Monospecific polyclonal antisera have been raised to purified bovine heart succinate dehydrogenase and to the individual large and small subunits of this enzyme. These antisera exhibit cross-reactivity with the corresponding polypeptides in rat liver (BRL), pig kidney (PK-15) and bovine kidney (NBL-1) cell lines, and were employed to investigate some of the events involved in the biogenesis of succinate dehydrogenase in the PK-15 cell line. Newly-synthesized forms of the large and small subunits of succinate dehydrogenase were detected in cultured PK-15 and BRL cells labelled with [35S]methionine in the presence of uncouplers of oxidative phosphorylation. In PK-15 cells, the precursor forms of the large and small subunits exhibit Mr values approx. 1000-2000 and 4000-5000 greater than those of the corresponding mature forms. When the uncoupler is removed in pulse-chase experiments, complete conversion of the precursors to the mature forms occurs within 45 min. Studies on the kinetics of processing and stability of the large subunit precursor revealed that reversal of precursor accumulation is rapid, with processing occurring with a half-time of 5-7.5 min, and that the accumulated precursor exhibits long-term stability when PK-15 cells are maintained in the presence of 2,4-dinitrophenol.

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