Catalytic activity of bovine glutamate dehydrogenase requires a hexamer structure.

Previous workers have shown that the hexamers of glutamate dehydrogenase are dissociated first into trimers and subsequently into monomers by increasing guanidinium chloride concentrations. In renaturation experiments it is shown that trimers of glutamate dehydrogenase can be reassociated to give the hexamer form of the enzyme, with full regain of activity. Monomeric subunits produced at high guanidinium chloride concentrations cannot be renatured. The trimer form of the enzyme is shown to have no catalytic activity, although the hexamer form in guanidinium chloride has full activity.