Bovine inositol monophosphatase. Modification, identification and mutagenesis of reactive cysteine residues.

1. Bovine inositol monophosphatase reacts with thiol reagents such as 5,5'-dithiobis-(2-nitrobenzoic acid) (DTNB), N-ethylmaleimide (NEM) and iodoacetic acid (IAA). 2. Modification by NEM results in nearly total loss of enzyme activity, whereas modification by IAA causes a slight increase in activity. 3. The loss of activity caused by NEM can be prevented by the inclusion of Ins1P, or better Ins1P and LiCl in the reaction mixture. 4. Two equivalents of p-nitrothiobenzoate (NTB2-) are released from the native enzyme on reaction with DTNB, and six equivalents of NTB2- are released from the SDS-denatured enzyme, suggesting that none of the six cysteine residues per molecule of enzyme is involved in intra- or inter-molecular disulphide bridges. 5. Both NEM and IAA react with two cysteine residues (residues 141 and 184 in the sequence) in a mutually exclusive manner. 6. NEM also reacts stoichiometrically with residue 218. 7. The NEM-induced loss of enzyme activity is accompanied by a 15% decrease in protein fluorescence. 8. A mutant of the enzyme which has an Ala-218 replacement for Cys-218 has full activity and is not sensitive to NEM, showing that the modification of this cysteine by NEM causes inhibition of the native protein by steric effects and that Cys-218 is not essential for activity.