aspartokinases were used, concentrations reached higher levels and the rate of NADPH oxidation remained higher. The fact that neither aspartic semialdehyde nor homoserine accumulated as the threonine concentration increased and the lack of correlation between changes in metabolic flux and ADP/ATP or NADPH/NADP ratios indicate that more subtle forms of metabolic regulation, such as "reverse cascade", secondary feedback sites, or "energy charge", are of little regulatory importance in this isolated, metabolic system. The results also emphasize the need for caution in projecting in vivo control mechanisms from in vitro experiments.