Activation of trout gill AMP deaminase by an endogenous proteinase--II. Modification of the properties of the enzyme during starvation, pollution and salinity changes.

The relative amount of modified AMP deaminase has been determined by taking advantage of the different effects of monovalent cations on the two enzymatic forms. When trout were subjected to different environmental perturbations (starvation, pollution of the water by a pesticide, transfer to sea water or reverse transfer to fresh water), modified AMP deaminase could be detected in the gill extracts. Depending on the nature of the stress and the period of experimentation, 8 to 100% of the enzyme had been modified by limited proteolysis. As a consequence of the much higher activity of the proteolyzed AMP deaminase form, a 2 to 12 times increase of the intracellular AMP deaminase activity could be expected. At the same time, limited proteolysis will modify the regulatory properties of the enzyme, since it can be estimated that 50 to 100% of the enzyme activity expressed in the cell will be an AMP deaminase form less sensitive to inhibition by inorganic phosphate and ionic strength, and to variations of the intracellular pH. Limited proteolysis will result in increased AMP deaminase activity under conditions of increased energy demand, where the concentration of inorganic phosphate is dramatically increased. The consequence should be stabilization of the adenylate energy charge.