Seiji Matuo

Increased urinary excretion of argininosuccinate in type II citrullinemia.

Although argininosuccinate is a product of the catalytic action of deficient argininosuccinate synthetase in citrullinemia, its concentration was found to be elevated in the urine of patients with type II citrullinemia. Urinary argininosuccinate was identified by two methods; its conversions to anhydride by boiling in an acidic solution and to arginine by the enzymatic action of argininosuccinate lyase. Oral administration of citrulline to patients with type II citrullinemia and control subjects increased urinary argininosuccinate levels. These phenomena are consistent with our previous findings on type II citrullinemia (Adv Exp Med Biol 1983;153:63-76,J Clin Biochem Nutr 1986;1:129-142), namely that renal argininosuccinate synthetase which plays a role in arginine synthesis is not deficient in patients with type II citrullinemia; and that serum arginine levels in patients with type II citrullinemia are rather higher than the controls, and increase after the oral administration of citrulline. The organ-specific deficiency of argininosuccinate synthetase in type II citrullinemia is further confirmed by this paper.

Molecular Basis of Enzyme Abnormalities in Urea Cycle Disorders

This paper deals with enzymological, immunochemical and molecular genetic analyses of citrullinemia and argininosuccinic aciduria. Citrullinemia has been classified by Saheki et al. [J. inher. Metab. Dis. 8: 155-156, 1985] into three types from the properties of the deficient argininosuccinate synthetase (ASS) of the patients. Analysis of hepatic mRNA coding for ASS revealed certain characteristics in type II and III citrullinemic patients whose hepatic ASS protein was low. A newly developed enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) of argininosuccinate lyase (ASL) protein showed that 8 out of ten cases of argininosuccinic aciduria had no detectable ASL protein in the liver, erythrocytes, cultured skin fibroblasts or cultured amniocytes.

Immunological identification of a new component of Ascaris pyruvate dehydrogenase complex

The pyruvate dehydrogenase complex was purified from Ascaris muscle both with and without MgCl2 treatment at the first stage of purification. The specific activity of complex purified with MgCl2 treatment was about 2-fold as high as that purified without it. In addition to three component enzymes, two unknown polypeptides of 46 and 41 kDa were found in the complex purified by the two procedures. The quantity of unknown polypeptide of 41 kDa was increased in the complex purified with MgCl2 treatment as compared with that without it. Antibodies against the three component enzymes were prepared. All the antibodies precipitated the two unknown polypeptides in addition to the three component enzymes in immunoprecipitation experiments. Antibody against the alpha-subunit of pyruvate dehydrogenase reacted with the 41 kDa polypeptide as well as the alpha-subunit in the immunoblotting method. The unknown polypeptide of 46 kDa did not react with any antibody. These results suggest that the unknown 41 kDa polypeptide is a derivative of the alpha-subunit and that the unknown 46 kDa polypeptide is not a proteolytic-degradative product of component enzymes but is a component of the Ascaris pyruvate dehydrogenase complex. When the Ascaris complex was incubated with [2-14C]pyruvate in the absence of CoASH, only lipoate acetyltransferase was acetylated. In rat heart pyruvate dehydrogenase complex, lipoate acetyltransferase and another protein (referred to as component x or protein x) were acetylated. These results indicate that the unknown polypeptide of 46 kDa is a new component.

Molecular cloning of cDNA for rat liver lipoate acetyltransferase. A component of pyruvate dehydrogenase complex.

One cDNA clone for lipoate acetyltransferase, a component enzyme of pyruvate dehydrogenase complex, was isolated from a rat liver cDNA library prepared in the phage expression vector lambda gt11 using immunological screening with affinity purified anti-lipoate acetyltransferase antibody. It was identified tha cDNA insert in this clone codes for lipoate acetyltransferase by immunoblotting of lysogen carrying the isolated clone. Lipoate acetyltransferase antigenic polypeptide in fusion protein was about 11,000 daltons, agreeing with the size of cDNA insert to be 300 base pairs.

E2-cDNA cloning and component X of pyruvate dehydrogenase complex

Pyruvate dehydrogenase complex (PDH complex) consists of three component enzymes, pyruvate dehydrogenase (E~; EC 1.2.4.1), lipoate acetyltransferase (E2; EC 2.3.1.12) and lipoamide dehydrogenase (g3; EC 1.6.4.3) (Linnet al., 1972). Many cases of PDH complex deficiency have been reported. These are mainly due to E~ deficiency (Ho et al., 1986) but deficiency of E2 has been reported in one case (Cederbaum et al., 1976). Recently, many reports suggest the presence of a new component (which is referred to as component X or protein X) in the mammalian PDH complex in addition to the three component enzymes (DeMarcucci and Lindsay, 1985; DeMarcucci et al., 1985; Jilka et al., t986; Rahmatullah and Roche, 1987). As to the physiological role of component X, Rahmatullah and Roche (1987) have reported that it not only serves to activate kinase activity with its acetylation, but also serves to anchor the kinase to the core of the complex. However, there is no direct evidence that component X is not a proteolytic-degradative product of E 2. It should be determined whether component X is coded for by its own mRNA. Now we have isolated cDNA of 1700 base pairs for E2. Here we report the properties of component X in rat PDH complex and the cloning of Ez-cDNA from rat.

Properties of component X of rat heart pyruvate dehydrogenase complex

Pyruvate dehydrogenase complex was purified from rat heart. A new component(mol.wt; 52,000) was found in the purified complex in addition to well known three component enzymes. This component(referred to as component X) was acetylated with [2-14C] pyruvate in the absence of CoA as well as lipoate acetyltransferase. The anti-lipoate acetyltransferase antibody reacted with component X and lipoate acetyltransferase, suggesting that component X shows homology with lipoate acetyltransferase in protein structure. cDNA for lipoate acetyltransferase was isolated from rat liver cDNA library in lambda gt 11. cDNA for lipoate acetyltransferase recognized two kinds of mRNAs of 3.5 Kb and 2.5 Kb.