Metabolism of glyoxylate, the end product of purin degradation, in liver peroxisomes of fresh water fish.

In marine fish liver, degradative enzymes able to convert purines to urate have been shown to be located in the cytosol and degradative enzymes able to convert urate to urea and glyoxylate in the peroxisomes. The end products of purine degradation are urea and glyoxylate in fish. Glyoxylate may be converted to glycine by alanine:glyoxylate aminotransferase for the reutilization of purine carbons. The present report describes that hepatic alanine:glyoxylate aminotransferase is located both in the peroxisomes and in the mitochondria in fresh water fish, showing that the intracellular localization of the enzyme differs between fresh water fish and marine fish. This is the first report on the presence of alanine:glyoxylate aminotransferase in fish peroxisomes.