Antigenic and structural differences in the catalytic subunits of the molecular forms of acetylcholinesterase.

A mixture of the 5.6S hydrophobic dimer and the asymmetric, tail-containing (17 + 13)S forms of acetylcholinesterase (acetylcholine acetylhydrolase, EC 3.1.1.7) from Torpedo californica was used to immunize mice, and spleen cells from these mice were used to produce nine hybridoma lines secreting antibodies against acetylcholinesterase. Antibodies from one of the lines showed a 100-fold greater affinity for the 5.6S species when compared with the catalytic subunits of the (17 + 13)S species. This difference in specificity was retained after denaturation of the two acetylcholinesterase species. Another line produced antibody directed only to structural subunits of the (17 + 13)S species, whereas the remaining seven antibodies exhibited nearly equivalent crossreactivity for all of the forms of acetylcholinesterase. Tryptic peptides were generated from the catalytic subunits of the 5.6S and tail-containing acetylcholinesterase species, and high-pressure liquid chromatographic profiles show at least two distinct peptides in the catalytic subunits for each enzyme species. Some of these peptides exhibit retention times different from those of the identified glycopeptides. Thus, it is likely that the catalytic subunits of two molecular forms of acetylcholinesterase differ in primary structure and sites of antigenicity.