Solubilized (Na+ + K+)-ATPase from shark rectal gland and ox kidney--an inactivation study

The bi-exponential time-course of detergent inactivation at 37 degrees C of C12E8-solubilized (Na+ + K+)-ATPase from shark rectal glands and ox kidney was investigated. The data for shark enzyme, obtained at detergent/protein weight ratios between 2 and 16, are interpreted in terms of a simple model where the membrane bound enzyme is solubilized predominantly as (alpha-beta)2 diprotomers at low detergent concentrations and as alpha-beta protomers at high C12E8 (octaethyleneglycoldodecylmonoether) concentrations. It is observed that the protomers are inactivated 15-fold more rapidly than the diprotomers, and that the rate of inactivation of both oligomers is proportional to the detergent/protein ratio. Inactivation of kidney enzyme was biexponential with a very rapid inactivation of up to 40% of the enzyme activity. The observed rate of inactivation of the slower phase varied with the detergent/protein ratio, but the inactivation pattern for the kidney enzyme could not readily be accommodated within the model for inactivation of the shark enzyme. The rates of inactivation at 37 degrees C were about the same in KCl and NaCl, i.e., in the E2(K) and E1 X Na forms, for both enzymes.