Vit C.Fe(III) induced loss of the covalently bound phosphate and enzyme activity of phosphoglucomutase

Rabbit muscle phosphoglucomutase was irreversibly inactivated upon preincubation with vitamin C (Vit C). Fe(III), NADH.NADH oxidase.Fe(III), or ferritin.Vit C. Substrate, glucose 1-phosphate and Mg2+ afforded partial protection. No altered amino acid could be detected in the inactive enzyme. Enzyme so inactivated was more susceptible to trypsin. More importantly, during inactivation, the enzyme lost up to 70% of its enzyme-bound phosphate; the completely inactivated enzyme retained the remainder of the bound phosphate which was isolatable as phosphoserine residing in the 22-amino acid long tryptic peptide. Free phosphoserine as well as those in phosphorylase alpha and phosphocasein were resistant to the oxidizing system, suggesting that the phosphoserine of phosphoglucomutase is uniquely vulnerable to these treatments. Alternatively, a fraction of the total 1 mol of phosphate in the phosphoform of phosphoglucomutase may not be associated with phosphoserine. Phosphoglyceromutase, which has phosphohistidine at its active site, was also inactivated by the oxidizing system. However, it did not release any of the bound phosphate.