The pathway of adenylate catabolism in Azotobacter vinelandii. Evidence for adenosine monophosphate nucleosidase as the regulatory enzyme.

Cell-free, dialyzed extracts from Azotobacter vinelandii rapidly dephosphorylate [U-14C]ATP to labeled ADP and AMP, which is then degraded to hypoxanthine, the end product of AMP catabolism under the experimental conditions which were used. The intermediates of the pathway from ATP to hypoxanthine have been identified by thin layer chromatography and quantitated by the 14-C content. The concentrations of intermediates present during the production of hypoxanthine are consistent with AMP nucleosidase being responsible for AMP degradation in these extracts. This result was confirmed in experiments which utilized rabbit antibody prepared against purified AMP nucleosidase. The antibody inhibited AMP nucleosidase activity in cell-free extracts but did not inhibit adenine demanase or adenosine deaminase from the same extracts. In the presence of antibody prepared against purified AMP nucleosidase, the dialyzed extracts showed a marked reduction in the production of hypoxanthine from ATP. Other enzymes which could be responsible theoretically for the conversion of AMP to hypoxanthine were not detected by standard assay procedures. These results are consistent with AMP degradation proceeding by way of AMP nucleosidase to yield adenine and ribose 5-phosphate. The adenine is then converted to hypoxanthine by adenine deaminase. Both of these enzymes were present in sufficient quantities to account for the observed rates of hypoxanthine formation. The rate of hypoxanthine formation decreases during the time course of the [U-14-C]ATP degradation experiments, even though the concentration of AMP remains high. This decrease in the rate of hypoxanthine formation as a function of time is attributed to the decreasing ATP and increasing P0-4 concentrations, since ATP is an activator of AMP nucleosidase and P0-4 is an inhibitor. These observations suggest that the in vivo activity of AMP nucleosidase could also be regulated by changes in the relative ratios of ATP:AMP:P0-4.