Soluble enzyme

In a second example, a cell—gelatin mixture is cross-linked with glutaraldehyde (43). When soluble enzyme is used for binding, the enzyme is first released from the cell, then recovered and concentrated. Examples of this type of immobilization include binding enzyme to a DEAE-ceUulose—titanium dioxide—polystyrene carrier (44) or absorbing enzyme onto alumina followed by cross-linking with glutaraldehyde (45,46). 

The study of enzymes is important because every syndietic and degradation reaction in all living cells is controlled and catalyzed by specific enzymes. Many of these reactions are the soluble enzyme-soluble substrate type and are homogeneous in the liquid phase. 

As research reveals the ultrastructural organization of the cell in ever greater detail, more and more of the so-called soluble enzyme systems are found to be physically united into functional complexes. Thus, in many (perhaps all) metabolic pathways, the consecutively acting enzymes are associated into stable multienzyme complexes that are sometimes referred to as metabolons, a word meaning units of metabolism. ... 

FIGURE 18.5 Schematic representation of types of multienzyme systems carrying out a metabolic pathway (a) Physically separate, soluble enzymes with diffusing intermediates, (b) A multienzyme complex. Substrate enters the complex, becomes covalently bound and then sequentially modified by enzymes Ei to E5 before product is released. No intermediates are free to diffuse away, (c) A membrane-bound multienzyme system. 

The preparations of luciferin (Ln, an electron acceptor) and soluble enzyme used were crude or only partially purified. The luciferase was an insoluble particulate material, possibly composed of many substances having various functions. Moreover, the luciferin-luciferase reaction was negative when both luciferin and luciferase were prepared from certain species of luminous fungus. It appears that the light production reported was the result of a complex mechanism involving unknown substances in the test mixture, and probably the crucial step of the light-emitting reaction is not represented by the above schemes. 

A skinned fiber is a muscle fiber, the sarcolemma of which has been mechanically removed or which is made freely permeable to small molecules, such as Ca2+, Mg2+, EGTA, ATP, soluble enzymes and others by a chemical agent (saponin, (3-escin or Staphylococcus a-toxin). The organization of the sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) and myofibrils is kqrt as they are in the living muscle. 

The rate of catalysis of membrane bound enzymes (Plot B, Figure 1) is more greatly affected than soluble enzymes by lowering the temperature. This is due to the effect of low temperatures on the solidification of the membranes. Thus, an Arrhenius plot of the rate of a membrane-bound enzyme as a function of temperature often shows a discontinuity with a sharp break point (transition temperature) and loss of activity at the temperature where the membrane becomes a gel or more solid phase. 

The microsomal fraction consists mainly of vesicles (microsomes) derived from the endoplasmic reticulum (smooth and rough). It contains cytochrome P450 and NADPH/cytochrome P450 reductase (collectively the microsomal monooxygenase system), carboxylesterases, A-esterases, epoxide hydrolases, glucuronyl transferases, and other enzymes that metabolize xenobiotics. The 105,000 g supernatant contains soluble enzymes such as glutathione-5-trans-ferases, sulfotransferases, and certain esterases. The 11,000 g supernatant contains all of the types of enzyme listed earlier. 

In birds and amphibia, the green biliverdin IX is excreted in mammals, a soluble enzyme called biliverdin reductase reduces the methenyl bridge between pyrrole III and pyrrole IV to a methylene group to produce bilirubin, a yellow pigment (Figure 32-12). 

This soluble enzyme requires pyridoxal phosphate for the conversion of L-dopa to 3,4-dihydroxyphenylethyl-amine (dopamine). Compounds that resemble L-dopa, such as a-methyldopa, are competitive inhibitors of this reaction. a-Methyldopa is effective in treating some kinds of hypertension. 

