Glutamine synthetase and glutamyltransferase in developing chick and rat tissues

Concomitant determination of gamma-glutamine-hydroxylamine-glutamyltransferase (GT) and gamma-glutamyl hydroxamate synthetase (GS) activities in chick retina, brain and liver between the 13th day of incubation and a day after hatching showed that while both activities increased late in incubation, in neural tissues their rises were not simultaneous throughout development; in liver both activities were already high on the 14th day of incubation and changed in parallel thereafter. GS and GT activities could be evoked prematurely in all three tissues by cortisol, but GT activity showed higher responses to the hormone. GT and GS were separable by differential solubilization in chick liver but not in retina of chick or rat. The wide spread of the ratios of GT:GS activities in homogenates of a number of chick and rat tissues (1:1 to 73:1) indicates that the GS reaction is not catalyzed by the same protein that catalyzes the GT reactions. Relative amounts of GT(T) (free of GS activity) and of variants of GS (with different competences to catalyze the GT reaction) may govern the changes between the two activities during development and their distribution among different adult tissues in chick and rat.