Catabolism of threonine in mammals by coupling of L-threonine 3-dehydrogenase with 2-amino-3-oxobutyrate-CoA ligase.

There is doubt about the L-threonine 3-dehydrogenase (EC 1.1.1.103) and threonine aldolase (EC 2.1.2.1) catabolic pathways of L-threonine in mammals which are believed to produce aminoacetone and glycine plus acetaldehyde, respectively. L-Threonine 3-dehydrogenase in disrupted guinea-pig liver mitochondria was investigated in a reaction mixture containing L-threonine without and with CoA and oxaloacetate; L-[U-14C]threonine was included in four similar experiments for autoradiograms. Threonine aldolase was examined in similar mitochondria from liver and kidney. CoA reduced the aminoacetone formed from L-threonine to 10-14% and CoA plus oxaloacetate produced citrate (from CoASAc) in approximately equal amounts to the decrease in aminoacetone. Autoradiograms confirmed the decrease in aminoacetone with the simultaneous appearance of citrate and glycine. No evidence was obtained that threonine aldolase catabolised L-threonine at the concentration used to assay the dehydrogenase. It is concluded that 2-amino-3-oxobutyrate (precursor of aminoacetone), which is produced from L-threonine by L-threonine 3-dehydrogenase, undergoes CoA-dependent cleavage to glycine and CoASAc by 2-amino-3-oxobutyrate-CoA ligase. The results suggest that the coupling of these enzymes provides a new pathway for the catabolism of threonine in mammals.