Some structural features of rabbit muscle aldolase as derived from its limited proteolysis

The peptides released during the limited tryptic proteolysis of rabbit muscle aldolase (Biszku et al., 1973) were located in the primary structure. The pattern of peptide liberation, peptide bond splitting and activity decrease in compatible with two structural models for the truncated tetrameric product, named aldolase-T. According to the more probable model aldolase-T has the structure A+A+B++B++. Subunits B++ are deprived of the segments comprising residues 1-27, 42-71 and 306-364 of the intact enzyme and are inactive. The fragment comprising residues 28-41 is non-covalently attached to these subunits. Subunits A+ are depleted only of peptides 1-27 and 324-332 and retain 70% activity. In these subunits the fragment comprising residue 333-364 remains non-covalently bound. The molecular weights of the truncated subunits, determined with polyacrylamide-gel electrophoresis in the presence of sodium dodecylsulfate support the above conclusions. Aldolase-T can be reversibly denatured at pH 2 or in 4 M urea. The recovery of enzymatic activity after decreasing urea or acid concentration indicates the non-covalent rebinding of fragment 333-364. This fragment is named the "T-peptide" of trypsin-treated aldolase. It is suggested that segments 1-27 and 324-364 are not necessary for the renaturation process. Since aldolase-T is a tetramer it seems that large parts of the N- and C-terminal regions of the enzyme are not involved in the intersubunit interactions. The C-terminal region of aldolase, starting around residue 324, appears to be necessary to the structure of the active site. In contrast to this, the N-terminal region up to residue 27 and probably to residue 60, is not part of the active center.