There is also some evidence for subtypes of COMT but this has not yet been exploited pharmacologically. Certainly, the majority of COMT is found as soluble enzyme in the cell cytosol but a small proportion of neuronal enzyme appears to be membrane bound. The functional distinction between these different sources of COMT is unknown. COMT inhibitors also exist (e.g. pyrogallol), mostly as catechol derivatives, but so far, most have proved to be highly toxic. Only recently have drugs been developed which are selective for COMT one of these agents, tolcapone, is used currently in treatment of Parkinson s disease (see Chapter 15). 

The product of the hydroxylation of tryptophan, 5-hydroxytryptophan, is rapidly decarboxylated to 5-HT by a specific decarboxylase enzyme. This is generally thought to be a soluble enzyme which suggests that 5-HT is synthesised in the cytoplasm, before it is taken up into the storage vesicles. If this is the case, then considerable losses might be incurred from its metabolism by monoamine oxidase before it reaches the storage vesicles. Indeed, this could explain why 5-HT turnover seems to greatly exceed its rate of release. 

C. Oligo- and Poly-nucleotides.—The stepwise enzymatic synthesis of internucleotide bonds has been reviewed. A number of polynucleotides containing modified bases have been synthesised " in the past year from nucleoside triphosphates with the aid of a polymerase enzyme, and the enzymatic synthesis of oligodeoxyribonucleotides using terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase has been studied. Primer-independent polynucleotide phosphorylase from Micrococcus luteus has been attached to cellulose after the latter has been activated with cyanogen bromide. The preparation of insolubilized enzyme has enabled large quantities of synthetic polynucleotides to be made. The soluble enzyme has been used to prepare various modified polycytidylic acids. ... 

Analysis of reaction mixtures for 1-propanol and 2-propanol following incubation of NDPA with various rat liver fractions in the presence of an NADPH-generating system is shown in Table I ( ). Presence of microsomes leads to production of both alcohols, but there was no propanol formed with either the soluble enzyme fraction or with microsomes incubated with SKF-525A (an inhibitor of cytochrome P450-dependent oxidations). The combined yield of propanols from 280 ymoles of NDPA was 6.1 ymoles and 28.5 ymoles for the microsomal pellet and the 9000 g supernatant respectively. The difference in the ratio of 1- to 2-propanol in the two rat liver fractions may be due to differences in the chemical composition of the reaction mixtures (2) Subsequent experiments have shown that these ratios are quite reproducible. For comparison, Table I also shows formation of propanols following base catalyzed decomposition of N-propyl-N-nitrosourea. As expected (10,11), both propanol isomers were formed, the total yield in this case being almost quantitative. 

Olson, J.A. and Hayaishi, O., The enzymatic cleavage of beta-carotene into vitamin A by soluble enzymes of rat liver and intestine, Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA, 54,1364,1965. 

Hydroxylation of long-chain carboxylic acids, amides, and alcohols—but not the esters or the corresponding alkanes—at the w-l, (0-2, and (o-3 positions by a soluble enzyme system from Bacillus megaterium (Miura and Fulco 1975 Narhi and Fulco 1986,1987). 

Miura Y, AJ Fulco (1975) u-l, co-2, and co-3 hydroxylation of long-chain fatty acids, amides and alcohols by a soluble enzyme system from Bacillus megaterium. Biochim Biophys Acta 388 305-317. 

For a soluble enzyme that is not part of a multi-enzyme complex, the fastest rate of enzyme-inhibitor association is determined by the rate of molecular collisions between the two binding partners (i.e., the enzyme and the inhibitor) in solution. The rate of molecular collisions is in turn controlled by the rate of diffusion. The diffusion-limited rate of molecular collisions is dependent on the radii of the two binding molecules and the solution temperature and viscosity (Fersht, 1999) ... 

For the first group (i.e. intracellular soluble enzymes and proteins), which need no posttranslational modification and complex domain organization influencing protein folding, E. coli is the most preferred choice. However, for the other targets, alternative expression systems often provide a higher rate of success. The most common expression systems are presented in this chapter. 

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