Carnitine medium/long chain acyltransferase of microsomes seems to be the previously cloned approximately 54 kDa protein of unknown function

A microsomal protein having N-terminal amino acid sequence SDVLELTDEN, was initially described as a phosphatidyl inositol-specific phospholipase C alpha when its cDNA was cloned (Bennett et al., Nature, 334, 268, 1988). Later, this protein, with an estimated molecular mass of 54 to 60 kDa, was shown to lack the phospholipase activity and instead a protein disulfide oxidoreductase and a thiol protease activities were ascribed to it. Following evidences indicated that the protein in question is the carnitine medium/long chain acyltransferase (CPT) of microsomes that was recently purified as a approximately 54 kDa protein (Murthy and Bieber, Protein Exp. Purif. 3, 75, 1992). First, the N-terminal amino acids of the microsomal CPT showed 100% homology to the sequence described above. Second, during purification of this CPT, the oxidoreductase and the thiol protease activities of the microsomes became separated from the CPT and these other activities were not found in the approximately 900 fold enriched CPT preparations. Third, an antibody to this protein did not immunoprecipitate oxidoreductase of the solubilized microsomal extract but precipitated the CPT. This same protein has been studied by others as the ERp61 (endoplasmic reticulum protein), GRP58 (glucose regulated protein), and HIP-70 (hormone induced protein) but its function was not identified.