A membrane-bound protein inhibitor of the high affinity Ca ATPase in rat liver plasma membranes.

The Ca ATPase from rat liver plasma membranes has been recently characterized and partially purified in our laboratory and was shown to depend on a membrane-bound protein activator (Lotersztajn, S., Hanoune, J., and Pecker, F. (1981) J. Biol. Chem. 256, 11209-11215). In the present study, we report that a factor derived from ammonium sulfate washings of rat liver plasma membranes inhibits the partially purified enzyme activity measured in the presence of activator. This factor is a protein as judged by its sensitivity to heat and trypsin. A molecular weight of 29,000 was determined by sucrose gradient centrifugation and gel chromatography. The action of the inhibitor is due to a decrease in the maximal velocity of the enzyme reaction and is reversed by an excess of the activator associated with the enzyme. An important point in the mode of action of this inhibitor is its absolute dependence on magnesium, which most probably explains the difficulty in detecting the plasma membrane Ca ATPase when MgCl2 is added to the assay medium.