Changes in the ability of malonyl-CoA to inhibit carnitine palmitoyltransferase I activity and to bind to rat liver mitochondria during incubation in vitro. Differences in binding at 0 degree C and 37 degrees C with a fixed concentration of malonyl-CoA.

Time courses for inhibition of carnitine palmitoyltransferase (CPT) I activity in, and [14C]malonyl-CoA binding to, liver mitochondria from fed or 48 h-starved rats were obtained at 37 degrees C by using identical incubation conditions and a fixed concentration of malonyl-CoA (3.5 microM), which represents the middle of the physiological range observed previously [Zammit (1981) Biochem. J. 198, 75-83] Incubation of mitochondria in the absence of malonyl-CoA resulted in a time-dependent decrease in the ability of the metabolite instantaneously to inhibit CPT I and to bind to the mitochondria. Both degree of inhibition and binding were restored in parallel over a period of 6-8 min on subsequent addition of malonyl-CoA to the incubation medium. However, the increased inhibition of CPT I activity on addition of mitochondria directly to malonyl-CoA-containing medium was not accompanied by an increase in the amount of [14C]malonyl-CoA bound to mitochondria at 37 degrees C. Time courses for binding of [14C]malonyl-CoA performed at 0 degree C were different from those obtained at 37 degrees C. There was little loss of ability of [14C]malonyl-CoA to bind to mitochondria on incubation in the absence of the metabolite, but there was a time-dependent increase in binding on addition of mitochondria to malonyl-CoA-containing medium. It is suggested that these temperature-dependent differences between the time courses obtained may be due to the occurrence of different changes at 37 degrees C and at 0 degree C in the relative contributions of different components (with different affinities) to the binding observed at 3.5 microM-malonyl-CoA. Evidence for multi-component binding was obtained in the form of strongly curvilinear Scatchard plots for instantaneous (5s) binding of malonyl-CoA to mitochondria. Such multi-component binding would be expected from previous results on the different affinities of CPT I for malonyl-CoA with respect to inhibition [Zammit (1984) Biochem. J. 218, 379-386]. Mitochondria obtained from starved rats showed qualitatively the same time courses as those described above, with notable quantitative differences with respect both to the absolute extents of CPT I inhibition and [14C]malonyl-CoA binding achieved as well as to the time taken to attain them.