CTP-phosphatidic acid cytidyltransferase from Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Partial purification, characterization, and kinetic behavior.

CTP-phosphatidic acid cytidyltransferase catalyzes the formation of CDP-diglyceride from CTP and phosphatidic acid. The enzyme was solubilized from crude mitochondrial membrane by treatment with digitonin and was further purified by chromatography on DEAE-Sephadex, quaternary aminoethyl (QAE) Sephadex, and Sepharose 6B columns. At this stage the enzyme, enriched 550-fold over crude cell homogenate, still remains associated with phospholipid and has an estimated approximate molecular weight of 400,000 on the basis of gel filtration chromatography. Sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of the 550-fold enriched enzyme yielded two major protein bands having molecular weights of 45,000 and 19,000. The enzyme exhibits an absolute dependence on Triton X-100, a sharp Mg2+ dependence with an optimum at 20 mM, and a pH optimum of 6.5 for activity. The product of the CTP-phosphatidic acid cytidyl-transferase reaction has been isolated and identified as CDP-diglyceride, both for the crude enzyme preparation as well as for the 550-fold enriched enzyme. CTP-phosphatidic acid cytidyltransferase is capable of catalyzing the reverse reaction in the presence of pyrophosphate, utilizing CDP-diglyceride as substrate. The product of the reverse reaction was identified as CTP. Kinetic analysis of the behavior of CTP-phosphatidic acid cytidyltransferase was performed at three different stages of its purification. Initial analysis of the data yielded biphasic behavior in double reciprocal plots with respect to both substrates. Hill plots of the data indicated the presence of negative cooperativity. A detailed analysis of the kinetic behavior was performed on the enzyme purified 550-fold. The data suggest a mechanism involving two distinct cycles of catalysis, responsive to homotropic modification, with different affinities for both substrates. Further analysis of the kinetic behavior in the presence of inhibitors (dCTP and PPi) yielded a reaction order for the entrance of substrates and departure of products from the reaction cycles. The high affinity site catalyzes the reaction via a double displacement mechanism and is the predominant form at low concentrations of substrates. At high concentrations of substrates the low affinity site starts contributing significantly to the reaction velocity with an ordered single displacement mechanism. In each case CTP is the first substrate to attach and PPi is the first product released.