Characterization of a protease apparently involved in processing of pre-ornithine transcarbamylase of rat liver.

The precursor of rat liver ornithine transcarbamylase (ornithine carbamoyltransferase; carbamoylphosphate:L-ornithine carbamoyltransferase, EC 2.1.3.3) (pre-ornithine transcarbamylase), which was synthesized in a reticulocyte lysate cell-free system, was converted to an apparently mature form of the enzyme by isolated rat liver mitochondria. The proteolytic processing involved two steps: (i) conversion of pre-ornithine transcarbamylase (39,400 daltons) to a product of about 37,000 daltons and (ii) further conversion to the apparently mature form of the enzyme (36,00 daltons). When mitochondria were subfractionated by digitonin treatment followed by sonication of a mitoplast fraction, the proteolytic activity catalyzing the first step was recovered mainly in a matrix fraction. Some activity was found in an intermembrane space fraction. The enzyme activity in the matrix fraction has an optimal pH at about 7.5. The activity was inhibited almost completely by 2 mM leupeptin and partly by 2 mM antipain but not significantly by other microbial protease inhibitors or serine protease inhibitors. It was inhibited strongly by 2 mM EDTA, 2 mM ethylene glycol bis(beta-aminoethyl ether)-N,N,N',N'-tetraacetate, 2 mM p-chloromercuriphenylsulfonate, and 2 mM Hg(CH3COO)2 but not by N-ethylmaleimide or iodoacetamide. These results suggest that pre-ornithine transcarbamylase is first transported into the mitochondrial matrix and converted there to the mature form of the enzyme by a novel neutral protease(s).