Search

1. Different porphobilinogen-deaminase (PBG-D) enzyme forms were found for D 27 and D 27/C6 (HEM R+) strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. 2. PBG-D was partially purified and chromatographed on Sephadex G-100 in either the presence or absence of a protease inhibitor. For D 27 only one active peak was observed while for D 27/C6 strain two active peaks were found. 3. A correlation between this differential behaviour and the presence of HEM R+ gene was looked for employing two segregants of one tetrad from D 27 and D 27/C6 mating.

A simpler method for purifying human red cell deaminase, using a mixture of n-butanol and chloroform, which denatures hemoglobin, followed by ammonium sulphate fractionation, heat treatment, Sephadex G-100 and DEAE-cellulose chromatography, yielding a 3400 fold purified enzyme is described. Some properties of purified deaminase were studied. The enzyme seems to have a strict requirement for oxygen, neither PBG consumption nor uroporphyrinogens formation were measured under anaerobiosis. Uroporphyrinogens formation was linear with both protein and time over a wide range of enzyme concentration and up to 2 h. The optimum pH was 7.4 and the mol. wt was 40,000 +/- 4000. The enzyme was heat-stable and increased its activity by heating. Ammonium and hydroxylamine ions inhibited the reaction. K+ and Na+ ions did not greatly affect activity, while most divalent cations tested significantly diminished uroporphyrinogen formation and to a lesser degree PBG consumption. Direct plots of velocity against PBG concentration were hyperbolic, however double-reciprocal plots were non-linear, Hill plots gave an n value of 2 and Eadie plots were bell-shaped, indicating the existence of weakly positive cooperative effect between 2 binding sites for PBG per molecule of deaminase.

Properties of Porphobilinogenase (PBGase), the enzyme complex converting porphobilinogen (PBG) into uroporphyrinogens, were comparatively studied in a wild strain D273-10B and its mutant B231 of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Figure 1 shows the growth curves for both strains. The basic pattern of growth was observed but, although S. cerevisiae is a facultative aerobe and was grown on dextrose, a diauxic growth curve was not observed. The beginning of the exponential phase was slightly delayed for the mutant, so, its generation time (G = 3.20 h) was greater than that for the wild strain (G = 1.26 h). Optimum conditions for extracting the enzyme from both strains were found to be sonication at 10 mu for 3 min (Table 1). Table 2 shows the effect of centrifugation at 24,000 xg for 30 min on activity. For both strains the amount of porphyrins formed was the same either in the absence or presence of air. It was found (Figure 2) that urogen formation was linear with protein over a wide range of concentrations and with incubation time up to 2h in agreement with previous results for the enzyme of different sources. Figure 3 shows the effect of pH on PBGase activity. An optimum pH of 7.4 was found for both strains employing sodium phosphate buffer pH 8.0. The shape of the pH curve as well as optimum pH were the same in both Tris-HCl and phosphate buffer, however PBGase was 15% less active in the former. When plots of velocity against PBG concentration were analyzed for PBGase, it was found that measuring the rate of the reaction on the basis of total urogen formation, saturation curves for wild and mutant strains harvested at the exponential phase, followed classical Michaelis-Menten kinetics. Saturation was reached at PBG concentration of about 70-90 microM. Therefore, double reciprocal plots (Figure 4) were linear and from these plots apparent Km's values of 20 and 14 microM were obtained for the wild and mutant strain respectively. It is known that in some organisms, the activity of the enzyme of heme synthesis is significantly influenced by the days of growing; therefore the effect of time growing on PBGase activity was studied (Figure 5). A well defined maximum of enzyme activity was observed for the mutant strain after 20h of growing; while activity of wild strain did not significantly vary during growth.

1. Properties of porphobilinogenase (PBGase), the enzyme complex converting porphobilinogen (PBG) into uroporphyrinogens, were studied in a wild strain, D273-10B and a mutant, B231, of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. 2. A well-defined maximum of enzyme activity was observed for the mutant strain after 20 hr of growth; whilst the activity in the wild strain did not vary significantly during growth. 3. Neither PBG consumption nor uroporphyrinogen formation were modified by the presence of air either in the wild or in the mutant strain. 4. In both the wild and mutant strains uroporphyrinogen formation increased linearly with both protein concentration and incubation time. 5. The addition of a mixture of sodium and magnesium salts to the assay system inhibited the enzyme activity of both strains by 50% without modifying the isomer composition. 6. The same optimum pH (7.4) and mol. wt (50,000 +/- 5000) was found for the enzyme from both strains. 7. The enzyme from both the wild and mutant strains shows Michaelis-Menten kinetics when isolated from cells at either the exponential or the stationary phases of growth. Accumulation of porphyrins and delta-aminolevulinic acid occurring during the exponential phase in the mutant strain, did not modify the kinetics.

Bovine liver porphobilinogenase (PBGase) has been covalently attached to Sepharose, and some of their properties have been studied. The optimal conditions for binding have been determined. The water-insoluble PBGase retained a high percentage of the activity of the soluble enzyme; the coupling yield was also high. Sepharose-PBGase could be stored at 4 C for periods up to 5 weeks with 40% loss of activity; however, both by storage and repeated use, isomerase was inactivated and the percentage of uroporphyrinogen I formed was increased. Attachment of PBGase to Sepharose has led to enhanced thermal stability. pH optima of the insolubilized enzyme was shifted 0.6 units towards the alkaline side as compared to that of the native enzyme.