Large-scale purification and some properties of the mitochondrial aspartate aminotransferase from pig heart.

A method has been developed which allows isolation of 0.3--0.5 g of mitochondrial aspartate aminotransferase in five days starting from 10 pig hearts; the method does not involve initial preparation of mitochondria. Mitochondrial malate dehydrogenase and the cytoplasmic aspartate aminotransferase may conveniently be recovered from side fractions. The product mitochondrial aspartate aminotransferase is homogeneous as judged by various electrophoretic techniques and by N-terminal analysis. Crystals of the enzyme have been obtained both from concentrated, essentially salt-free, solutions and from solutions of ammonium sulphate. The amino acid composition, N and C-terminal amino acid sequences and subunit molecular weight have been determined; these characteristic properties are compared with those of the cytoplasmic isozyme from the same source.