The purification, characterization, and activation of phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase from chicken liver mitochondria.

The enzyme phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase has been purified from chicken liver mitochondria. This purification includes a pseudo-affinity column step utilizing Sepharose 4B-blue dextran which binds the enzyme. The enzyme elutes with ITP to yield protein which is greater than 98% pure. The enzyme has Mr = 75,400 +/- 200 estimated by high speed sedimentation equilibrium and 70,500 +/- 500 estimated by reduced sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gels. The enzyme is abnormally retarded on molecular exclusion resins yielding low apparent molecular weight values. The amino acid analysis indicates that the enzyme has a high proline content and a high tryptophan content and contains 9 mol of cysteine/mol of enzyme. No disulfide bonds were detected. The extinction coefficient (epsilon 1% 280 = 16.5 +/- 0.1) reflects the high tryptophan content. The Svedberg coefficient (s20,w = 4.63 +/- 0.03 S) is consistent with a globular protein of Mr = 70,500-75,400. The activation of the enzyme was investigated by steady state kinetics. The carboxylation reaction has an activation energy of 17.6 kcal/mol. There is no requirement of a monovalent cation for activity. A thiol is necessary for maximal activity, although apparently not to reduce disulfide bonds within the enzyme. Incubation with dithiothreitol stabilizes enzymatic activity but beta-mercaptoethanol facilitates loss of activity. The kinetics of activation by Mn2+ was performed. The Ks value for phosphoenolpyruvate (300 microM) decreases to an apparent Km of 67 microM with increasing concentrations of Mn2+. The concentration of Mn2+ does not affect the interaction of HCO-3 with the enzyme, however. Analysis of data in terms of free IDP indicates that increasing Mn2+ decreases the Km of IDP but analysis as MnIDP indicates the Km,app of MnIDP is independent of the Mn2+ concentration. The enzyme interacts with Mn2+ with a KA = 67 microM and the Km,app decreases to a value of 8 microM with saturating substrates. The substrate analogue (Z)-3-fluorophosphoenolpyruvate is a good substrate for the reaction (Km = 30 microM) with 27% Vmax compared to P-enolpyruvate (Km = 180 microM). Except for 3-bromophosphoenolpyruvate, other analogues have shown weak competitive or noncompetitive inhibition. Potential analogues of oxalacetate (succinate, citrate, isocitrate, malate, and alpha-ketoglutarate) all elicit weak (greater than 15 mM) inhibition.