Abstract
Biodegradative threonine dehydratase was purified to homogeneity from Serratia marcescens ATCC 25419 by streptomycin sulfate treatment, Sephadex G-200 gel filtration chromatography followed by AMP-Sepharose 4B affinity chromatography. The molecular weight of the purified enzyme was 118,000 by fast protein liquid chromatography using superose 6-HR. The enzyme was determined to be a homotetrameric protein with subunit molecular weights of 30,000 by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The enzyme was inhibited by ${\alpha}-Keto$ acids and their derivatives such as ${\alpha}-ketobutyrate$, pyruvate, glyoxlyate, and phosphoenol pyruvate, but not by ${\alpha}-aminobutyrate$ and ${\alpha}-hydroxybutyrate$. The inhibition of the enzyme by pyruvate and glyoxylate was observed in the presence of AMP. The inhibitory effect of glyoxylate was decreased at high enzyme concentration, whereas the inhibition by pyruvate was independent of the enzyme concentration. The kinetics of inhibition of the enzyme by pyruvate and glyoxylate revealed a noncompetitive and mixed-type inhibition by the two inhibitors with respect to L-threonine and AMP, respectively.