Amino acid sequence of rat kidney glutathione synthetase

Glutathione (GSH) synthetase [gamma-L-glutamyl-L-cysteine:glycine ligase (ADP-forming), EC 6.3.2.3], an enzyme present in almost all cells, catalyzes the ATP-dependent synthesis of GSH from gamma-L-glutamyl-L-cysteine and glycine. Highly purified preparations of the enzyme have been obtained from rat kidney and several lower forms. The rat kidney enzyme (M(r), 118,000), which contains approximately 2% carbohydrate, is composed of two apparently identical subunits. The cDNA encoding rat kidney GSH synthetase was isolated from a rat kidney lambda gt11 cDNA library by immunoscreening with an antibody prepared against the isolated enzyme. The cDNA contains 1905 nucleotides and an open reading frame of 1422 nucleotides coding for 474 amino acids. The cDNA has a 3' untranslated region of 439 nucleotides, which includes a poly(A) tail. The deduced amino acid sequence (M(r), 52,344) contains all five of the peptide sequences that were independently determined by Edman degradation. The cDNA was expressed in Escherichia coli. The amino acid sequence of the rat kidney enzyme has no significant similarity to that of the enzyme from E. coli and shows some similarity to those deduced for the yeast and frog enzymes. Knowledge of this amino acid sequence is expected to facilitate elucidation of the sequence of the corresponding human enzyme and to lead to studies on the biochemical mechanisms involved in human GSH synthetase deficiency as well as to development of improved methods for prenatal diagnosis of these inborn diseases.