Biosynthesis of soluble carnitine acetyltransferases from the yeast Candida tropicalis.

Soluble carnitine acetyltransferase from Candida tropicalis is synthesized as a 76 kDa precursor, which is monomeric and possesses no or very little carnitine acetyltransferase activity. Maturation of the enzyme begins with proteolytic processing of the 76 kDa precursor to 64 and 57 kDa subunits. The processed subunits subsequently associate into two kinds of active oligomers; the 57 kDa subunits are assembled into a tetramer and the 64 kDa subunits into an octamer. Formation of these oligomers depends apparently on growth conditions, since both oligomers were present in cells grown in continuous culture, but cells grown batchwise contained only the tetrameric form of carnitine acetyltransferase.