The highly purfied pyruvate dehydrogenase complex (EC 1.2.4.1) and uncomplexed pyruvate dehydrogenase from bovine kidney and heart mitochondria were phosphorylated and inactivated with pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase and [gamma-32P]ATP. Tryptic digestion of the phosphorylated pyruvate dehydrogenase yielded three phosphopeptides, a mono- (site 1) and a di- (sites 1 and 2) phosphorylated tetradecapeptide and a monophosphorylated nonapeptide (site 3). The amino acid sequences of the three phosphopeptides were established to be Tyr-His-Gly-His-Ser(P)-Met-Ser-Asn-Pro-Gly-Val-Ser-Tyr-Arg, Tyr-His-Gly-His-Ser(P)-Met-Ser-Asn-Pro-Gly-Val-Ser(P)-Tyr-Arg, and Tyr-Gly-Met-Gly-Thr-Ser(P)-Val-Glu-Arg. Phosphorylation proceeded markedly faster at site 1 than at sites 2 and 3, and phosphorylation at site 1 correlated closely with inactivation of pyruvate dehydrogenase. Complete inactivation of pyruvate dehydrogenase was associated with incorporation at site 1 of 1.0--1.6 mol of phosphoryl groups per mol of enzyme. Since pyruvate dehydrogenase is a tetramer (alpha2beta2) and since phosphorylation occurs only on the alpha subunit, the possibility of half-site reactivity is considered.

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