Pyruvate dehydrogenase complex of ascites tumour. Activation by AMP and other properties of potential significance in metabolic regulation.

1. AMP is an activator of the pyruvate dehydrogenase complex of the Ehrlich--Lettré ascites tumour, increasing its V up to 2-fold, with Ka of 40 microM at pH 7.4. This activation appears to be an allosteric effect on the decarboxylase subunit of the complex. 2. The pyruvate dehydrogenase complex has a Km for pyruvate within the range 17--36 microM depending on the pH, the optimum pH being approx. 7.4, with a V of approx. 0.1 unit/g of cells. The rate-limiting step is dependent on the transformation of the enzyme--substrate complex. The Km for CoA is 15 microM. The Km for NAD+ is 0.7 mM for both the complex and the lipoamide dehydrogenase. The complex is inhibited by acetyl-CoA competitively with CoA; the Ki is 60 microM. The lipoamide dehydrogenase is inhibited by NADH and NADPH competitively with NAD+, with Ki values of 80 and 90 microM respectively. In the reverse reaction the Km values for NADH and NADPH are essentially equal to their Ki values for the forward reaction, the V for the latter being 0.09 of that of the former. Hence the reaction rate of the complex in vivo is likely to be markedly affected by feedback isosteric inhibition by reduced nicotinamide nucleotides and possibly acetyl-CoA.