Structure of ATP citrate lyase from rat liver. Physicochemical studies and proteolytic modification

ATP citrate lyase was purified by two different procedures from the livers of rats first starved and then fed with a fat-deficient and high carbohydrate-glycerol diet. These enzyme preparations were judged homogeneous by sedimentation equilibrium and polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The molecular weight of the native enzyme was around 4.4 X 10(5) as determined by sedimentation equilibrium. On sodium dodecyl sulfate gel electrophoresis the enzyme usually showed a single protein band with an estimated molecular weight of 1.2 X 10(5). A similar value for the molecular weight of the subunit was obtained by gel filtration on 6% agarose in the presence of 6 M guanidinium chloride. The molecular weight of this polypeptide chain was estimated by sedimentation equilibrium to be around 1.1 X 10(5). These results indicated that ATP citrate lyase has a subunit structure of four polypeptides of similar size. The extinction coefficient of the dry protein and its amino acid composition are also reported. Some batches of fully active enzyme, judged to be homogeneous by sedimentation equilibrium and polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, showed two additional major polypeptides (Mr approximately 7.1 X 10(4) and 5.5 X 10(4)) on sodium dodecyl sulfate gel electrophoresis. Studies on the polypeptides produced by proteolytic modification of the native enzyme by trypsin indicated that the additional protein bands observed on sodium dodecyl sulfate gel electrophoresis with some of the batches of enzyme could have been formed by limited proteolysis ("nicking") of the original 1.1 X 10(5) subunit. Trypsin treatment of the native enzyme did not affect the enzyme activity, whereas chymotrypsin and pronase treatment inactivated the enzyme. The trypsin-treated enzyme, which contained only the two smaller polypeptides, did not differ significantly from the untreated enzyme with respect to sedimentation behavior, phosphorylation by ATP, Km for citrate, and immunoreactivity, but it was more heat-labile than the untreated enzyme. The phosphate group on the phosphorylated "nicked" enzyme was located on the larger polypeptide fragment.