Pectin-bound beta-galactosidase present in cell walls of carrot cells under the different calcium status

Glycosyl-hydrolytic enzymes from suspension-cultured carrot (Daucus carota L. cv. Kintoki) cells grown in calcium (Ca2+)-deficient and normal liquid media were studied after extraction successively by K-phosphate (pH 7.0) and Na-acetate (pH 5.2) containing 3 M LiCl. The same activities were detected in two protein fractions from control and Ca2+-deprived cells. The specific activities of alpha-galactosidase and polygalacturonase decreased under Ca2+ deprivation, but beta-galactosidase activity in the buffer-soluble protein from Ca2+-deprived cells increased 1.7-fold compared to control cells. Upon ion exchange and size-exclusion chromatography the fraction (Ca-Ia-I) in the buffer-soluble protein from Ca2+-deprived cells represented beta-galactosidase activity associated with a galacturonic acid-rich polysaccharide peak, whereas the corresponding fraction could hardly be detected in the buffer-soluble protein from control cells. Several of the same glycosidase activities were detected in the extract solubilized with cyclohexane-trans-1,2-diaminetetra-acetate (CDTA) from active cell walls of Ca2+-deprived cells as in the extract of control cells, but the beta-galactosidase activity was considerably reduced under Ca2+ deprivation. Following the same chromatography the fraction (CDTA-Ca-1) of beta-galactosidase activity in the extract solubilized with CDTA from active cell walls of Ca2+-deprived cells was also completely overlapping with the peak of galacturonic acid-rich polysaccharide. The molecular mass of fractions Ca-Ia-I and CDTA-Ca-1 was 300 kDa, and the polysaccharides in these two fractions were composed of approximately equal amounts of rhamnosyl and galacturonosyl residues. These results suggest that the increase of beta-galactosidase in the buffer-soluble protein fraction from Ca2+-deprived cells is the result of solubilization of a part of the acidic pectic polymer-bound beta-galactosidase due to the structural changes in the cell walls that occur during Ca2+ deprivation.