Studies on the inactivation of glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase by methylglyoxal.

Glyceraldehyde-3-P dehydrogenase (E.C. 1.2.1.12) from rabbit muscle is rapidly inactivated by methylglyoxal following pseudo first-order kinetics. Substrate, as well as inorganic phosphate, affords protection, whereas NAD+ is ineffective. The arginine residue implicated in the reaction is probably the anion binding site of the phosphate group of the substrate.