Differential effects of N- and C-terminal deletions on the two activities of rubisco activase.

Spinach (Spinacea oleracea) leaf ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (rubisco) activase was subjected to limited proteolysis with trypsin and directed deletions were made by modifying the spinach rubisco activase cDNA and expressing the 41-kDa isoform in Escherichia coli. Protein exposed to trypsin displayed a more rapid loss of the ability to promote the activation of decarbamylated rubisco than ATP hydrolysis (e.g., 10 and 50% activity remaining, respectively, after 1 h). A series of N-terminal deletions exhibited near abolition of rubisco activation after the 12th residue, a conserved tryptophan, was deleted. Conversely, a deletion of 19 residues at the C-terminus increased rubisco activation with little effect on ATP hydrolysis, resulting in an increased efficiency of activation. The C-terminal deletion mutant was further modified by a site-directed mutation in the ATP binding region (Q109E) which was previously observed to increase the efficiency of activation (J. B. Shen and W. L. Ogren, 1991, Plant Physiol. 99, 1201-1207). The efficiency of activation with this double mutant was greater than that for either of the original mutants. The results indicate that a conserved tryptophan in the N-terminal portion of rubisco activase is critical for promotion of the activation of rubisco, consistent with a possible role in interaction with rubisco. The C-terminus appears to have a regulatory effect on both rubisco activation and ATP hydrolysis.

Species-dependent variation in the interaction of substrate-bound ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (rubisco) and rubisco activase.

Purified spinach (Spinacea oleracea L.) and barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (Rubisco) activase supported 50 to 100% activation of substrate-bound Rubisco from spinach, barley, wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), soybean (Glycine max L.), pea (Pisum sativum L.), Arabidopsis thaliana, maize (Zea mays L.), and Chlamydomonas reinhardtii but supported only 10 to 35% activation of Rubisco from three Solanaceae species, tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L.), petunia (Petunia hybrida L.), and tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum L.). Conversely, purified tobacco and petunia Rubisco activase catalyzed 75 to 100% activation of substrate-bound Rubisco from the three Solanacee species but only 10 to 25% activation of substrate-bound Rubisco from the other species. Thus, the interaction between substrate-bound Rubisco and Rubisco activase is species dependent. The species dependence observed is consistent with phylogenetic relationships previously derived from plant morphological characteristics and from nucleotide and amino acid sequence comparisons of the two Rubisco subunits. Species dependence in the Rubisco-Rubisco activase interaction and the absence of major anomalies in the deduced amino acid sequence of tobacco Rubisco activase compared to sequences in non-Solanaceae species suggest that Rubisco and Rubisco activase may have coevolved such that amino acid changes that have arisen by evolutionary divergence in one of these enzymes through spontaneous mutation or selection pressure have led to compensatory changes in the other enzyme.

Dexamethasone permits the release of an inhibitor of pyruvate dehydrogenase from Reuber H-35 hepatoma cells in response to insulin.

Reuber H-35 rat hepatoma cells respond to physiological levels of insulin as a growth factor. Glucocorticoids antagonize this response. A chemical mediator of insulin action which activates mitochondrial pyruvate dehydrogenase has also been isolated from these cells. The present report demonstrates that if the H35 cells are incubated with glucocorticoid before treatment with insulin, they produce not only the stimulator, but also inhibitory mediator. Cells exposed to the glucocorticoid but not to insulin do not produce the inhibitory mediator. Therefore, insulin interaction with the cell is necessary to elicit this negative modifier of pyruvate dehydrogenase. A time course of the response suggests that the effect of the glucocorticoid is time dependent. The inhibitory mediator can be separated from the stimulatory mediator by molecular sieve chromatography. These results suggest a biochemical basis for glucocorticoid-mediated insulin resistance.