Hormone-stimulated phosphorylation of liver phosphofructokinase in vivo

The effect of glucagon on the phosphorylation and the enzymic activity of phosphofructokinase in rat liver in vivo was investigated. Glucagon stimulated the phosphorylation of liver phosphofructokinase approximately 3- to 5-fold and increased cAMP levels 5-fold and blood glucose levels 2-fold over the values obtained for control animals. The specific radioactivity of ATP isolated from liver was the same in both control and hormone-treated animals. During the purification of the 32P-labeled enzyme from both animals, no difference was observed in the total or specific enzyme activities of the enzymes from the various fractions. Thus, phosphofructokinase appears to be phosphorylated in vivo by a cyclic AMP-dependent protein kinase. Although phosphorylation does not affect the maximum catalytic activity of the enzyme, it does render the enzyme significantly more sensitive to ATP inhibition. Thus, at a given concentration of ATP, the phosphorylated phosphofructokinase exhibits considerably lower activity than the unphosphorylated enzyme. The possible relationship between our observations and glucagon-mediated control of glycolysis is discussed.