Noncooperative vs. cooperative reactivation of D-beta-hydroxybutyrate dehydrogenase: multiple equilibria for lecithin binding are determined by the physical state (soluble vs. bilayer) and composition of the phospholipids.

D-beta-Hydroxybutyrate dehydrogenase (BDH) is a lecithin-requiring mitochondrial enzyme that catalyzes the interconversion of beta-hydroxybutyrate and acetoacetate. The purified soluble enzyme devoid of lipid (i.e., the apodehydrogenase) can be reactivated with soluble lecithin or by insertion into phospholipid vesicles containing lecithin. Lipid activation curves have a sigmoidal shape, and two models have been proposed to explain them. We have previously reported that the kinetics of reactivation with short-chain lecithins in the soluble state is consistent with a model in which the enzyme enzyme contains two identical, noninteracting lecithin binding sites, both of which must be occupied to activate the enzyme [noncooperative mechanism; Cortese, J.D., Vidal, J.C., Churchill, P., McIntyre, J.O., & Fleischer, S. (1982) Biochemistry 21, 3899-3908]. More recently a kinetic model involving cooperative interactions between lecithin binding sites was proposed for the reactivation of the membrane-bound enzyme [Sandermann, H., Jr., McIntyre, J.O., & Fleischer, S. (1986) J. Biol. Chem. 261, 6201-6208]. This study reinvestigates the basis for the different conclusions in these two studies. The previous study with soluble lecithins was limited to about 34% of maximal activation compared with mitochondrial phospholipid, due to inactivation of the enzyme at the critical micellar concentration. We could now extend this study to 91% activation by increasing the ethanol concentration. This experimental evidence confirms that the soluble system follows a noncooperative equation. We provide a new kinetic approach to test the cooperative model. A velocity equation is derived for a Hill-type cooperative ligand binding system interacting with a mixture of ligands. This equation predicts a proportionality between an overall weighted cooperative dissociation constant [Kcoop(w)] and a dissociation constant for a single lecithin (PC) species from interacting sites (KPC), regulated by the PC molar fraction (XPC): 1/Kcoop(w) = XPC/KPC. The equation was applied to the data of Sandermann et al. [Sandermann, H., Jr., McIntyre, J.O., & Fleischer, S. (1986) J. Biol. Chem. 261, 6201-6208] as well as to newly obtained data. The results obtained over a wide range of PC molar fractions and different mixtures of bilayer phospholipids fit this equation, confirming the cooperative behavior. We conclude that BDH has a different mode of reactivation depending on the nature of the lipid environment. With soluble lecithin, the activation is noncooperative, whereas in the bilayer, mixtures of phospholipids give cooperative behavior that fits a Hill equation.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)