Trimethylamine-N-oxide counteracts urea effects on rabbit muscle lactate dehydrogenase function: a test of the counteraction hypothesis.

Trimethylamine-N-oxide (TMAO) in the cells of sharks and rays is believed to counteract the deleterious effects of the high intracellular concentrations of urea in these animals. It has been hypothesized that TMAO has the generic ability to counteract the effects of urea on protein structure and function, regardless of whether that protein actually evolved in the presence of these two solutes. Rabbit muscle lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) did not evolve in the presence of either solute, and it is used here to test the validity of the counteraction hypothesis. With pyruvate as substrate, results show that its Km and the combined Km of pyruvate and NADH are increased by urea, decreased by TMAO, and in 1:1 and 2:1 mixtures of urea:TMAO the Km values are essentially equivalent to the Km values obtained in the absence of the two solutes. In contrast, values of k(cat) and the Km for NADH as a substrate are unperturbed by urea, TMAO, or urea:TMAO mixtures. All of these effects are consistent with TMAO counteraction of the effects of urea on LDH kinetic parameters, supporting the premise that counteraction is a property of the solvent system and is independent of the evolutionary history of the protein.