Plant aspartate transcarbamylase: an affinity chromatographic method for the purification of the enzyme from germinated seedings

Purification and properties of aspartate transcarbamylase from Mycobacterium smegmatis

Aspartate transcarbamylase (carbamoyl-phosphate: L-aspartate carbamoyltransferase, EC 2.1.3.2) has been purified from Mycobacterium smegmatis TMC 1546 using streptomycin sulphate precipitation, ammonium sulphate precipitation, DE-52 chromatography, second ammonium sulphate precipitation, Sephadex G-200 gel filtration, and aspartate-linked CNBr-activated Sepharose 4B affinity chromatography in successive order. The enzyme was purified 231.6-fold, and the preparation was found to be homogeneous on column chromatography and polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The purified enzyme had a molecular weight of 246,000 and was composed of two asymmetrical subunits. The kinetic and regulatory properties of aspartate transcarbamylase from M. smegmatis were also studied. The enzyme was found to be an allosteric in nature with carbamyl phosphate showing positive cooperativity and UMP exhibiting a negative cooperativity. CTP was found to be the most potent inhibitor among nucleotides. Phosphate acted as a non-competitive product inhibitor with respect to aspartate. Succinate and maleate exerted a competitive inhibition when aspartate was the variable substrate.

The quaternary structure of wheat-germ aspartate transcarbamoylase

1. The molecular mass of aspartate transcarbamoylase purified from wheat germ was found to be 101kDa by sucrose-density-gradient centrifugation, 103kDa by gel-filtration chromatography and 108kDa by polyacrylamide-gel electrophoresis. A mean value of 104 +/- 11kDa was obtained by pooling several replicate results from each method. 2. Polyacrylamide-gel electrophoresis in the presence of sodium dodecyl sulphate indicated a single size of polypeptide chain of mean molecular mass 37 +/- 4kDa. The ratio of the mean molecular masses of the active and denatured enzymes is 2.8.3. When the active enzyme was covalently cross-linked at a low protein concentration by dimethyl suberimidate, and then examined electrophoretically under denaturing conditions, three size species were observed to predominate, of apparent molecular masses 36, 77 and 106kDa respectively. 4. These results indicate that the intact, fully regulatory enzyme is a simple trimer, slightly larger than the trimeric "catalytic subunit' of the aspartate transcarbamoylase from Escherichia coli [Weber (1968) Nature (London) 218, 1116-1118]. The prevalence of trimeric structures amongst carbamoyl-transferase enzymes is discussed.