Studies on the regulation of chloroplast NADP-linked glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase

Chloroplast NADP-linked glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase was resolved into three forms that differed in molecular weight: (a) larger than or equal to 1.5 million; (b) 600,000; and (c) less than or equal to 100,000. After preincubation with an effector (ATP, NADPH, or Pi) the activity of forms a and c was unaffected, whereas the activity of b, the regulatory form, was increased 10-fold. Activation was accompanied by the exposure of previously hidden sulfhydryl groups. The rate of activation was slower than the rate of catalysis and resulted in a lag phase during the measurement of activity when the enzyme was preincubated in the absence of an effector. The addition of one of several compounds as a second effector (at a concentration which itself was nonactivating) in the presence of a first effector enhanced activation by lowering the concentration of the first effector required for half-maximal activation (Pi constant/ATP or NADPH varied; ATP or NADPH constant/Pi varied). Other combinations of effectors caused little change in activity (ATP constant/NADPH varied; NADPH constant/ATP varied). Glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate added as a second effector induced contrasting changes: an increase in the ATP-mediated activation and a decrease in the NADPH-mediated activation. The results are consistent with the view that the products of the photochemical reactions of chloroplasts, ATP, and NADPH, in conjunction with other metabolites, regulate the activity of glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase in the photosynthetic assimilation of CO2.