Estimation of genomic complexity, heterologous expression, and enzymatic characterization of mouse glutathione S-transferase mGSTA4-4 (GST 5.7).

We have previously isolated a cDNA clone for a unique mouse lung glutathione S-transferase, mGSTA4-4 (GST 5.7) (Zimniak, P., Eckles, M. A., Saxena, M., and Awasthi, Y. C. (1992) FEBS Lett. 313, 173-176). By genomic Southern blotting and polymerase chain reaction single strand conformation polymorphism analysis we have now demonstrated the presence of at least two mGSTA4-related genes in the mouse. The heterogeneity of mGSTA4-4 was further examined by comparing the structural and kinetic properties of mGSTA4-4 isolated from mouse lung with those of recombinant rec-mGSTA4-4 expressed in Escherichia coli. Except for the isoelectric point, the physical properties of the two proteins were indistinguishable. Western blots using antibodies against rec-mGSTA4-4 have shown selective expression of the enzyme in mouse tissues. Even though the substrate specificity profiles of the tissue-isolated and recombinant enzymes, which point to a role of mGSTA4-4 in the detoxification of lipid peroxidation products, were generally similar, significant differences were observed with selected substrates. The existence of functionally distinct forms of mGSTA4-4 and the presence of more than one gene strongly suggest that the previously observed differences in properties of mGSTA4-4 isolated from various mouse tissues (Awasthi, S., Singhal, S. S., Srivastava, S. K., and Awasthi, Y. C. (1993) Arch. Biochem. Biophys. 301, 143-150) may be due to tissue-specific expression of mGSTA4-related genes.