Phylogenesis of brain glutamic acid decarboxylase from vertebrates: immunochemical studies.

Brain high-speed supernatants from various lower and higher vertebrates were subjected to sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS)-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, electroblot on nitrocellulose membranes, and immunolabelling using an anti-glutamic acid decarboxylase (anti-GAD) antiserum prepared from rat antigen. Rat brain extracts showed two distinct immunolabelled bands (MW 59,000 and 62,000 daltons). The molecular weight of the native enzyme was 120,000 daltons. The immunoblot pattern was not affected by a 3-h incubation of the homogenate. In the substantia nigra, the decrease in the immunolabelling of both bands corresponded very closely to the decrease of GAD activity following lesioning of the striato-nigral pathway. Moreover, experiments with preadsorbed antiserum showed that both subunits have common antigenic determinants. The immunolabelling was consistently more intense over the lightest band. The autoradiography of immunoprecipitated rat brain GAD, iodinated prior to electrophoresis, revealed two radiolabelled bands corresponding to the two immunolabelled ones. Their radioactivity was found in a one-to-five ratio which closely paralleled their respective immunolabelling intensity. Thus, the two subunits recognized by the antiserum are not present in stoichiometric proportions in the rat brain high-speed supernatant. These findings suggest the existence of two homodimeric GAD with common antigenic determinants which are present in different amounts. Immunoprecipitation curves of brain GAD from rat, mouse, rabbit, monkey, human, quail, frog, and trout were similar, with a less than 10-fold maximum shift in affinity for GAD. GAD immunoblots from the various higher vertebrates showed a pattern similar to that obtained in rat.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)