In the presence of a slight excess of dehydrogenase, the time course of NADPH oxidation resulting from the overall reaction goes through a lag phase and reaches a linear phase. The slope of the linear part of this curve is a linear function of transaminase concentration. At high concentration (E 10 pM) of both enzymes the lag phase, as observed after rapid mixing of the two enzymes in a Durrum stopped-flow spectrophotometer, is shorter than that predicted from the kinetic parameters determined for the separate reactions catalyzed by each enzymeLiver mitochondrial aspartate aminotransferase and glutamate dehydrogenase are mainly present in the soluble submitochondrial fraction [l]. They are involved in important metabolic processes such as amino acid dehydrogenation, ammonium production, and urea synthesis.Much physicochemical evidence [2-91 suggests that transaminase binds to dehydrogenase forming a heterologous enzyme-enzyme complex. In the presence of NADPH and ammonium ions, dehydrogenase can react with the pyridoxal 5'-phosphate form of transaminase to produce the pyridoxamine 5'-phosphate form of this enzyme and NADP [2,10,11]. In this reaction, the transaminase is not functioning as a catalyst but delivers the actual substrate, pyridoxal 5'-phosphate, to the active site of the dehydrogenase. If oxaloacetate is added to the system, it binds to and reacts with the pyridoxamine 5'-phosphate form of the transaminase, the latter does not accumulate and the corresponding amino acid is produced.It has been proposed [lo] that these reactions are important in mitochondria because the reductive amination of oxaloacetate by the transaminase-dehydrogenase complex could lower the levels of NADPH produced by the oxidation of glutamate. Oxaloacetate is a poor substrate of glutamate dehydrogenase [2] and it seems unlikely [lo] that the reductive amination of the keto acid by the dehydrogenase in the absence of transaminase could be significant. However, it is well known that glutamate dehydrogenase also catalyzes the reductive amination of 2-oxoglutarate. This compound is Dedicated to Professor Alessandro Rossi Fanelli for his 75th birthday. Enzymes. Aspartdtc aminotransferase or L-aspartate : 2-oxoglutaratc aminotransferase (EC 2.6.1 . l ) ; glutamate dchydrogenase or L-glutamate : NAD(P)+ oxidoreductase (deaminating) (EC 1.4.1.3). present in mammalian cell mitochondria [12,13] and it is produced by L-glutamate : oxaloacetate transamination. The question arises whether the dehydrogenase of a transaminasedehydrogenase complex catalyzes the reductive amination of the pyridoxal 5'-phosphate form of the transaminase and/or that of 2-oxoglutarate. In the latter case it is important to define the role of the heterologous enzyme-enzyme complex in the consecutive reaction catalyzed by transaminase and dehydrogenase, 2-oxoglutarate being a substrate and a product of both. A kinetic approach to the solution of these questions is described in this paper.
MATERIALS AND METHODSBeef liver glutamate dehydrogenase was purchased from Bo...