Auto-ADP-ribosylation of the glycolytic enzyme glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GraPDH) has recently been demonstrated to be dramatically stimulated in the presence of nitric oxide. In order to obtain insight into the sequence of events leading to ADP-ribosylation of GraPDH, we studied the target amino acid, the nucleotide cofactor requirement, pH dependency and the stoichiometry of the reaction. Basal as well as stimulated ADP-ribose transfer is inhibited by the SH-group alkylating reagent, N-ethylmaleimide. Furthermore, the radiolabel of a~t o -[~~P ] A D pribosylated GraPDH is removed by treatment with HgC12, suggesting an ADP-ribose -cysteine bond. Several indirect and direct mechanistic considerations point to NAD' as the only cofactor for the ADP-ribosylation reaction, excluding the possibility of a reaction sequence involving a NADglycohydrolase(s) followed by nonenzymatic ADP-ribose transfer to GraPDH. Optimal ADPribosylations were carried out at alkaline pH values using 10 pM free NAD' as the sole nucleotide cofactor. Bovine serum albumin with an S-nitrosylated SH group can serve as a model of ADP-ribose transfer from NAD' and suggests that the nitric-oxide-modified SH group (S-nitrosylated SH group) is a prerequisite for the reaction. In a previous work, we demonstrated that nitric oxide was able to increase the mono-ADP-ribosylation of a 39-kDa cytosolic protein [18, 191, which was observed not only when nitric oxide was released from pharmacological compounds like sodium nitroprusside (SNP) or 3-morpholino-sydnonimine (SIN-l), but also when nitric oxide was generated from its physiological precursor L-arginine, by the enzymic activity of the nitric oxide synthase [22]. Nitric-oxide-stimulated ADP-ribosylation was recently confirmed by two other groups, using cerebral cortex and erythrocyte membranes [21, 231. These studies may suggest that endogenous ADP-ribosylation is under the regulatory control of second messenger systems, especially nitric oxide. Activation of nitric oxide synthase [24] in its various isoforms [25] produces nitric oxide, initially characterized as the endothelium-derived relaxing factor [26]. While some nitric oxide effects are mediated by binding of nitric oxide to the heme subunit of soluble guanylate cyclase, thus increasing cGMP [27], the stimulatory effects concerning the mono-ADPribosylation are cGMP independent and might be linked to higher and hence pathophysiological and cytotoxic nitric oxide conditions [28, 291. Our studies now further characterize this nitric-oxidecatalysed mono-ADP-ribosylation of GraPDH and explore some mechanistics of the ADP-ribose-transfer reaction. We would like to stress the importance of reduced thiol groups as a prerequisite for ADP-ribosylation, furthermore we would like to report on cysteine-specific modification, pH dependency and the specificity of NAD+, required for this ADPribosylation reaction.