Arginine-specific modification of rabbit muscle phosphoglucose isomerase: differences in the inactivation by phenylglyoxal and butanedione and in the protection by substrate analogs.

Rabbit muscle phosphoglucose isomerase was modified with phenylglyoxal or 2,3-butanedione, the reaction with either reagent resulting in loss of enzymatic activity in a biphasic mode. At slightly alkaline pH butanedione was found to be approximately six times as effective as phenylglyoxal. The inactivation process could not be significantly reversed by removal of the modifier. Competitive inhibitors of the enzyme protected partially against loss of enzyme activity by either modification. The only kind of amino acid residue affected was arginine. However, more than one arginine residue per enzyme subunit was found to be susceptible to modification by the dicarbonyl reagents. From protection experiments it was concluded (i) that both modifiers react specifically with an arginine in the phosphoglucose isomerase active site and nonspecifically with one or more arginine residues elsewhere in the enzyme molecule, (ii) that modification at either loci causes loss of catalytic activity, and (iii) that butanedione has a higher preference for active site arginine than for arginine residues outside of the catalytic center whereas the opposite is true for phenylglyoxal.