Separation and partial characterization of enzymes catalyzing delta-aminolevulinic acid formation in Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803.

Formation of the universal tetrapyrrole precursor, delta-aminolevulinic acid (ALA), from glutamate via the five-carbon pathway requires three enzymes: glutamyl-tRNA synthetase, glutamyl-tRNA reductase, and glutamate-1-semialdehyde (GSA) aminotransferase. All three enzymes were separated from extracts of the unicellular cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803, and two of them, glutamyl-tRNA synthetase and GSA aminotransferase, were partially characterized. After an initial high speed centrifugation and differentiatial ammonium sulfate fractionation of cell extract, the enzymes were separated by successive affinity chromatography on Reactive Blue 2-Sepharose and 2',5'-ADP-agarose. All three enzyme fractions were required to reconstitute ALA formation from glutamate. The apparent native molecular masses of glutamyl-tRNA synthetase and GSA aminotransferase were determined by gel filtration chromatography to be 63 and 98 kDa, respectively. Neither glutamyl-tRNA synthetase nor GSA aminotransferase activity was affected by hemin concentrations up to 10 and 30 microM, respectively, and neither activity was affected by protochlorophyllide concentrations up to 2 microM. GSA aminotransferase was inhibited 50% by 0.5 microM gabaculine. The gabaculine inhibition was reversible for up to 1 h after its addition, if the gabaculine was removed by gel filtration before the enzyme was incubated with substrate. However, irreversible inactivation was obtained by preincubating the enzyme at 30 degrees C either for several hours with gabaculine alone or for a few minutes with both gabaculine and GSA. Neither pyridoxal phosphate nor pyridoxamine phosphate significantly affected the activity of GSA aminotransferase at physiologically relevant concentrations, and neither of these compounds reactivated the gabaculine-inactivated enzyme. It was noted that the presence of pyridoxamine phosphate in the ALA assay mixture produced a false positive color reaction even in the absence of enzyme.