[Study of the quaternary structure of glutamate carboxylase from Escherichia coli]

It was shown by electron microscopy, that the native molecule of glutamate decarboxylase is a hexamer with dihedral symmetry; the subunits are situated at the apices of an octahedron. Apoenzyme at pH 6.0 is dissociated form. It were found s20.w - 12.8 +/- 0.54S and 5.51 +/- 0.43S for the native hexamer and a dissociated form, respectively. By column gel-filtration the molecular mass of the dissociated form was estimated as 105-106 kDa, this value corresponds to a dimer. There were 10 buried SH-groups per subunit in the hexamer, after dimer formation 8 of them became accessible. The reversible hexamer-dimer dissociation depends on pH and PLP. The pH dependences of the enzyme dissociation and activity are very similar. In the result of adding of 6 PLP equivalents to the dimers the reactivation and hexamer assembly were reached, the SH-groups burying preceded both these reactions. Effect of pH and PLP on the quaternary structure is known for some other PLP-enzymes. It may be the additional proof for the idea of a common ancestor for PLP-enzymes.