Purification and characterisation of pyruvate decarboxylase from pea seeds (Pisum sativum cv. Miko)

Pyruvate decarboxylase (PDC) was purified from pea seeds. The catalytically active holoenzyme is an oligomer of two types of subunits with molecular masses of about 65 kDa and 68 kDa, respectively. The active enzyme is a mixture of tetramers, octamers and even higher oligomers. These differences in the quaternary structure compared with PDC from yeast (tetramer) do not result in a different kinetic behaviour. The activity of pea PDC as well as that of yeast PDC is regulated by its substrate pyruvate resulting in a sigmoid shape of the v/S-plot. At the optimum pH of 6.0 a S0.5-value of 1 mM pyruvate is found that increases with rising pH and increasing concentrations of phosphate. The substrate analogue activator pyruvamide activates the enzyme resulting in a hyperbolic v/S-plot. The stability of PDC from pea seeds in solution is about one order of magnitude higher than that of yeast PDC. Despite the described similarities of the two enzymes no significant cross reactivity of the anti-pea PDC antibody with the enzyme from yeast occurs.