Purification and properties of glycine N-methyltransferase from rat liver

Glycine N-methyltransferase (EC 2.1.1.20) has been purified to homogeneity from rat liver. The enzyme has a molecular weight of 132,000 by sedimentation equilibrium method. This value is in good agreement with a value of 130,000 obtained by Sephadex G-150 chromatography. The molecular weight of the denatured enzyme as determined by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis in the presence of sodium dodecyl sulfate is 31,500. The numbers of peptides obtained by tryptic digestion and by cyanogen bromide cleavage are one-fourth of those expected from the contents of lysine plus arginine residues and methionine residues, respectively. By Edman degradation, phenylthiohydantoin-leucine is the only amino acid derivative released from the enzyme. Neither sugar nor phospholipid is detected in the purified preparation. These data indicate that the rat liver glycine N-methyltransferase is a simple protein consisting of 4 identical subunits. The enzyme has an isoelectric pH of 6.4, and is most active at pH 9.0. From the circular dichroism spectrum, an alpha helix content of about 11% is calculated. Whereas the initial velocity as a function of glycine concentration gives a Michaelis-Menten kinetics, the enzyme shows a positive cooperativity with respect to S-adenosylmethionine. The concentrations of glycine and S-adenosylmethionine which give a half-maximum velocity are 0.13 mM and 30 microM, respectively, at pH 7.4 and 25 degrees C.